Preheater refractory material damage causes kiln outage
Dangote Cement SA (“Sephaku Cement” or “SepCem”) has experienced a further kiln stoppage, unrelated to the previous event announced on 30 September 2021.
Sephaku Cement resumed production as scheduled on 6 October 2021 following the unplanned plant outage in September. The outage had resulted from preheater refractory material damage caused by a corrosive element in one of the raw materials. The raw material was subsequently replaced with an alternative option that mitigates the risk of future damage.
This second plant stoppage started on 16 October 2021 and is expected to be completed on 26 October 2021.
The outage has been necessitated by the requisite repair of the kiln internals to prevent damage to major components. The kiln was inspected and well-attended to in previous maintenance stoppages, therefore this damage was unexpected. Nonetheless, SepCem’s management has identified a long–term solution to this issue.
The outage is expected to impact SepCem’s sales volumes, and the full impact on performance is being assessed.
SepHold is a building and construction materials company with a portfolio of investments in the cement sector in South Africa. The strategy of SepHold is to generate growth and realise value for shareholders through the production of cement and ready mixed concrete in Southern Africa.
The Company’s core investments are a 36% stake in Dangote Cement South Africa (Pty) Ltd (Sephaku Cement) and 100% in Metier Mixed Concrete (Pty) Ltd.
