IRAN: Production over 51.6m tons of cement in 9 months

Iran produced 51.645 million tons of cement in the first nine months of the current Iranian calendar year (March 21-Decemebr 21, 2014), the IRNA news agency reported on Sunday.

Moreover, 56.85 million tons of clinker -- lumps or nodules, usually 3–25 mm in diameter, produced by sintering limestone and clay during the cement kiln stage – were produced in the mentioned time span. 

Cement manufacturers purchasing clinker usually grind it as an addition to their own clinker at their cement plants. 

Iran exported over 7 million tons of cement in the first six months of the current Iranian calendar year (March 21-September 22, 2014).

The country exported around 18 million tons of cement in the previous Iranian calendar year.

Iran ranked first in the Middle East and third in the world in terms of cement exports.

The country’s annual cement output is currently about 80 million tons, of which 50 million tons is used by domestic industries.

Iranian Industry, Mining, and Trade Minister Mohammadreza Nematzadeh recently said Iran’s annual cement output is forecast to reach 120 million tons by 2025.

KENYA: SAP HANA helps Savannah Cement enhance operational efficiency

Continental winner: SAP East Africa Managing Director, Andrew Waititu (left) congratulates Savannah Cement Information Technology Manager, Brian Wamwenje (Centre) for winning the 2014 SAP Quality Award in the Innovation Category during the Awards presentation ceremony held in Johannesburg, South Africa as SAP Eastern Africa’s Flora Kangethe (right) look on. Savannah Cement was picked as the Africa Innovation Category winner for displaying excellence in the implementation of its SAP HANA Enterprise Resource Planning IT solution.

SAP has announced that the deployment of SAP’s ERP application powered by SAP HANA has helped Savannah Cement to improve its operational reporting and to run its business better. Customers using SAP HANA benefit from cost savings, simplification and acceleration of business processes.

Savannah Cement is one of the largest and newest entrants into the cement market in Kenya, with a state-of-the-art, eco-friendly cement grinding plant with a capacity of 1.5 million tons a year. The plant is strategically placed near Nairobi, which accounts for 50 percent of Kenya’s cement consumption.

“SAP HANA has changed our view of database management and greatly simplified tasks, giving our business a cutting-edge advantage and incomparable agility,” said Brian Wamwenje, IT manager, Savannah Cement Limited. “SAP HANA helps us keep our business running better.”

SAP HANA has helped Savannah Cement gain integrity and accuracy in its operational reporting as well as better manage high business volumes, which has resulted in higher customer satisfaction and staff efficiency.

The first company in East and Central Africa to deploy SAP ERP powered by SAP HANA, Savannah Cement is now well-placed in the cement industry because it is equipped with in-memory computing technology for real-time planning and forecasting.

SAP HANA, which is currently used by more than 4,100 customers, transforms customer landscapes through simplification, value to customers, driving revenue generation and time and resource savings. To further help customers and partners on their SAP HANA journeys, SAP recently launched a simple tool hosting the use case map for SAP HANA and 11 journey maps.