Process

Selection criteria for autolab of a modern cement plant

Published

5 years ago

January 3, 2020

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The author discusses the five sub systems of an automatic laboratory for cement plants.

An automatic laboratory (Autolab) for cement plants comprises of five sub systems. A prospective buyer will have to focus on all these aspects for him to realise the true benefits of the investment in the automatic laboratory.

Sampling (powders such as raw meal, hot meal, cement, fine coal/clinker)

Sample cartridge transport to the lab

Cartridge receiving station in the lab

Sample preparation (mill and press)

PLC and vision system

Sampling: Most products normally sampled in a cement plant are not homogeneous and therefore sampling bias can be far greater than analysis bias. Most plants have little understanding of what representative sampling is and therefore have only samplers that inherently have a bias that will exist till the analysis whose information is used to control the plant. This typically results in the process operators not believing the QC results and using other parameters such as temperature, pressures, flows, etc. to control the process. Whereas QC data is essential as it really provides information as to the true nature of process changes.

A representative sampler is one where each particle of the product flow has the same probability of being taken by the sampler. It has to be rugged, reliable and accurate. It is best advised that the primary sampler for powder sampling (raw meal, kiln feed, cement, fine coal) is located in the vertical chute just above the bucket elevator. This ensures that the sampled product is the final product that goes to the storage silo or the process. This vertical chute should have a minimum height of 2 m so that the primary auger, sample mixer and the secondary sampler can be fitted and the excess material can be returned to the same chute by gravity. Care should be taken during the engineering phase to ensure that this vertical height is available.

Some examples of proper sampling systems arrangements:
Sample cartridge transport: The representative sample fills up by gravity the cartridge that is in the sending station. One of the key selection criterions should be the life of the cartridges. The cartridges should have runners (the portion of the cartridge that is in contact with the transport pipe) that are long lasting and when required replaceable (without having to replace the whole cartridge which are costly).

The sealing system on the cartridges should be fail-safe, so that there is no risk of the cartridge opening during transport. If the cap opens during transport material will come out of the cartridge and risk blocking the cartridges later in the transport tubes (such as with cartridges using rubber sealed capsule closing caps).

The sample tubes should be of stainless steel and not galvanised steel to prevent rust. They should also have long length connectors, so as to avoid wear on cartridges if the tubes are not aligned properly. The diverters should be only two positioned and not multi positioned. Manufacturer’s in an attempt to save cost offer multi position diverters that actually cause the cartridges to wear out faster as the pipes are not positioned correctly

Receiving station: The mechanism should be simple with as few actuators as possible. A full cleaning cycle is a must to remove all sample contamination. The sample should be unloaded automatically and the cartridge should be cleaned before being sent back to the sending station Sample preparation: The sample is prepared by using a mill and a press.

For XRF preparation, raw meal, hot meal, cement and clinker should be ground at an average particle size distribution of 3 to 4 microns as this will remove all the quartzite effects of silica. Only then will the XRF analyser be able to give us the right measurement. No wax or cellulose should be added to the sample preparation as this will dilute the sample and, depending on the type the dosing of additive to product ratio, will have a negative effect on the XRF measurement.

For XRD preparation for clinker or cement analysis, the sampler should be ground to an average particle size distribution of about 25 to 30 micron so that the peaks are visible under XRD analyser. If the sample powder is ground too fine, no peaks will be visible. Therefore different sample preparation techniques should be used to prepare sample for XRF or XRD analysis.

Thus no compromise should be allowed by way of a"one average" particle size distribution for XRF or XRD analysis. The press should be having a high pressure to ensure that the strength of the pellet and ensure that it does not break in the vacuum during XRF/XRD analysis. Once the preparation cycle is over an efficient cleaning cycle should ensure no sample contamination is taking place.

PLC and vision system: The PLC offered should be modern and the screens should be customised to customer’s requirements. They should be easy to operate and update of the software should be seamless. Ideally the whole system (sampling, sample transport, preparation, interface with XRF and XRD) should be PLC based only, with no PC. A PLC based system is much more rugged than a PC based system and is less prone to software glitches or virus attacks.

Furthermore the XRF and XRD analysers should have all the required features (hardware and software) to integrate into a full lab automation configuration, depending on the type of sample preparation chosen.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: The article is authored by B Venkat Kaushik, Operations Director, ITECA Instruments.

