Cement, Energy and Environment

since it is a new plant. Penna's plants are comparatively old and would not get the same price," the source said. An analyst with a domestic brokerage said Penna put up the last 2 million tonnes of capacity in 2007-2008 at a cost of around $130 per tonne. "But in 2003-04, they set up 2.8 million tonnes capacity at around $100 per tonne, so the average investment works out to $120-125 per tonne," the analyst said. Interestingly; Reddy denied that the deal has hit a dead end. ''We are yet to start talking so there is no way the deal can be called off. In fact, if all goes well, we will start talking in the next 10 days," he told. Courtesy: DNA Mumbai, 02.06.2010. JK LAKSHMIIN TALKS TO ACQUIRE EGYPTIAN CO FOR RS. 800 CRORE As part of its strategy to tap overseas markets, JK Lakshmi Cement, the Hari Shankar Singania Group flagship, is holding talks to acquire an Egyptian cement firm for around Rs. 800 crore. A person privy to the development said that the target company has an annual production capacity of two million tonne and deal is likely to be sealed by the end of this calendar year. He, however, declined to disclose the identity of the overseas firm. The target was identified after a technical team from JK Lakshmi visited Egypt and the Middle East, he said . "We are looking at inorganic growth opportunities in the overseas market but nothing has been finalized," said whole time director Shailendra Chouksey. Delhi-based JK Lakshmi, which has a cash reseNe of Rs. 450 crore, had announced plans to raise Rs. 700 crore later this year. A person close to the company said that if the Egyptian-buy materialized, it will TECHNOLOGY UPGRADATION Maintenance MAINTENANCE THROUGH PREVENTION AND PROTECTION IN CEMENT PLANTS Karl Mohr and Christian Kastner, VAUTID GmbH, Germany Introduction to maintenance The machines and systems used in the production of cement are subject to extreme wear and tear due to the processing of very hard minerals. In order to maintain a high level of plant production and to ensure the quality of the product, preventative maintenance in regular inteNals is essential. As a result, maintenance plays a significant role and is also a substantial cost factor in determining whether a company is profitable or not. Optimum maintenance of individual plant components must be considered on an individual basis and carried out separately depending on various criteria such as maintenance frequency, accessibility, preliminary financing costs, and the shutdown of the plant. Taking into account the criteria mentioned above and based on a few examples, the report that follows deals with different maintenance options for wear and tear parts. be financed by the proposed fund-raising and cash reseNes. The Egyptian acquisition , if fructifies, will help JK Lakshmi tap the growing Middle East market. The cement sector in Egypt was privatized a decade ago, when a number of investors from Italy and Palestine, bought major state owned companies. The Egyptian market appeals to foreign cement investors by offering labour and energy, at cheap rates," said Rupesh Snakhe, analyst at Angel Securities. Back home, JK Lakshmi plans to expand its cement capacity to 8 MT in the next five years from the current 3.65 MT. It sells cement in western (65%) and northern (35%) states with a dominant presence in Gujarat and Rajasthan. Courtesy: The Economic Times Mumbai, 24.05.2010. Transport and Storage Storing and bunkering Transfer points, in particular the edges, are subject to heavy wear during the transport and storage of bulk goods. For this reason, additional measures to protect against wear are required on the edges of truck flat beds, loading shovels and on the entry and exit points of bunkers. These edges can be welded with VAUTID 100 hardfacing to protect against abrasive wear. This can be used to achieve the same component seNice life as with other plant components, in spite of the increased abrasive wear, and it also eliminates the 14