Cement plant engineering in a changing environment: Research perspectives

Cement plant construction is involved in a rapidly changing market. The exp onential growth in world population has only led to an approximately linear increase in world cement consumption over the last three decades, resultin g in a constant annual requirement to create fresh production capacity at a rate of about 33 million tonnes of cement. At the same time there has been a considerable change in the client structure in plant construction; due t o amalgamations there are now significantly fewer clients than a few years ago. Investments in the cement industry are now always linked with an incre ase in output, and there is a significant trend towards turnkey projects. A part from this primary market, there is also a secondary market, relating t o existing plants, where 1600 million tonnes of cement are already produced annually. This is a growth market which has a particular requirement for s ervice investment. Based on a comprehensive analysis of the market and the available technologies a scenario is built up for the future of machine and plant construction in the minerals processing sector. Trend-setting perspe ctives are indicated and put in specific terms for plant construction compa nies on the basis of improvement potential.