Process

Price hikes, drop in input costs help cement industry to post positive margins: Care Ratings

Published

3 years ago

October 21, 2021

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Region-wise,the southern region comprises 35% of the total cement capacity, followed by thenorthern, eastern, western and central region comprising 20%, 18%, 14% and 13%of the capacity, respectively.

The cement industry is expected to post positive margins on decent price hikes over the months, falling raw material prices and marked drop in overall production costs, said an analysis of Care Ratings.

Wholesale and retail prices of cement have increased 11.9% and 12.4%, respectively, in the current financial year. As whole prices have remained elevated in most of the markets in the months of FY20, against the corresponding period of the previous year.

Similarly, electricity and fuel cost have declined 11.9% during 9M FY20 due to drop in crude oil prices. Logistics costs, the biggest cost for cement industry, has also dropped 7.7% (selling and distribution) as the Railways extended the benefit of exemption from busy season surcharge. Moreover, the cost of raw materials, too, declined 5.1% given the price of limestone had fallen 11.3% in the same aforementioned period, the analysis said.

According to Care Ratings, though the overall sales revenue has increased only 1.3%, against 16% growth in the year-ago period, the overall expenditure has declined 3.2% which has benefited the industry largely given the moderation in sales.

Even though FY20 has been subdued in terms of production and demand, the fall in cost of production has still supported the cement industry by clocking in positive margins, the rating agency said.

Cement demand is closely linked to the overall economic growth, particularly the housing and infrastructure sector. The cement sector will be seeing a sharp growth in volumes mainly due to increasing demand from affordable housing and other government infrastructure projects like roads, metros, airports, irrigation.

The government’s newly introduced National Infrastructure Pipeline (NIP), with its target of becoming a $5-trillion economy by 2025, is a detailed road map focused on economic revival through infrastructure development.

The NIP covers a gamut of sectors; rural and urban infrastructure and entails investments of Rs.102 lakh crore to be undertaken by the central government, state governments and the private sector. Of the total projects of the NIP, 42% are under implementation while 19% are under development, 31% are at the conceptual stage and 8% are yet to be classified.

The sectors that will be of focus will be roads, railways, power (renewable and conventional), irrigation and urban infrastructure. These sectors together account for 79% of the proposed investments in six years to 2025. Given the government’s thrust on infrastructure creation, it is likely to benefit the cement industry going forward.

Similarly, the Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana, aimed at providing affordable housing, will be a strong driver to lift cement demand. Prices have started correcting Q4 FY20 onwards due to revival in demand of the commodity, the agency said in its analysis.

Industry’s sales revenue has grown at a CAGR of 7.3% during FY15-19 but has grown only 1.3% in the current financial year. Tepid demand throughout the country in the first half of the year has led to the contraction of sales revenue. Fall in the total expenditure of cement firms had aided in improving the operating profit and net profit margins of the industry (OPM was 15.2 during 9M FY19 and NPM was 3.1 during 9M FY19). Interest coverage ratio, too, has improved on an overall basis (ICR was 3.3 during 9M FY19).

According to Cement Manufacturers Association, India accounts for over 8% of the overall global installed capacity. Region-wise, the southern region comprises 35% of the total cement capacity, followed by the northern, eastern, western and central region comprising 20%, 18%, 14% and 13% of the capacity, respectively.

Installed capacity of domestic cement makers has increased at a CAGR of 4.9% during FY16-20. Manufacturers have been able to maintain a capacity utilisation rate above 65% in the past quinquennium. In the current financial year due to the prolonged rains in many parts of the country, the capacity utilisation rate has fallen from 70% during FY19 to 66% currently (YTD).

Source:moneycontrol.com

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Wonder Cement shows journey of cement with new campaign

Published

3 years ago

October 21, 2021

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The campaign also marks Wonder Cement being the first ever cement brand to enter the world of IGTV…

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Cement manufacturing company Wonder Cement, has announced the launch of a digital campaign ‘Har Raah Mein Wonder Hai’. The campaign has been designed specifically to run on platforms such as Instagram, Facebook and YouTube.

#HarRaahMeinWonderHai is a one-minute video, designed and conceptualised by its digital media partner Triature Digital Marketing and Technologies Pvt Ltd. The entire journey of the cement brand from leaving the factory, going through various weather conditions and witnessing the beauty of nature and wonders through the way until it reaches the destination i.e., to the consumer is very intriguing and the brand has tried to showcase the same with the film.

