Introduction

Cement production is a capital intensive business. To establish a new works having an annual capacity of 1 million tonnes, modest by modern standards, would involve the investment of perhaps £200 millions depending on the location and raw materials. By comparison cement is a low-cost material selling on a unit weight basis for less than many basic household products e.g. potatoes at three or four times the price of cement or sugar at twelve times the price. In order to meet this expectation the cement producer has to maximise efficiency producing on a continuous and massive scale, hence the million tonne plant. Production on this scale requires large stocks of materials at all of the intermediate production stages and brings the added advantage of reduced variability of product. Increasingly there is a demand for special cements or ordinary cements with added benefits for the specialist user. Some of these specialist cements can be produced with minimal disruption of the main process but others will require special raw materials or processing and this will be reflected in their cost. On the other hand ordinary cements are required to be

Euro-Cements: Impact of ENV197 on Concrete Construction. Edited by R.K.Dhir and M.R.Jones. Published in 1994 by E & FN Spon, 2-6 Boundary Row, London SE1 8HN. ISBN: 0 419 19980 2.