National Cement Resurrects Cement Finishing Expansion in Alabama

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Researched by Industrialinfo.com (Industrial Information Resources, Incorporated; Houston, Texas). National Cement Company of Alabama Incorporated, a subsidiary of the Vicat Group (Paris, France) is moving forward with plans to expand its cement finish grinding capacity at the company's cement manufacturing plant in Ragland, Alabama. The company recently placed an order for a new vertical grinding mill, which will be supplied by Loesche America Incorporated (Pembroke Pines, Florida). Delivery of the mill is not expected until September or October of 2005. Loesche America will supervise installation of the mill as well.

National Cement is using Consultec Limited (Toronto, Ontario) to perform detailed engineering and prepare bid packages for construction contractors. Bidders must be approved by National Cement. The bid packages for the foundation package are scheduled to be released at the end of May 2005. The major mechanical, structural steel, buildings, and siding bid packages are scheduled to be released in August 2005. Electrical and Instrumentation bid packages will follow. Construction activities are scheduled to begin during the fourth quarter of 2005.

In addition to the new vertical mill installation, there will be a series of auxiliary material handling equipment systems that will need to be added, such as slag and gypsum storage and material handling systems, as well as conveyance from the mill to finished cement storage silos and construction of the silos themselves.

The expansion of the plant's grinding capabilities was originally conceived as phase 2 of a $180 million three phased expansion of the Ragland plant, the third phase of which entailed the replacement of the existing kiln line, all of which was put on hold three years ago due to poor market conditions and cost overruns from the company's expansion at its sister plant in California. The cement market has improved in most areas of the country of late. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, cement production was up 5.5% in 2004, when compared to 2003. Industrialinfo.com first reported the finish mill addition and expansion projects in 1999 as part of its North American Industrial Database. The cost for the expansion will exceed $30 million

All of this activity shines light on the possibility of resurrecting the kiln replacement project as well.

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