Sanjay Joshi, executive director, Wonder Cement, said, "Cement as a product poses a unique marketing challenge. Most consumers will build their homes once and therefore buy cement once in a lifetime. It is critical for a cement company to connect with their consumers emotionally. As a part of our communication strategy, it is our endeavor to reach out to a large audience of this country through digital. Wonder Cement always a pioneer in digital, with the launch of our IGTV campaign #HarRahMeinWonderHai, is the first brand in the cement category to venture into this space. Through this campaign, we have captured the emotional journey of a cement bag through its own perspective and depicted what it takes to lay the foundation of one’s dreams and turn them into reality."

The story begins with a family performing the bhoomi poojan of their new plot. It is the place where they are investing their life-long earnings; and planning to build a dream house for the family and children. The family believes in the tradition of having a ‘perfect shuruaat’ (perfect beginning) for their future dream house. The video later highlights the process of construction and in sequence it is emphasising the value of ‘Perfect Shuruaat’ through the eyes of a cement bag.

Tarun Singh Chauhan, management advisor and brand consultant, Wonder Cement, said, "Our objective with this campaign was to show that the cement produced at the Wonder Cement plant speaks for itself, its quality, trust and most of all perfection. The only way this was possible was to take the perspective of a cement bag and showing its journey of perfection from beginning till the end."

According to the company, the campaign also marks Wonder Cement being the first ever cement brand to enter the world of IGTV. No other brand in this category has created content specific to the platform.

Process

In spite of company’s optimism, demand weakness in cement is seen in the 4% y-o-y drop in sales volume. (Reuters)

Published

3 years ago

October 21, 2021

admin

Cost cuts and better realizations save? the ?day ?for ?UltraTech Cement, Updated: 27 Jan 2020, Vatsala Kamat from Live Mint

Lower cost of energy and logistics helped Ebitda per tonne rise by about 29% in Q3
Premiumization of acquired brands, synergistic?operations hold promise for future profit growth Topics

UltraTech Cement
India’s largest cement producer UltraTech Cement Ltd turned out a bittersweet show in the December quarter. A sharp drop in fuel costs and higher realizations helped drive profit growth. But the inherent demand weakness was evident in the sales volumes drop during the quarter.

Better realizations during the December quarter, in spite of the 4% year-on-year volume decline, minimized the pain. Net stand-alone revenue fell by 2.6% to ?9,981.8 crore.

But as pointed out earlier, lower costs on most fronts helped profitability. The chart alongside shows the sharp drop in energy costs led by lower petcoke prices, lower fuel consumption and higher use of green power. Logistics costs, too, fell due to lower railway freight charges and synergies from the acquired assets. These savings helped offset the increase in raw material costs.

The upshot: Q3 Ebitda (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization) of about ?990 per tonne was 29% higher from a year ago. The jump in profit on a per tonne basis was more or less along expected lines, given the increase in realizations. "Besides, the reduction in net debt by about ?2,000 crore is a key positive," said Binod Modi, analyst at Reliance Securities Ltd.

Graphic by Santosh Sharma/Mint
What also impressed analysts is the nimble-footed integration of the recently merged cement assets of Nathdwara and Century, which was a concern on the Street.

Kunal Shah, analyst (institutional equities) at Yes Securities (India) Ltd, said: "The company has proved its ability of asset integration. Century’s cement assets were ramped up to 79% capacity utilization in December, even as they operated Nathdwara generating an Ebitda of ?1,500 per tonne."

Looks like the demand weakness mirrored in weak sales during the quarter was masked by the deft integration and synergies derived from these acquired assets. This drove UltraTech’s stock up by 2.6% to ?4,643 after the Q3 results were declared on Friday.

Brand transition from Century to UltraTech, which is 55% complete, is likely to touch 80% by September 2020. A report by Jefferies India Pvt. Ltd highlights that the Ebitda per tonne for premium brands is about ?5-10 higher per bag than the average (A cement bag weighs 50kg). Of course, with competition increasing in the arena, it remains to be seen how brand premiumization in the cement industry will pan out. UltraTech Cement scores well among peers here.

However, there are road bumps ahead for the cement sector and for UltraTech. Falling gross domestic product growth, fiscal slippages and lower budgetary allocation to infrastructure sector are making industry houses jittery on growth. Although UltraTech’s management is confident that cement demand is looking up, sustainability and pricing power remains a worry for the near term.