Reconstruction of Slovak cement plant

VSH a.s. plays an important role in production of primary building materials for the Slovak and Hungarian markets. The company launched its cement production in 1973 in Turňa nad Bodvou near the raw material base of limestone quarry. It regularly invests in modernization of its facilities to increase environmental protection standards and energy efficiency of its processes.

The company planned to invest in a new cement mill to reduce the energy consumption and production costs.

VSH a.s. contacted SlovSEFF for financing of this project and advice.

The SlovSEFF team performed the project analysis, assessed its potential of energy savings, financial-technical parameters and profitability.

The €6.6 million investment allowed the company to decrease the energy consumption by over 37 MWh per year, which is equal to €851,200 savings per year. The investment will be repaid from energy savings in less than eight years, turning the cash-flow into company’s income for the years to come. The new cement mill based on PMCM technology has a lower blast factor. Blast factor is the ratio of the total amount of clinker in the final product – cement. The lower this factor is, the less clinker is needed and the lower the energy and raw materials production intensity is.

This project improved the company’s financial standing and competitiveness on the market. It demonstrates that investments in energy efficiency lead to other benefits, such as more efficient use of raw materials and positive environmental effect, as the project resulted in over 15,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions reduction per year.

This way, the EBRD through SlovSEFF supports implementation of sustainable energy projects by the private sector.