Greenfield Construction Projects Cemented By FLS In the Mideast

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Researched by Industrialinfo.com (Industrial Information Resources, Incorporated; Houston, Texas). F.L.Smidth (FLS)(Copenhagen, Denmark) and its associated company Fuller (Bethlehem, Pennsylvania) have been moving on major plant contracts in the Middle and Far East.

A $150 million order from the Arab Union Contracting Co (AUCC), a state owned Libyan enterprise, was placed with FLS for a new cement plant which is scheduled to come on stream before the middle of 2005. Technologically the new facility is similar to the cement plant the company recently completed in Sinai. The new production line will be the first cement plant owned by the AUCC, which is one of Libya's largest players in the building contracting and construction materials industry.

The contract is on a semi-turnkey basis covering a complete 4,200 tons per day cement clinker production line to be erected near the town of Zliten on the Mediterranean coast, 170 kilometers east of the Libyan capital, Tripoli. FLS will supply the machinery and equipment plus construction steel and drawings in addition to being responsible for the erection and installation of mechanical and electrical equipment. Commissioning assistance and training services are also included in the contract. The new plant will comply with high dust emission standards as set by the European Union.

The order will start to produce income from 2003 onwards as supplies and the provision of erection and installation services commence. In addition to the raw mill, five silos, a preheater, kiln, clinker cooler and two cement mills to be provided by FLS, the contract comprises three FLS Airtech electrostatic precipitators, a MAAG ATOX gear unit, and FLS Automation quality and process control system, three Ventomatic packing lines and automatic truck loading systems, and FLS materials handling limestone crusher, raw material stacker and two raw material reclaimers, with part of the construction engineering being provided by Bhagwati Designs.

The Libyan contract follows a $128 contract with the Algerian Cement Company (ACC) for a 5,000 tons per day Greenfield cement clinker plant to be constructed at M'sila, 240 kilometers southwest of Algiers. The project will use a similar machine supply and production process design profile to those recently used in FLS projects, which will result in record project preparation time and cost savings and a short construction time schedule for the plant, which should go on stream in mid 2004. Based on the continuing upward trends in cement consumption in Algeria, the M'sila project includes an option for doubling the plant's production capacity. FLS has already supplied equipment for three Greenfield cement plants in Algeria, the last of which was commissioned in 1994.

ACC is the first privately owned company in the cement sector in Algeria. The major shareholder in ACC is the Egyptian company Orascom Construction Industries, which also holds a controlling interest in the Egyptian Cement Company which is that country's largest producer with an annual output of around 7 million tons of cement. It is the first time that FLS has co-operated with Orascom, which via its Algerian subsidiary will be in charge of building the cement plant.

The largest cement plant in India, at Sangipuram, is finally coming on stream after bottlenecks caused by funding and government interventions on various clearances. Construction work on the 9,000 tons per day clinker project, contracted by Fuller India in 1994, was recommenced in 2001.

The plant being commissioned for Sanghi Industries has a single kiln size of 5.6 m diameter by 84 meters length and is the only plant in India using 100% locally available lignite for kiln and calicifier firing. The Fuller India scientific team has invested all its expertise to improve the stabilized operations of the clinkerization unit. The clinker grinding plant is 20 kilometers away from the clinkerization, plant on the shores of the Arabian Sea. In addition to being the largest plant in India, Sangipuram boats its own power generating sets and desalination facility for its project water requirements.