Cement, Energy and Environment

"Out of this, 2 mtpa will be commissioned in June-July 2013 and the balance in July 2014. This apart, a Rs. 303 crore grinding unit is coming up in Bihar, which will get operational by July 2014. The company is not holding back any capex and al l the investment that has been committed will be met with ," said the source. Cement sector analysts concur. V. Srinivasan, research analyst cement, Angel Braking, said, "Any expansion takes a minimum of two years depending on the type of project. We have had a downturn situation for the past three years and are only expecting an up cycle from here. In such a scenario, companies will come up with new capex and I don't see any cutback.." On Monday, Reuters had reported that Indian cement companies are planning to slash their capital expenditure over the next 12 months. In 2011 , UltraTech had announced mega capex plans around Rs. 11,000 crore, to be spent over the next three years. The plan then included Rs. 5,600 crore for clinker plants at Chhattisgarh (4.2 mtpa) and Karnataka (5 mtpa) and remaining along with grinding units, bulk packaging terminals and ready-mix concrete plants at various location across India. Recently, ACC had announced capex of Rs. 3,300 crore (to be spent over three years) for a new manufacturing (5 mtpa) plant at Jamu l in Chhattisgarh. The unit is scheduled to start production in 2015. Courlesy: DNA, Mumbai, 23.04.2013 HEIDELBERG CEMENT RAISES CLINKER, GRINDING CAPACITY IN M.P. Heidelberg Cement India has completed investments of Rs. 1,500 crore to raise its all-India production capacity to about 6 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) from 3.1 mtpa. On Monday, the company announced it has enhanced clinker capacity to 3.1 mtpa from 1.2 mtpa and cement grinding capacity to two mtpa (one mtpa) at lmlai, both in Madhya Pradesh. It recently announced expansion of cement capacity to 2.7 mtpa from 0.8 mtpa at its Jhansi Cement grinding plant in Uttar Pradesh. As part of current expansion, the company has added a 5,000-tonne-per-day clinker line at its Narsingarh Unit. The company conducted trial runs at the new capacity before production commenced in December. While plant and machinery was supplied by the FL Smidth Group of Denmark, civil work was undertaken by Larsen & Tubro. Ashish Guha, Managing Director, Heidelberg Cement, said the expansion was part of the first major step to increase the company's presence in India and is intended to target the states with potential for significant growth. With the additional manufacturing and grinding capacity in MP and UP, Heidelberg Cement expects to increase its market share in central India and increase deliveries in other markets including Bi har, Punjab, Haryana, Delhi and Uttarakhand. With an eye to cutting transportation costs, the company has bu ilt one of longest conveyor belts to move limestone from patharia and Damoh mines to the Narsingarh clinker unit. It has also installed new crusher with capacity of 1,200 tonnes per hour and set up a 20 km 33 KV power transmission line for the Patharia mines. Besides, it has a 38 km 132 KV power transmission line to Narsingarh unit from Damoh. Courlesy: The Hindu Business Line, Mumbai, 19.02.2013 Technology Upgradation Quality & Standards QUALITY MANAGEMENT OF ALTERNATIVE FUELS By D. Lechtenberg, MVW Lechtenberg projektentwicklungs-und Beteiligsgesel/schaft mbH Millheim an der Ruhr, Germany Abstract This article is the second part of the series of excerpts from the "Alternative Fuels and Raw Materials Handbook for the Cement and Lime industry." In the first part, the author presented the environmental laws and emission limits including the latest developments. In this context, Dirk Lechtenberg emphasized the difficulties involved in the use of alternative fuels. To meet the increasingly stringent emission limits in the long run, the material composition of the fuels should vary only slightly. The high quality of alternative fuels is thus the basis for a permanently successful substitu tion of fossil fuels. Therefore, this article focuses on quality management and quality assurance. 13