In the presence of Algerian governmental representatives and excellences F.L.Smidth A/S has signed a USD 128m contract with the Algerian Cement Company (ACC). The order includes machinery and equipment as well as civil construction drawings and steel structures for a 5,000 tonnes per day (tpd) greenfield cement clinker plant to be established at M'sila, some 240 km southeast of Algiers.
ACC is the first privately owned company in the cement sector in Algeria. The major shareholder in ACC is the Egyptian company Orascom Construction Industries, which also holds a controlling interest in Egyptian Cement Company, the largest Egyptian cement producer with an annual output of nearly 7 million tonnes of cement. It is the first time that F.L.Smidth is to co-operate with Orascom, which via its Algerian subsidiary will be in charge of building the cement plant.
Engineering will start at the signing of the contract, assuming that financing falls finally into place by the end of June 2002 at the latest. The contract does not affect the F.L.Smidth Group's latest earnings forecast for 2002.
The production line comprises the following key items: Raw material crusher (650 t/h); limestone and clay stores (capacity: 54,800 t); ATOX raw mill (360 t/h); homogenising silo (20,000 t) with LOW kiln feed system; 5 stage ILC-I preheater incl. a calciner, 5,000 tpd rotary kiln; SF clinker cooler; clinker store (50,000 t); 2 UMS cement mills (2 x 140 t/h); 3 cement silos (3 x 15,000 t); 4 Ventomatic GEV/8 packing machines (4 x 100 t/h) and electrostatic precipitators from FLS miljø for dedusting of raw mill/kiln and clinker cooler.
Similar machines have recently been used in other F.L.Smidth projects, resulting in a record project preparation time and cost savings and an extremely short time schedule for the construction of the plant. The plant is scheduled to go onstream in the summer of 2004.
F.L.Smidth has supplied equipment for the three latest greenfield cement plants in Algeria - the last of which was commissioned in 1994. The successful implementation of these three cement facilities has supported ACC's choice of F.L.Smidth as the supplier for the M'sila project.
Based on the continuing upward trends in cement consumption in Algeria, the M'sila project includes an option for doubling the production capacity.
FLS Industries A/S
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