Alexandria Portland Cement Company (APCC) in Egypt has placed a DKK 106m (EUR 14.2m) contract with F.L.Smidth & Co. The contract includes modification and expansion of APCC's cement plant located near Alexandria, about 180 km northwest of Cairo. APCC is owned by the UK cement group Blue Circle Industries.
The order is included in F.L.Smidth & Co.'s sales budget for the second half of 2000 and will be recognised as income in step with the delivery of machines, equipment and engineering, i.e. from New Year until the second quarter of 2001.
The contract is based on an order from 1996 when APCC - which until early 2000 was owned by the Egyptian state - ordered a semi-dry 3,000 tonnes per day clinker production line from F.L.Smidth & Co. In connection with taking over the company, Blue Circle decided to convert the production line, which at that time was under construction, into a dry process line. The plant modification and expansion project, which involves reuse of existing FLS equipment, also includes the installation of a homogenising silo, a conditioning tower and an electrostatic precipitator.
The upgrading project will increase APCC's clinker production capacity to 4,750 tonnes per day, corresponding to an annual production capacity of about 1.5m tonnes. The new line will replace the plant's existing four wet-process pyroprocessing systems.
With this contract, F.L.Smidth-Fuller Engineering A/S, the parent company of F.L.Smidth & Co., is involved in seven different projects in Egypt which is currently the FLS Group's largest single market for cement machines and equipment.
Egypt, with a population of 65 million, currently consumes 29 million tonnes of cement per year, corresponding to about 400 kg per capita. The demand for cement has grown rapidly during the last few years at an annual rate of 10-12 per cent. With a net domestic cement production capacity of about 25 million tonnes per year, Egypt has been importing between three and four million tonnes of ce
ment per year, which offers scope for continued investments in the Egyptian cement industry.
FLS Industries A/S
Corporate Public Relations