Influence of cement "caking" and fluidity on cement transportation cost

Influence of cement "caking" and fluidity on cement transportation cost

---The necessity of cement grinding aids

In all shipping, there is a time factor associated with loading and unloading. If there is a phenomenon of "clumping", then such loading and unloading times will be longer, which will directly lead to high transportation costs, and even reduce the total number of loads per day, thus increasing the total cost of sales.

For example, the daily fixed cost of each road cement bulk truck is essentially fixed. In a round-trip transportation cycle, the loading and unloading time will occupy a certain proportion of the time. We measured the transportation of bulk cement from a cement enterprise in the suburbs of a city to the city, and found that the loading cost of cement using grinding aids accounted for 15% of the total transportation cost on average. %, while the cement loading cost without Grinding Aid can account for 25% of the total transportation cost on average. For cement without grinding aid, the tanker is loaded only 3 times a day, while for cement with grinding aid, the tanker is loaded 4 times a day. Therefore, an increase in the number of round trips per day can significantly reduce the cost of sales. Of course, the size of the cost savings is also related to the length of transportation.

In the process of railway bulk transportation, the time spent on loading and unloading accounts for a large proportion of the transportation time. Because railway transportation can only load and unload a small number of train boxes at the same time (such as a 2000-ton train, only 1-3 of the 30 cars are loaded at a time). Take a 30-car 2,000-ton train as an example. For example, the unloading rate of cement without grinding aid is 75 tons per hour, and only 2 cars can be unloaded at the same time, and the unloading takes 13.3 hours in total. For cement using grinding aids, the unloading rate can reach about 150 tons per hour, and the time required for unloading is shortened to 6.7 hours. Such unloading costs may be doubled.

From the perspective of ships as a mode of transportation, a large part of the transportation cost comes from the rental costs of ships, port berthing costs, and the cost of loading and unloading goods. In this case, if the cement "caking" phenomenon occurs, the slow unloading speed will prolong the transportation cycle of the goods, and ultimately reflect the increase in the total cost of all aspects.

The reduction in unloading speed caused by cement "clumping" increases the overall transport cycle time, which is further complicated by the timing of ships to avoid tides. Taking a 25,000-ton international shipping ship as an example, the cost of the ship's charter is assumed to be USD 0.5 per ton per day when converted into the cost of cement transportation. If the transportation time is extended by 6 hours, the transportation cost per ton of cement will increase by 0.12 US dollars. In addition, the unloading cost per ton of cement without grinding aid will also increase, which will increase by about 1 US dollar per ton. At the same time, if the port berthing fee increases due to the delay in transportation, it will also have a significant impact on the cost of sales of cement.

Cement "caking" may not only cause supply delays or increase in sales costs for cement manufacturers, but also negatively affect the use costs of customers. For example, poor fluidity, poor material handling performance, resulting in prolonged metering time each time, additional mechanical force is required to eliminate the problem of poor fluidity, which will inevitably increase labor costs and ultimately increase the cost of use of customer products.

The "agglomeration" of cement is also one of the important reasons for the cement storage to hang on the wall. On the one hand, it takes up a lot of space for the cement storage, and the hanging time is long, and the strength of the cement attached to the wall will be greatly reduced, resulting in physical losses. On the other hand, cement production enterprises need to regularly clean up the hanging wall, which increases the cost of labor. If a personal safety accident occurs, the loss will be immeasurable.