[Original] Have to see! These things about carbide slag cement..

Recently, the Inner Mongolia Office of Industry and Information Technology announced four traditional cement clinker enterprises such as Jidong Cement in Inner Mongolia and five carbide slag (PVC) clinker enterprises in Wuhai and its surrounding areas. The replacement production lines with a total 20000 of t/d will be shut down for 1-4 months. A local insider

in Inner Mongolia told China Cement Network that the peak-staggering replacement of traditional cement enterprises and carbide slag enterprises is the general trend, which is conducive to the healthy competition of the cement industry in the region.

From rapid development to deepening cooperation with traditional cement enterprises, what kind of thinking has the change of carbide slag cement brought to the cement industry? The development

of

carbide slag cement carbide slag is the waste residue produced in the production process of PVC, which has the characteristics of strong alkalinity and difficult disposal. Its main component is calcium hydroxide. Before the process of making cement from carbide slag, carbide slag can only be piled up, causing environmental pollution around.

In view of the comprehensive utilization of carbide slag, domestic enterprises have made many attempts and made significant progress. The most significant way of utilization of carbide slag is the production of building materials. Cement production has the potential to consume a large amount of carbide slag. In the PVC production enterprises with relatively large amount of carbide slag, the production of cement from carbide slag is the best way to utilize carbide slag comprehensively at present.

In 2008, the Development and Reform Commission issued the Notice on Encouraging the Use of Calcium Carbide Slag to Produce Cement, which requires that the construction and expansion of calcium carbide PVC projects must be accompanied by the construction of comprehensive utilization devices for calcium carbide slag to produce cement. The production scale of a single set of carbide slag cement production plant must reach 2000 tons per day or more. In addition, enterprises using carbide slag to produce cement can enjoy preferential tax policies for comprehensive utilization of national resources after being recognized by the competent national circular economy authorities. After the

announcement, the rapid development of carbide slag cement has been promoted to a large extent, especially in Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia and other places with abundant coal resources, the output of carbide slag cement has been increasing.

In terms of cost, the comprehensive utilization of calcium carbide slag cement has many advantages: First, it can replace limestone raw materials in a large proportion, reduce limestone resource consumption and carbon dioxide gas emissions. Each ton of cement can save 1.28 tons of limestone resources and 同时可减少0.56 tons of carbon dioxide gas emissions; secondly, the purchase cost of raw materials can be greatly reduced and the energy consumption can be reduced, and the clinker burning heat consumption is lower than that of cement production using limestone as a raw material.

At the same time, due to the continuity of PVC production, the shutdown of carbide slag cement enterprises is easy to cause potential safety hazards in PVC production, so although the northwest cement industry began to stagger peak production in 2014 (Xinjiang took the lead), for a long time, the carbide slag enterprises in the region did not participate in peak staggering, but they did. In addition to the cost advantages, carbide slag cement enterprises have a great impact on the economic benefits and capacity reduction of the overall cement industry in Inner Mongolia, Ningxia and Xinjiang.

In order to effectively reduce the excess capacity in the region and solve the long-standing problems of disorderly competition, profit depression and serious losses of cement, in October 2017, the Xinjiang industry first proposed "peak staggering replacement" , requiring that "during the period of peak staggering production of cement enterprises required by the government, the cement enterprises in Xinjiang should be able to do so." Carbide slag cement enterprises can not stop the kiln, and the clinker produced and the pollutants discharged by the traditional cement enterprises can be replaced and compensated by increasing the kiln shutdown time during the non-peak-staggering production period. At the same time, during the peak-staggered production period of traditional cement enterprises, the qualified cement clinker produced by carbide slag cement enterprises will be digested and processed by the traditional cement enterprises in the region as a whole, and the clinker price will be determined according to the variable cost of traditional cement enterprises. After that,

in November 2019, the Inner Mongolia Office of Industry and Information Technology and the Department of Ecology and Environment jointly issued the Notice on Staggered Peak Production of Cement Enterprises in the Heating Season from 2019 to 2020. It is proposed that PVC enterprises should be allowed to replace the traditional cement clinker line by peak staggering, that is, carbide slag cement enterprises should not stop the kiln during the peak staggering production period in the heating season. Replacement compensation shall be made by traditional cement enterprises by increasing kiln shutdown time during non-peak-shifting production period "," PVC enterprises shall actively seek peak-shifting production with other enterprises in the region by means of capacity replacement "," confirmation in the form of cement clinker procurement contract ", "During the period of peak staggering, the price of carbide slag cement clinker is determined by both parties through negotiation based on the variable cost of cement clinker of traditional cement clinker enterprises in the same region in the past three years.".

In the short run, peak-staggering replacement not only avoids the problem that carbide slag cement enterprises can not easily stop production during peak-staggering production, but also the traditional cement enterprises in the region will digest and treat the qualified cement clinker produced by carbide slag cement enterprises as a whole, which will increase the additional income of carbide slag cement enterprise. It also lays a foundation for creating a good market competition pattern in the region.

Taking this year as an example, after the outbreak of the epidemic, the state and local governments issued a series of infrastructure investment policies to stabilize growth and protect people's livelihood, which not only stabilized the basic economic operation, minimized the impact of the epidemic on economic and social development, but also brought new development opportunities for the cement industry. In this context, the cement industry in the northwest region, on the basis of the support of cement demand, will form a win-win situation by carrying out in-depth cooperation between carbide slag and traditional cement industry.

But in the long run, overcapacity has always been a sword hanging over the cement industry , especially in the northwest market where the situation of overcapacity is particularly severe. If there are no substantive measures to promote the cement industry to reduce production capacity, when demand further declines, the firmness of cooperation will be challenged. "Staggered peak replacement has played a great role in maintaining a relatively stable state for the cement industry in Inner Mongolia, but the sustainability depends on the market conditions in the later period." An industry insider in Inner Mongolia stressed.