The Belarusian cement plant is celebrating its 30th anniversary these days. A rich history and confident development prospects. About this, the correspondent of 'GK' spoke with the General Director of the Company, Yevgeny VOLOSHCHIK.

• The anniversary is a good occasion to look back and draw some conclusions. What has changed over these 30 years at the BCEZ and with what results are the cement plant workers meeting the anniversary?
• On September 11, 1996, the first technological line for cement production by the dry method was launched at the Belarusian Cement Plant. Until then, since 1993, only the grinding shop had been operating, with clinker being brought from Russia, ground, and turned into cement. Cement production by the dry method reduced the costs of clinker production, the main semi-finished product for cement production, by 20-30 percent. This was very effective. Later, the plant built gas turbine units, with the help of which it began to generate its own energy. Our production is very energy-intensive, with the main costs going to electricity, fuel, including coal and gas. And the commissioning of the gas turbine units became a kind of achievement.
• In 2012, the second technological line for the dry method was launched, but using new technologies. It was a Chinese line with a furnace heat exchanger and a two-stage decarbonizer. At that time, three cement plants in Belarus, including the BCEZ, underwent modernization. Their production capacity was five thousand tons of clinker per day (about six thousand tons of cement). The capacity of the first line was 2,400 tons of clinker per day, the new line – twice as high. They were producing one million eight hundred thousand tons of cement per year. The new line is energy-efficient and powerful.

– In 2025, a record was set for cement production both at the Belarusian Cement Plant (BCZ) and in the Republic of Belarus. Thanks to this

The next step will be the introduction of RDF fuel in 2027 aimed at reducing imported fuel by using local types. This is processed municipal solid waste from the population, excluding organic matter, metal, glass, paper, and cardboard. The efficiency of RDF fuel will be high: it is planned to burn up to seventy‑two thousand tons per year when operating at full capacity, which will reduce the cost of cement by two to three percent. This is not only economically justified for cement producers, but also effective for environmental protection, namely reducing the area of landfills for municipal solid waste. Worldwide, RDF fuel is used in the cement and energy industries. During clinker firing, a temperature of 1450 degrees Celsius is reached, which allows harmful emissions to be reduced to almost zero. We plan to install this technological line for burning RDF fuel on the Chinese line, which has modern bag filters and dust‑gas cleaning. Today this line is being installed, work has been ongoing since June, and the launch is scheduled for April 2027.

Another investment project we currently have is the transition on the first technological line from pneumatic to mechanical transport, which will significantly reduce cement production costs. It will be implemented in production by the end of this