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Limestone Crushing Made Easy

Published

7 years ago

May 31, 2018

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Present day mining equipment comfortably handles huge chunks of up to 1,800 mm size ROM stones to be fed as input to crushing system, says LN Mitra, while discussing size reduction equipment.
Sizing of limestone from Run of the Mine (ROM) to milling/process requirements, varies from industry to industry. Here we are more concerned about the limestone sizing requirements of the cement industry, although it must be recognised that there are vastly varied requirements where crushing and grinding of limestone to different sizes is required for different processes.
Present day mining equipment comfortably handles huge chunks of up to 1,800 mm size ROM stones to be fed as input to crushing system. The required feed size (product output size of crusher) to the final stage of sizing, viz., grinding mill, is either 95 per cent below 25 mm for ball mills and 95 per cent below 75 mm for the vertical mills. Development of mills in the last few decades and nature of limestone available in India, have brought in several types of crushers that are cost effective for such applications.
Conventionally, there are up to three stages of crushing employed for sizing limestone – primary crushing (with gyratory/double toggle jaw crushers), secondary crushing (with reversible hammer mills/impact hammer mills/cone crusher), tertiary crushing (with high speed hammer mills/cone crushers/impactors). In the cement industry, conventionally only up to two stages of crushing used to be required. However, the entry of large impactors (compound/single rotor) changed all that, quite drastically.The primary gyratory/DTJ crushers: These crushers reduce ROM of size 1,200 mm to an output of 300 mm. These are but of very robust designs with very low specific power consumption/low wear rate of crushing elements and called for least maintenance. Both prices and installation costs are very high for these crushers. In the event of very hard limestone in the deposit, often with high silica content, one has no choice but to go for these crushers as is very often the case in Japan. In India gyratory crushers are never employed due to prohibitive capital cost as mentioned earlier.
Some old plants with small capacity have DTJ crushers as primary crushing equipment. DTJ crushers with limited capacity is ruled out for modern day high capacity plants. Specific power consumption of DTJ crushers is very low but they offer poor top size control in the product.The secondary crushers – hammer mills/cone crushers: Crushed stone from primary crusher is fed to secondary crusher, either after prescreening or directly. Prescreening is cost effective if the primary crusher product contains 40 per cent or more undersize.
Hammer Mills were widely used for secondary crushing till end seventies of the last century. These were reasonably priced, but power consumption/wear rate of crushing element were high. Therefore, total cost of ownership was formidable. They were also vulnerable to ingress of uncrushables, damaging the internals.
Use of cone crushers in cement industry was limited again because of price and non-availability of manufacturers for large capacity machines in the country. Cone Crushers, inherently due to their crushing principle, consume very low power and have hydraulic system to protect itself form damage due to tramp uncrushable ingress. Performance of Cone crushers is unquestionably superlative, if the user can afford it’s initial cost. The million ton plant, impactor and vertical mills: In India, in the early eighties of the last century, all the above conventional methods of preparing the raw meal (ground limestone) experienced revolutionary developments. The cement industry started building million tonne per annum capacity cement plants (which may however, not sound so revolutionary in today’s context of 5 /7/10 MT plants). This called for high capacity crushers to feed the hungry mills or combination of mills. For Indian mining practices, crusher capacity was pegged at 1,800 TPH. On the other hand, ball mills on the milling side were slowly being replaced by newly developed Vertical Roller Mills for their superior all-around performance.
As we said earlier, the required product size from these crushers were 95 per cent below 25 mm for ball mill and 95 per cent below 75 mm for vertical mill. However very quickly the industry switched over to vertical mills only, as fast and effective developments of this genre of equipment gradually made ball mills redundant.
Single rotor and double rotor (compound) Impactors virtually replaced all other crushers employed in large capacity plants. Application of compound rotor eliminated complicated two stage crushing when Ball Mills were employed for grinding.
These Impactors came with heavy duty fabricated rotor and slid- in type blow bars as crushing elements. Product size could easily be adjusted with hydraulically operated impact arms while hydraulically actuated Grinding Path assembly fine tuned the top size of the product. Grinding path also protects the machine from damage due to uncrushable ingress.
Thus compound Impactors made two stages crushing irrelevant. These Impactors could produce minus 25 mm product from a ROM top size of 1,800 mm for the large capacity range of 1,600 to 2,000 TPH. In these machines, two rotors are mounted in such a manner that material flows from the primary rotor post crushing to the secondary rotor guided by the impact arms and gravity. The final product is obtained after secondary crushing and travel of the product over the grinding path.
By mid-eighties, Vertical Roller Mills virtually eliminated the Ball Mills for its multiple superior features and larger capacity obtainable. Single Rotor Impactors which can produce 95 per cent minus 75 mm output from ROM size of 0 to 1,800 mm, is presently the crusher choice for the fashionable VRMs which are considered state of the art technology. Thus, the theory and practice of sizing limestone for the cement kilns, underwent revolutionary changes in the last 30 years, even as the plant capacities went through the roof.ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
LN Mitra is a mechanical engineer, and a retired technocrat, currently settled in Kolkata. He has worked for Larsen and Toubro Limited throughout his distinguished career, in various capacities, last of which was a very senior administrative assignment in South India. Mitra can be credited with introduction of Impactors in the Indian Cement Industry, and that of Secondary Impactors in particular. He has been considered as an accomplished specialist in the application of Impactors in not just cement industry, but all other core sector sizing applications, in the Indian capital goods market.

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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.

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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

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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.