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Cement and ConcreteThe cement industry in South Africa has experienced very
rapid expansion in 2006/07 due to increased demand
as the result of new building and capital projects.
This has led to extensive expansion of capacity, reopening
of mothballed plants, and a sharp increase in imports.
In KwaZulu-Natal the main producers are a large factory
in the Sarnia area of Durban with a rail siding at Mt
Vernon and links to the N2 national route via the M7
(Queensburgh), and a plant in the Newcastle
industrial area.
The Durban plant receives over 700,000 tons of clinker
lime in open rail wagons from the Umzimkulu area. The
quarry and crushing plant are adjacent to the private
line
linking the plant to the main South Coast rail line at
Simuna, to the north of Port Shepstone.
Approximately 450,000 tons of slagment is railed from
Newcastle in specially designed, dedicated, dry bulk rail
tankers. A further 50,000 tons of fly ash is received from
Majuba power station on rail.
About 25,000 tons of gypsum is received on road.
Cement Train
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The output from the Durban plant is about 1,150,000 tons
of cement, of which 700,000 tons is bagged for road
transport and the balance of 450,000 tons is transported
in bulk road tankers. The company uses a specialist road
haulage distributor.
The typical distribution of the products by road is as
follows:
Durban area: 60%
Coastal areas 20%
Interior 20%
In addition to the production facilities in the province,
there are large imports of cement through Durban port
(207,712 tons for 2006) and Richards Bay port (455,000
tons in 2006).
Most of the imported cement is railed to
the Gauteng plants of the major producers, for
distribution to building and construction industries.
As inputs to its cement manufacture, the Newcastle plant
uses about 380,000 tons of slagment that is
a by-product of the steel smelting process.
The plant is located about 5 km from the town, adjacent to
the large steel manufacturing complex from which it draws
raw material. The output of the Newcastle factory is about 300,000 tons
per annum which is distributed by road to the northern
areas of KwaZulu-Natal and the interior provinces.
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