Holnam to assess Colorado expansion Holnam is studying a potential expansion of its cement manufacturing plant in Florence, Colo. The study will be used to determine whether a major investment to increase the plant's production capacity is justified in the face of growth projections in the market and the recent creation of two other cement production plants.

Cement manufacturing has been continuous at the Florence plant since 1898. Through numerous upgrades of the original plant its current capacity is 770,000 mtpy. Holnam is assessing an increase to bring the plant's annual capacity to 1.9 mt via a dry manufacturing process.

Pneumat-O-Ring Now Bricking Solutions Pneumat-O-Ring International of Monroe, Wash., changed its name recently to Bricking Solutions. The company has been a manufacturer of equipment and installation systems for rotary kilns since 1967.

K-Tron announces Taiwan contract K-Tron International has announced its Hasler unit recently signed a $3 million contract with Taiwan Cement Engineering Corp. to supply and install feeders for a new cement plant in Taiwan. According to K-Tron, the plant's three production lines will have a total capacity of 25,800 tpd. The first delivery is scheduled for February with the plant expected to be completed by 2001.

Rewriting the patent book U.S.-based Mineral Resource Technologies is claiming that its new series of cement products, produced from coal fly ash, will replace traditional portland cement for virtually all types of cement applications.

Two U.S. patents were issued for MRT Cement, which uses the ash residue generated chiefly by coal-burning electric utilities as a base constituent.

The initial three types available in the fall of 1998 are: blended hydraulic cement; rapid- and intermediate-hardening cement; and masonry cement, designed to be mixed with sand and used as mortar for all types of masonry applications.

The new cement was developed under the direction of MRT's vice president of technical services, Bob Styron, who recently announced that the product could be formulated to have a wider range of properties, such as high strength, cold weather resistance, a low heat of hydration, and rapid strength gain.

MRT is a member of the Philipp Brothers Chemicals family of companies of New Jersey.

Apasco cuts power bills Electricity bills for a 900-kW baghouse fan at Cementos Apasco Ramos Arizpe in Mexico has been reduced by more than 30%, claims ABB Industrie AG, with the installation of the company's "standard" medium-voltage, variable-speed AC drive, the ACS 1000.

ABB successfully commissioned its future-generation, medium-voltage drive (MVD) at the Mexican plant under the auspices of the company's Business Unit Building Materials, Mining and Mineral Industries (BMI) and claims to have exceeded projected energy savings at the plant.

Vicente Galdeano Bazan, plant manager at Ramos Arizpe remarked, "This plant is quite efficient to begin with in terms of energy use, so the savings we project with the ACS 1000 variable-speed drive of a full kilowatt per ton is quite significant."

The ACS 1000, which was installed in just 12 hours, is based on ABB's new semi-conductor device Integrated Gate Commutated Thyristor (IGCT), which delivers the low-loss conduction of traditional GTOs with the high speed of an Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor (IGBT).

Cementos Apasco Ramos Arizpe produces ordinary portland cement for the domestic market, with a capacity of 1.3 million mtpy.

Ash Grove expansion Ash Grove Cement will add 1 million tons of annual cement production capacity to its U.S. Central Region, according to the company.

The Kansas-based company has two options: build a 1.5 million-tpy kiln at the existing Chanute, Kan. plant, or build a new 1 million-tpy plant at an undisclosed site in the Kansas metropolitan area.

If the first option was exercised, the two existing Chanute kilns, which together have a total capacity of 500,000 tpy, would be decommissioned. If the second option were chosen, the Chanute facility would remain on line.

"Looking ahead to the long term, Ash Grove knows it needs to expand capacity to supply the growing markets now served by annual production of 2.5 million tons at our plants in Chanute; Foreman, Ark.; and Louisville, Neb.," said George Wells, Ash Grove's president.

Carmeuse acquires Dravo Dravo Corp., Carmeuse Lime, and Lafarge agreed on a merger between Dravo and Carmeuse. Under the merger agreement, the acquiring company, DLC Acquisition Corp., a subsidiary of Carmeuse, made a cash tender offer for all outstanding common stock of Dravo at a price of $13 per share.

Upon the completion of the recently announced North American lime joint venture between the Carmeuse North American group and Lafarge Lime, which is anticipated during the fourth quarter of 1998, the Dravo business would become part of the joint venture.

Refractory take over Illinois-based Reno Refractories has acquired Refractory Technology (Reftech), a producer of molten aluminum contact refractories. The new company-named Reftech, Div. of Reno Refractories Inc.-will be operated as an independent division.

According to Elmer Reno, president of Reno Refractories, the acquisition will increase the firm's penetration into the refractory markets worldwide, giving Reno exposure in the non-ferrous metals industry.

BHA reaches filter agreement BHA Group announced that an agreement has been reached with Holnam Texas to provide BHA-TEX PTFE membrane filter bags for all of the dust collectors at the company's Midlothian, Texas cement plant. The decision to use the product is part of an expansion project which is said to double capacity without increasing emissions at the plant. According to BHA, the agreement will be in effect for at least the next three years and encompasses existing as well as new equipment.

Giant gets bigger The U.S. Department of Justice has decided not to oppose the merger of Solite Corp. and certain of its operations into Giant Cement Holding. Under the terms of the agreement, Giant will exchange 325,000 shares of its common stock for all of the outstanding stock of Solite and assume approximately $20 million of Solite's long-term debt.

