ZAMBIA: Dangote US50m power plant

DANGOTE Group will in the first quarter of next year commission a US$50 million power plant that will supply 30 Mega Watts (MW) of electricity to its multi-million dollar cement factory currently under construction in Ndola.

Company senior general manager in charge of projects, Anand Kameshwar, said construction works on the project were progressing well and the power plant would start functioning by the end of the first quarter of 2014.

He said this would be before the cement manufacturing factory is fully operational in July, 2014.

“The 30 MW power plant at a cost of $50 million, is currently under the construction stage and works are going on well.

“This plant is intended at making its own power available to the cement plant as opposed to connecting to the usually overloaded national grid,” he said.

Dangote, one of Africa’s largest conglomerates, has invested $400 million in setting up a 3,000 tonne cement plant on the outskirts of Ndola.

Mr Kameshwar said on this project, machinery has already been installed and construction works are on schedule.

“Major equipment is being installed and works are progressing as scheduled and by mid next year, the plant should be operational,” he said.

Mr Kameshwar said initially, the plant would start operating at a capacity of 3,000 tonnes per day, though this will increase steadily in the long-term.

The Dangote factory will be the third such establishment to be operational in Ndola alongside similar plants currently run by Zambezi Portland and Lafarge cement.

CABO VERDE: Empresa chinesa vai construir porto de águas profundas

A empresa China Road & Bridge Corporation (CRBC) vai construir um porto de águas profundas e um terminal de cruzeiros e reparar os estaleiros da Cabnave na ilha cabo-verdiana de São Vicente, anunciou na cidade da Praia a administração da empresa.

O anúncio foi feito no final de visitas ao presidente e ao primeiro-ministro de Cabo Verde, Jorge Carlos Fonseca e José Maria Neves, respectivamente, nas quais foram apresentados os planos de reestruturação do porto do Mindelo e de reconversão do principal estaleiro de reparação naval do arquipélago.

A administração da China Road & Bridge Corporation, especializada em obras marítimas, indicou também ter sob sua responsabilidade a construção de várias infra-estruturas ligadas à economia marítima, “muito importantes” para a dinamização da economia da ilha de Porto Grande.

Sem avançar datas concretas para o arranque das obras nem os custos a elas associados, a empresa garantiu a “qualidade e eficiência” dos projectos, integrados no “Agrupamento do Mar” defendido pelo governo cabo-verdiano para transformar o Mindelo numa plataforma marítima logística no meio do oceano Atlântico.

O porto de águas profundas, um sonho que as autoridades cabo-verdianas mantêm desde a independência, em 1975, irá ajudar a fomentar o negócio de reparação naval e de apoio às frotas pesqueiras internacionais, prevendo-se também a instalação de um centro internacional de pescas.

Projectado para funcionar como centro de excelência em segurança marítima e investigação oceanográfica, o porto de águas profundas do Mindelo irá concorrer directamente com os de Dacar (Senegal) e de Las Palmas (Canárias, Espanha), quer a nível de preços, quer nas facilidades e serviços portuários.

GHANA: Ghacem donates 16,000 bags of cement to northern Ghana

About 137 health and educational institutions in deprived communities in northern Ghana have taken delivery of 16,000 bags of cement from the Ghacem Cement Foundation (GCF) to aid their infrastructural development.

The beneficiary schools and hospitals were drawn from the Upper East, Upper West, Northern, Ashanti and Brong Ahafo regions.

The donation is the last of two  carried out by the foundation this year.

The Western, Central, Greater Accra, Eastern and Volta regions form the southern sector of the country and they received the first donation of free cement under the Ghacem Cement Foundation as an annual benevolence from GHACEM.

Present at the ceremony were top council members of the Ghacem Cement Foundation (GCF), including the Chairman, Nana Prah Agyensaim VI; Dr George Dawson-Ahmoah, Secretary to the foundation, who is also the Strategy and Corporate Affairs Director of Ghacem, and Professor Audrey Gadzekpo (Member).

Delivering his welcome address, Dr Dawson-Ahmoah commended the beneficiaries for their faith in the company, which made them apply for the free cement, stressing that such commitment had the impetus of bringing development to their area.

