FL Smidth successes in Iran

The partly privately owned Iranian Khazar Cement Company (KCC), part of the Fars & Khuzestan Cement Company, has placed an order with the FLSmidth Group for upgrading and modernising its cement plant in Khazar, 175 km north-west of the capital Tehran. The contract value is EUR14m, or DKK105m. The upgrade will double the production capacity of FKCC’s cement plant to 4000tpd. The machinery and equipment will be delivered over the next 15 months. The plant is expected to come on-stream in the summer of 2005.

The contract comprises a raw mill, a cement mill with MAAG gearbox and upgrade of the existing kiln system including a new clinker cooler, in addition to upgrade of the existing control system by FLSmidth Automation, and new electrostatic precipitators to be supplied by FLSmidth Airtech.

FLSmidth has also received a second order from the privately owned Faraz Firouzkuh Cement Company (FFCC) relating to machinery and equipment for a greenfield cement plant with a capacity of 3000tpd of cement clinker. The contract is worth EUR23m, or just over DKK170m. The order from FFCC, a newly established Iranian- and European-owned cement business in Iran, follows in the wake of a EUR70m, or DKK520m, contract landed by FLSmidth from another Iranian company. Co-owned by Breitenburger Auslandbeteiligung GmbH, which is partly owned by Holcim, FFCC is among the first cement companies in Iran partly owned by foreign interests.

FFCC’s new cement facility will be set up near the city of Firouzkuh, 125 km east of the capital of Tehran. The machinery and equipment will be shipped during the next 15 months. The plant is scheduled to come on stream in the autumn of 2006. The scope of the contract includes a complete pyroprocessing system consisting of preheater, kiln and cooler, a clinker conveying system and a cement mill with MAAG gearbox as well as a complete control system to be supplied by FLSmidth Automation, two electrostatic precipitators to be supplied by FLSmidth Airtech and a hammer crusher, circular storage and raw meal silos to be provided by FLSmidth Materials Handling. Also included in the contract is supervision of erection.

The development on the Iranian cement market continues to offer good sales potential for the FLSmidth Group. The country sees stable growth in the demand for cement. Today the cement industry has an estimated production capacity of nearly 30Mta. The government plans to double this capacity over the next 10 years to meet both the increase in population and the growing cement consumption.