Solite, based in Richmond, Va., is a lightweight aggregate producer, block producer, and resource recover company. Giant Cement Holding, with an annual capacity of 1.5 million tons, produces and sells in the South- and Middle-Atlantic regions of the United States.

According to Gary Pechota, president of Giant, "The combination of the two companies will expand Giant's product lines in existing and contiguous markets and improve its resource recovery capabilities. The company will be able to provide a broader range of products and services to both its construction materials and resource recovery customers."

Cemex opts out Cemex announced that it will sell its interest in two hotels as well as its ownership of other minor tourism properties in Mexico as part of its ongoing policy to concentrate on its core business of cement and cement-related products.

The hotels to be sold are the Casa Manga in Cancun and the Casa Manga in Puerto Vallarta, both of which are currently managed by Marriott International. The total sale price is likely to be about US$125 million. The proceeds from the sales are expected to be used to pay down debt at the holding company level.

Systech's new web site Systech Environmental Corp. launched a web site for customers, news media, the general public, and others who want information about the company and burning hazardous and nonhazardous wastes as fuel in cement kilns.

Among the site's pages can be found a company history, as well as pages on energy recovery, cement manufacturing, fuel-quality hazardous and nonhazardous wastes, company locations, and its fuel processing capabilities. The site's address is: http://www.sysenv.com

Harbison Walker to close five plants Harbison-Walker Refractories Co. announced closures and consolidations relating to five refractory plants throughout North America. Company officials said the plant closings represent the initial step in the consolidation of recently acquired A.P. Green Industries.

Three former A.P. Green facilities (Rockdale, Ill.; Sulphur Springs, Texas; and Bessemer, Ala.) will be totally shut down, and one in Smithfield, Ontario, will be partially closed. A Harbison-Walker plant in Fulton, Mo., also will be shut down. These plant closings are in addition to the previously announced sale of the former A.P. Green facility at Lehi, Utah.

Heidelberger begins North American operation Heidelberger Zement, parent company of Lehigh Portland Cement, has announced the formation of Heidelberger Calcium Aluminates, a new business that will serve the North American calcium aluminate cement market.

Luminate and Refcon cement brands (originally produced by Lehigh's Buffington, Ind. plant) will continue to be shipped to calcium aluminate customers until the Buffington supply is exhausted. In the future, these products will be sourced from Heidelberger's plant in Pula, Croatia for North American distribution.

In the past several years, Heidelberger Zement has invested in the plant at Pula so as to increase capacity, implement new quality control procedures, and increase shipping capacities for the purpose of global market expansion and product development. In the U.S., Heidelberger Calcium Aluminates will be presiding over the transition process so as to ensure quality control and consistency.

Dragon goes one year without time loss The Dragon Cement plant in Thomaston, Maine has gone more than 12 months with no lost time due to injuries, according to the company. This achievement marks the second time in the past five years that Dragon has reached such a benchmark. The absence of lost-time not only applies to all production employees, but to those in trucking, maintenance, garage, electrical, distribution, packaging, the quarry division and the laboratory as well. The plant runs 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Holnam line on-time Holnam announced that the construction of a new cement production line at its Midlothian, Texas cement plant is on schedule and that it will be in service by early 2000. The project, which is expected to cost more than $200 million, will more than double the plant's total output (to 2.35 million mtpy), and is expected to make it the single largest cement plant in the United States, according to the company.

Since groundbreaking in June 1998, 250 of the 550 support pilings have been constructed. In the next few months, the tower housing the pre-heater cyclones and several new concrete silos will be constructed. Holnam expects that large sections of the kiln will have been delivered before the end of 1998.

Plibrico names Clayburn as Canadian distributor Clayburn Refractories, headquarted in Abbotsford, British Columbia, was recently awarded a distributorship for Plibrico Company's line of refractory products. Plibrico refractories are used in a wide range of heat containment applications, such as boilers, incinerators, industrial furnaces, and minerals processing kilns. Regarding the agreement, Plibrico said that its product line will enable Clayburn to provide the Canadian market with a complete refractory package.

Dragon supplies concrete for airport expansion Dragon Cement, a Portland, Maine-based company, is supplying the concrete for the expansion of the aircraft apron at the Portland International Airport. The company is supplying about 350-cu-yd of concrete per day for the project for a total of about 15,000-cu-yd. The project consists of the replacement and expansion of the 17-in. thick apron. The project is scheduled to be completed in the spring of 1999.

Holnam plant wins Colorado Governor's award Holnam announced that its Ft. Collins, Colo. cement manufacturing plant recently received the Governor's Certificate of Achievement for improvements made in the plant's environmental performance. The award recognizes Holnam's efforts to reduce emissions through significant investment in pollution prevention, energy efficiency, and renewable energy, as well as the plant's commitment to community leadership in pollution prevention. Holnam was only one of two companies in Colorado to receive the award.

Cemex to get new electricity supplier Vivendi of France and the engineering group Alstrom have plans to build the world's largest pertoleum coke-fired electricity plant in Mexico late next year. Valued at $294 million, the plant is expected to supply the majority of its electricity to Cemex. The plant will go on-line in early 2002.