Tasman Sea Brings In Clinker, Work Rolls at Cement Factories
Tasman Sea has come to the rescue of two cement factories with the shipment of clinker this month.
The vessel is at Lautoka Port offloading clicker for the Tengy Cement Factory in Naikabula outside Lautoka and is expected to arrive in Suva next week for its factory in Veisari, Lami.
This was confirmed yesterday by local ship agency Transam Fiji Limited operations manager Madulesh Lakhan.
Mr Lakhan said that the vessel Tasman Sea, a bulk carrier, started offloading the assigned 15,000 metric tonnes of clinker at the Lautoka port yesterday and will do so for the next four days.
He said the vessel had onboard 26,880 metric tonnes of clinker which would be discharged for the two ports.
“The vessel arrived on Sunday and will stay for five days to offload clinker, then it will depart for Suva to discharge 11,880 metric tonnes in Suva.
“The vessel will stay for seven days in Suva to offload clinker depending on the weather.”
TFL is responsible for the logistics in the transporting of clinker from the vessel to the factories.
Mr Lakhan confirmed that importation of clinker is arranged by TFL every three months. The other cement factory that benefits from this arrangement is Pacific Cement Factory in Lami.
“We provide transportation to Pacific Cement Limited and Tengy Cement Limited.
“It has been only a year when we started shipping clinker to Fiji from Japan.
“Pacific Direct Line (PDL) charters the vessels which carry the clinker; we are the agents here to clear for them.
Clinker is an important component in the making of cement. It is a dark grey nodular material made by heating ground limestone and clay at a temperature of about 1400 °C – 1500 °C.
The nodules are ground up to a fine powder to produce cement, with a small amount of gypsum added to control the setting properties.
Work at the mentioned cement factories is determined with the availability of clinker.
“This is the second time Tasman Sea is transporting clinker to Fiji.
“Some of the challenges that we are facing is weather and road weight limits.
“It takes few days to offload clinkers because weather plays a vital part in the movements of clinker from vessels to factories.
The vessel is currently sailing under the Hong Kong flag.
