DKK 110m contract for cement plant modification project in El Salvador

El Salvador's sole cement producer, privately owned Cementos de El Salvador S.A. (CESSA), has awarded F.L.Smidth A/S a DKK 110 million (USD 13.5m) turn-key contract.

F.L.Smidth is to convert the customer's production line near the town of Metapan close to the Guatemalan border from an oil-fired to a petcoke-fuelled facility, the latter representing a more economical source of energy.

Most of the contract value will be taken to income this year and until the spring of 2003 when the facility will switch from oil to petcoke firing after a short shutdown of production. Financed by the customer himself, the order does not affect the latest projections for FLS Industries earnings in 2002.

The scope of the contract is all machinery and engineering, electrical project design, the control system (supplied by FLS Automation), erection and commissioning services. The conversion to petcoke-firing entails installation of an ATOX coal mill, a baghouse filter, a feeding system (supplied by Pfister, another member of F.L.Smidth Group) and a DUOFLEX burner. The contract includes supplies of coal firing equipment to another CESSA-owned cement plant nearby.

In 2000, F.L.Smidth supplied and commissioned the production line at the Metapan plant which has a yearly production capacity of 750,000 tonnes. Back in the nineteen sixties F.L.Smidth supplied most of the equipment for CESSA's two cement plants which are the sole providers of cement to El Salvador's six million people, covering practically the total needs of the domestic market. CESSA is partly owned by Holcim, the Swiss cement group. F.L.Smidth is also currently active in the neighbouring country of Honduras where it is installing a new SF Cross-Bar clinker cooler for INCEHSA owned by Lafarge, the French cement group.

FLS Industries A/S
Corporate Public Relations