Eastern Province Cement Company (EPPC) continues to register strong profits in 2007 following its good showing in 2006.

The company, located at Al Khursaniyah near the Dammam-Kuwait highway and one of the largest cement factories in Saudi Arabia, announced first-half 2007 net profits as SR296 million, a 37 per cent surge over the same period of last year.
The performance followed a net profit of SR445 million, up nearly 50 per cent over 2005 with sales of SR772.6 billion.
The sales and profit position has brightened considerably since the company expanded its clinker capacity from 2.15 million tonnes to 3.15 million tonnes in 2006 by building its third production line.
The company was established in 1981 to produce clinker, sulphate resistant Portland cement (SRPC) and ordinary Portland cement (OPC) and to participate in the import and export of all types of building materials. Commercial production began in 1985.
EPCC is a fully Saudi-owned company with the private sector holding 70 per cent of the shares and the government 30 per cent. The government stake comprises 10 per cent each from General Investment Fund, the General Organisation for Social Insurance and pensions authorities.
The EPCC clinker is designed for the production of SRPC, the resistance being moderate to high.
“The alumina ratio of this clinker is controlled within the least standard deviation, so that consistent clinker quality is achieved,” a statement said.
“The well-established process control systems ensure the steady reaction temperature in the kiln so that very sound clinker with consistently high potential composition and low uncombined lime is produced at all points of time.
“Quality and process deviations, if any, are corrected online to achieve process stability and product consistency.”
EPPC said the manufacture of ordinary Portland cement clinker was performed by appropriate selection of the right raw material, additives and the deploying of a wide range of process equipment for pre-blending, size reduction, raw grinding and post-blending to achieve good consistency and process stability.
“This has facilitated the production of OPC clinker with optimum potential composition and very low free lime content. The potential composition of the clinker is suitably designed to take care of the applications where a consistently higher level of tricalcium silicates, the ideal silica modulus etc enable this clinker to be suitable for energy-efficient finish grinding to produce cement of high quality and minimum standard deviation.”
Highlighting its concern for green issues, EPPC recently placed an order with FLSmidth Airtech for the supply of four large fabric filter installations. The filters are part of a project to reduce dust emissions from two cement lines to less than 15 mg/Nm3. The equipment comprises two FabriClean and two RetroClean filters including ducts, supports, dust transportation systems, fans, motors and MCC.