The Managing Director of Ghacem, Mr Morten Gade, in a keynote address, said it was the objective of the Ghacem Cement Foundation to support self-help initiatives to speed up the development of the country. 

According to him, the board and directors of the company had outlined two areas where its corporate social responsibility programmes were targeted and that the GCF was one of them, aimed at assisting health and educational institutions in deprived areas of the country.

“The second area is developing the community  in which we operate and perform our mining activities, and I am happy to announce that the company this year  opened a clinic and two educational facilities worth GH¢646,000 in the Lower Manya and the Yilo Krobo districts in the Eastern Region, where the company mines limestone for its cement production,” he said.

Nana Prah Agyensaim said that the GCF had, since its inception 12 years ago, distributed about 400,000 bags of cement, valued at GH¢6.5 million freely to deprived communities.

He said such a gesture was a true demonstration of the company’s commitment to develop Ghana.

TANZANIA: Mbeya Cement new bag filter.

MBEYA Cement Lafarge Tanzania has inaugurated its new ultra modern Bag Filter that significantly reduces the
stack emissions to meet the national and international standards.

The new ultra modern bag filter inaugurated last Friday at Songwe in Mbeya reduces the stack emissions to
10mg/nm3 which is lower than the 2013 Tanzania Environmental Regulations of 50mg/nm3 and is in line with
the Lafarge Industrial targets as well as the Global Environmental Standards.

Speaking during the inauguration ceremony of the Bag Filter held at Songwe in Mbeya, the Mbeya Cement
Lafarge Tanzania Chief Executive Officer, Catherine Langrency said the company has invested 1.5 million
EURO (3bn/-) in this project.

"The inauguration of this bag filter further underlines Lafarge Tanzania’s commitment to continuous
improvement plan and part of the Lafarge Group Sustainability Ambition 2020, which is to have responsible and
environmentally friendly operations," Langrency said.

Langrency said that Lafarge has adopted the Bag Filter technology to ensure that power interruptions do not
damage the filtering system. ‘We are working with NEMC, communities around us and our stakeholders to
improve environmental conditions and lead in the cement industry in Tanzania on environmental excellence,’
said Langrency.

The inauguration ceremony was officiated by Deputy Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Industry, Trade and
Marketing Maria Bilia, on behalf of minister, Dr Abdallah Kigoda, who commended Mbeya Cement Lafarge
Tanzania for the milestone achievement and urged Tanzanians to cultivate the culture of supporting local
manufacturers by buying and utilising their products.

"This will help create more employment for our people," she said. The Mbeya Cement Lafarge Tanzania CEO
said that the building material company yearns to increase its overall cement manufacturing capacity to 700,000
tonnes per year by adding a new cement mill, a clinker line upgrade and a new packing plant.
The project which will be completed in the second quarter of 2015, marks the 1st phase of the company’s
expansion ambition in Tanzania and will have minimal disruptions to the production process to ensure that
customers are not affected during the project implementation.

“This will increase the cement production capacity, enabling us to successfully contribute to meeting the
growing demand for cement products, offers and solutions to address issues of housing for all including
affordable housing’, she said.

She noted that by widening the product portfolio and improving its overall production process through the
investment, Lafarge Tanzania will also be able to better support the growth of the mining sector in East/South
East Tanzania and infrastructure projects such as roads and ports

VIETNAM: Cement exports 14m tonnes in 2013

Viet Nam's cement exports are expected to reach nearly 14 million tonnes in 2013, the highest level ever exported.

According to the Industry and Trade newspaper, in the first 11 months of this year the country exported 12.5 million tonnes of cement, a year-on-year surge of nearly 65 per cent.

Southeast Asia and the Middle East are the two main markets for Viet Nam's cement, while Malaysia and Indonesia are the nation's largest importers of cement in the Southeast Asian region.

Meanwhile, the country's domestic consumption of cement reached nearly 43 million tonnes in the first 11 months of 2013, up more than 10 per cent year-on-year.

This year, Viet Nam expects to sell more than 60 million tonnes of cement at home and abroad.