ICR seeks out the locations of the new finish-grinding plants and proposed new grinding station projects around the world. Large projects coming on-stream this year include Saudi Cement’s new Jizan plant, Sephaku Cement’s 1.4Mta Delmas grinding unit in South Africa and UltraTech’s 1.6Mta expansion at Jharsuguda, India.
The need to build grinding plants does not seem to be slowing as producers see this as an opportune way to enter new markets on a permanent footing, especially after importing into the region. It is the next step and a natural progression to distributing larger amounts of cement at a more competitive price.
While grinding plants can be quicker to set up than integrated facilities they still require environmental assessments and licences, and usually take 18 months or more to be established from the moment construction begins. However, capital expenditure for such a unit is far lower than for an integrated plant.
