Project for Cementos Argos, Colombia

The plant is strategically located in the town of Sogamoso, 200 km northeast of the capital Bogota in the province of Boyaca, to serve the market in the midwest, which accounts for about 70 per cent of the demand for cement.

The plant is designed to produce 4,300 tonnes/day of cement. The total investment is around 450 m USD and is expected to be operational by the end of 2017. The new facilities are more efficient, with costs of 195 dollars per tonne. It will be the most modern and efficient plant in the country, due to its location, the use of existing Argos infrastructure in Sogamoso and the implementation of technologies to replace fuels such as coal with alternative fuels such as biomass and waste (used tyres, plastic, rice husks).

ULMA Conveyor Components has developed special rollers with rubber that is resistant to high temperatures (120ºC) for output conveyors from the furnaces.

In the cement business, Argos is a leader in Colombia; the fifthlargest producer in Latin America and second-largest in the south-eastern United States. It has nine plants in Colombia, three in the United States and one in Honduras; ten clinker mills located in Colombia, United States, Haiti, Panama, Dominican Republic, Honduras, French Guiana and Suriname; and twenty-four receiving and packaging ports and terminals. The total installed capacity is 21 million tonnes of cement per year.