NORM LLC eyes further expansion plans

NORM LLC may consider expanding its new 2Mta Qizildas Cement plant in Azerbaijan as early as next year, plant manager, Osman Nemli, has indicated.

Speaking to International Cement Review (ICR) during a tour of the new works as part of the 24th Eurasian Cement Forum hosted by BusinessCem, Mr Nemli said the company may consider increasing capacity and adding new lines as early as mid-2014.

Cement production at the US$400m plant started on Tuesday, 22 October 2013. Delegates attending the Eurasian cement conference and exhibition in Baku this week, were given a special preview tour of the plant where they were able to watch 40kg bags of CEM II coming off conveyors and loaded onto trucks.

The greenfield works is still under construction under China’s CTIEC (China Triumph International Engineering Co, Ltd) and Japan’s Mitsubishi Corporation, and is to commence its 5000tpd clinker line by the end of the year. Clinker is currently being imported from Turkey. ?

Output from the dry-process plant is primarily aimed at serving the Azerbaijani domestic market, as consumption substantially outstrips current production, and domestic producers aim to reduce dependence on imports, too much of which are "very poor quality", Mr Osman Nemli explained to ICR.

Mr Nemli told delegates attending the conference that the plant could also produce API-standard oil-cements that hitherto were not produced in the hydrocarbon-rich country, and added that the plant is also a local first in using bypass technology.