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Trends in material handling

Published

8 years ago

November 30, 2016

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Stacker reclaimer in raw material preparation and pipe conveyor in material transportation are the important handling methods in the cement industry.
Today, cement industry has option of using various modes of material handling. However, pipe conveying is gaining popularity very fast. The other part of material handling is stacker and reclaimer, we catch up with industry experts.Pipe conveyor
Major job in cement plant operations is movement of materials. Attention is always paid to so that the production is not starved for want of materials. The movement of raw materials start from limestone mine and ends at the packing plant. The conveyor belts or pneumatic transportation are the conventional ways of moving powered materials.
However, pipe conveyors are replacing the old thinking.It is even the right solution for transporting alternative fuels such as crushed plastic material, textiles, and paper. This is fully closed conveying system, thus makes transporting bulk material more environmentally friendly and energy-efficient. Maintenance costs are also considerably lower and the system can be optimally adapted to the ambient conditions.PK Madappa of Macmet Engineering provides the advantages of pipe conveyor. Incidentally, Macmet has many firsts to its credit in pipe conveying. He further says that pipe conveyors offer the following advantages over the conventional ones:

Enclosed, clean and environment friendly transportation eliminating spillage, scattering and return dropping of materials.
Non-exposure to atmosphere, resulting in retention of material properties while conveying.
Curvature possible in both horizontal and vertical planes associated with steeper angle of inclination.
Option of transporting second material through the return side pipe of the system, thereby reducing capital and operating cost.
Overall savings in space requirement, structural and foundation cost, thereby making the investment decisions easier.
Elimination of transfer points – which reduces capital costs; pollution and maintenance costs.
Pipe Conveyors can be used for transportation of almost all bulk materials.

Transporting material by conventional ways generates dust and considering the restrictions of dust emission, we feel pipe conveyors are more suitable than any other method. In terms of cost, pipe conveyor is quite comparable with that of belt conveyor, taking into account the advantages it gives.
The problem encountered for long distance pipe conveyors is maintaining them along the length. Madappa says it has been addressed by providing maintenance trolleys that are running along tracks mounted on top of the conveyor structure. This also helps to reduce costs (associated with walkways), improve maintenance and reduce accidents. These trolleys are fitted with driving light and flood light for dark/night operations. The trolleys are designed to allow complete access to all parts of the conveyor structure and conveyor components. Each trolley has a terminal station at each end of the conveyor for parking, loading and unloading of personnel and equipment for maintenance. The trolley is controlled by an operator console/dash panel. A diesel generator set is provided on the trolley to meet the requirement for operation of welding set, grinding wheel, and maintenance equipment, for lighting and auxiliary power requirements.

In case of upgradation of plants or even while replacing the old transport system, today pipe conveyors are considered first, and only if it doesn?t work, other options are explored.

High environmental protection, low maintenance
It became apparent that a pipe conveyor was the best solution offering environmental protection and low maintenance. Its closed design protects the environment from transported goods falling down. Another advantage is the lack of dust development on the running line.

Apart from the advantages mentioned above, they are able to navigate long distances and tight curve radii. Due to their ability to negotiate curves, considerably less transfer towers are required compared to belt conveyors. This results in substantial cost savings for the customer and delivery of a system customised for individual routing.

In Europe, drag chains are getting replaced with pipe conveyors. In a running plant it is not easy to replace the existing conveying system with a pipe conveyor. It normally takes around 8-9 months to complete the job.

Stacker reclaimer
Another material handling equipment which is essential for the cement plant is a stacker reclaimer. Limestone is extracted from mother earth which is always not uniform in quality. The mineral resource like limestone is depleting very fast, so the plants do not have the luxury of picking the best quality limestone and throwing the inferior quality. It is necessary to use the available material to its fullest (for more details, refer to the article of Promac).

R Murthy and Santhosh Kumar M of Promac in their article say,?Quarry management is an art. Cement producer may also have some material that is not good enough. This might be harder to grind, or be of less suitable chemical composition. If the ?good material? is all used up first, it may be more difficult to make cement out of what is left. Careful selection on a day-to-day basis is needed to make the optimum use of all the raw materials available.?

Different options have to be considered before selecting the type and size of stacker reclaimer:

Homogenising effect required
Future uprating of the store
Open or roofed store
Mill feed system
Chemical characteristics of the materials to be handled

Pre-homogenisation
This is often necessary in cement industry, where the raw material chemical composition varies greatly. It is used primarily for the main components in cement production, i.e. limestone and clay. With the increasing variation in the grades of coal used, there is a growing need for pre-homogenisation and storage of coal. Depending on the properties of the coal used, a pre-homogenising or buffer store is used.

The reclaimer is usually equipped with constant speed motors. The reclaimed material is carried by belt conveyors driven by constant speed motors and is discharged into a feed bin of a relatively large volume. Reclaiming capacity is higher than the mill requirement and the reclaimer therefore operates in an On/Off mode, controlled by maximum/minimum level indicators in the feed bin. On leaving the bin, the material is proportioned and fed into the mill by weigh feeders.

If the materials are difficult to handle, it may be an advantage to avoid the intermediate bin between the reclaimer and the mill. This is possible in cases where material from one (or more) store(s) is to be fed to a single mill. In principle, the reclaimer must be equipped with speed regulated motors and an integrated belt scale. The transport and subsequent proportioning of the reclaimed material and additional raw material is effected by speed regulated conveyors.

Reclaiming capacity will always match the mill requirement and the reclaimer will operate continuously. The reclaimer in combination with the transporting belt conveyors acts as a weigh feeder for the reclaimed material.

The stacker and reclaimer are controlled by a state-of-the-art PLC-based technology, designed for fully automatic operation. The PLC make and type may be chosen in accordance with the individual requirements to facilitate communication with the central control system.

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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

admin

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

ETBrandEquity

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

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.