Fives FCB, obtains the provisional acceptance of the second grinding plant, 3 months ahead of the contractual schedule.
On September 10th 2006, Qatar National Cement Company awarded Fives FCB with a turnkey contract to supply the new production line No.4 with a capacity of 5,000 tons of clinker per day, thus allowing an annual production of 1.7 million tons of Portland cement.
Only twenty-two months after the order was brought into effect, Fives FCB reached and even exceeded its goals in terms of lead times:
- On April 15th, Fives FCB obtained the provisional acceptance for the first cement grinding plant, as per the project schedule.
- In June 2008, the second grinding plant was started up 3 months ahead of the contractual schedule.
The next step will take place in February of 2009: the burning line, which is currently under construction, should reach the end of the industrial production test.
This is the biggest order ever obtained by Fives FCB and the third awarded to it by QNCC, thus crowning more than 12 years of co-operation:
• The first contract was signed in 1995 for the construction of a turnkey 2,000 tpd cement plant, line No.2, which was commissioned in 1998 and has been operating at full capacity ever since.
• In 2004, QNCC renewed its confidence in Fives FCB by entrusting it with a turnkey contract to supply the new production line No.3 with a capacity of 4,000 tpd, installed near the first cement plant at Umm Bab, on the western side of the Qatari peninsula. The cement grinding plant was started up early, at the end of 2005, in order to respond to the enormous demand for cement on the Qatari market. The other plants, including the clinker burning line were commissioned at the end of 2006.
The three Umm Bab production lines supplied by Fives FCB will enable this cement plant to produce up to 11,000 tpd of clinker (4 million tpy of cement), making it one of the largest and most modern cement plants in the Gulf region. These contracts also attest to the confidence that QNCC has in Fives FCB.