McInnis Cement, in collaboration with Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec and other shareholders, announced that nearly 75 percent of the construction phase is completed for the Port-Daniel–Gascons cement plant. The cement plant will have an annual production capacity of 2.5 million tons.
“With the significant turnaround of operations and approximately $280 million in new financing, everything is in place to complete the project on schedule,” said Christian Dubé, executive vice-president, Québec at Caisse. “This cutting-edge, world-class cement plant, slated to make its first cement deliveries this spring, will benefit from better-than-anticipated market conditions, strengthening the investment for our clients and the other shareholders.”
The new leadership in the company’s management has strengthened expertise, increased productivity through better work organization and stepped up the daytime, nighttime and weekend pace of construction – the equivalent of five work weeks per month per worker. “This turnaround, achieved in collaboration with the entire staff of McInnis Cement, will allow the cement plant to enter the market at the best possible time,” added Dubé.
The heightened pace of construction on the company’s various sites, starting with the Port-Daniel–Gascons industrial project, will allow the project to be completed in time for the first cement deliveries in the spring. The McInnis Cement team began the operating phase in October, with tests on the crushing line and the conveyers used to transport limestone extracted from the quarry to the warehouse.
By the end of 2016, the company expects to finalize and begin operations of the crushing unit; receive several ships transporting raw materials in its marine terminal; and conduct the first operational checks for the grinding of raw materials.
The Sainte-Catherine and Providence distribution terminals are also under construction. Other sites under development will soon be added to the company’s distribution network.
As a result of its leading-edge technology, the Port-Daniel–Gascons plant will produce cement with a 20 percent lower carbon footprint per ton than the average of cement plants across North America, noted the company. Additionally, the facility will be the only Canadian cement plant to comply with the NESHAP 2015 U.S. anti-pollution standards, which are up to 15 times more restrictive than those currently in effect in Québec.
