South Africa: PPC plans to expand its alternative fuel programme as part of a cost saving drive. The producer plans to start using refuse derived fuel (RDF) at its De Hoek cement plant in the Western Cape, according to the Pretoria News newspaper. This will follow the current use of tyres as a fuel at the unit. RDF will be sourced from Cape Town, Drakenstein and Swartland. Savings are expected to be realised from the change in fuel mix by mid-2019.

PPC added that it didn’t expect any disruption to its supply of waste tyres at De Hoek caused from the shutdown of the government’s Recycling and Economic Development Initiative of South Africa (REDISA). Chief executive officer (CEO) Johan Claassen said that the company had anticipated the closure and built up supplies of tyres at the plant and at a site at Vissershok.

Japan: Austria’s Untha has agreed a new distribution partnership with Yokohama-based engineering firm Sun Earth. The deal will see Untha’s manufactured shredding technology supplied to a number of waste and alternative fuel production facilities throughout Japan. The agreement was arranged to help Sun Earth cope with demand for a shredding system that can tackle complex production waste, including single-step solid recovered fuel (SRF) manufacturing. Talks between the companies started in mid-2017.

Sun Earth has already placed an order for an Untha XR3000C shredder scheduled for shipment in early 2018.

Egypt: Chemical Industries Holding, a industrial chemical manufacturer, has formed a committee for a consultancy to study offering a mixture of coal and alternative fuels for National Cement. The committee will also consider the financial and technical aspects of supplying a cement mill for the cement producer.

Bangladesh: LafargeHolcim has launched local operations of its waste management company Geocycle to support LafargeHolcim Bangladesh. The cement producer said it was managing 900t of industrial waste in its Chhatak plant, according to the Financial Express. Geocycle is currently offered in 50 countries all over the world under LafargeHolcim Group.