From Vision to Reality
The "planning of the construction of a state for the Jewish people must also take into account the founding of a Hebrew cement plant”, ("Altneuland", Benjamin Ze'ev Herzl).
Benjamin Ze'ev Herzl needed quite a bit of vision and imagination to understand that Israel must have its own cement factory in order to become an independent country that provides its own building materials. In his book Altneuland, Herzl pointed out that the factory should be built in Haifa, a promising future port city.And sure enough, the first bag of cement to come out of the Haifa Nesher plant in 1925 marked the beginning of a long and fascinating journey, intertwined in the history of the State of Israel. Beginning with the development and construction of the Jewish settlement in Israel, through the establishment of the state, accompanying its growth while turning into an independent state that supplies its building materials, and to this day, as the largest supplier of Israel's cement consumption employing hundreds of workers in two factories, Nesher continues to work for made-in-Israel cement, which is produced from local raw materials and fulfills all demand in Israel.
The vision of Hebrew Cement
Seven Jewish businessmen set up the "Portland Cement Syndicate in the Land of Israel" in London after the samples collected by the urban engineer Nahum Wilbushevich from the area of Mount Carmel and the Kishon Valley, with the help of his mentor Mendel Hankin, were found to be suitable for the production of commercial quantities of good quality cement .The organization's members turn to Dr. Arthur Rupin, the director of Israel Land Development Company, and ask him to hurry up and purchase the land for the plant's construction near the village of Yajur. A sum of 10,000 pounds is transferred to the Kuri family, who owned the land, as a down payment for the purchase, and the plan for establishing the plant is submitted for approval by Bela Spiegel - an engineer, chemist, and one of the managers of the General Hungarian Coal Mine Company, which was the owner of a large and successful cement plant.
Recruiting investors
Michael Polak visited Israel even before World War I and was one of the buyers of the shares for the development of the Shemen company. He raised the plan to establish a Hebrew cement plant to Baron Rothschild, who offered to join the group of investors on the condition that Polak be in charge of the plant.
Dr. Haim Weizman also encouraged Polak to join the project, but only after meeting with Bela Spiegel in Budapest and touring the area intended for the factory was Polak convinced to complete the purchase of the land with the help of the land redeemer Yehoshua Hankin and other buyers.
At the Starting Line
The establishment of the first cement plant in the Land of Israel begins, and the first workers, Jews and Arabs, are trained for the new work.
About three weeks into the works, Bella Spiegel ordered four vertical kilns from Berlin and Belgium as well as a crusher, mills, and dryer - the actual equipment for an entire cement production plant. Yitzchak Schneerson, secretary of the syndicate, was appointed local director of the company in the Land of Israel. A detailed work plan was established for the next two years, and it was decided that the plant would begin production at the beginning of 1925.
The Eagle (Nesher) soars
The first bag of Hebrew cement left the Nesher factory in Haifa, and Israel became a cement producer.
Laboratory tests carried out later revealed that the quality of the Israeli cement was excellent compared to the European cement of that time.
The board of directors noted that the establishment of the plant had been completed and that it must now meet the production, marketing trials, and the promise of profitability.
Clear signs of an approaching crisis seen on the economic horizon of the Land of Israel tainted the joy of embarking on a new path with worry and fears about the future.
The foundation stones of the land
Upon the establishment of the new state, the great waves of immigration, and the construction boom of the 1950s, Nesher decided to build a new cement factory near Ramla. This factory would supply the growing cement consumption for the construction of the young state and be located at a shorter distance from the center and the south of the country.
The management members visit the unemployment-stricken city of Ramla, even though David Ben-Gurion proposes to establish the additional factory near Beer Sheva. Meir Prives, one of the executives of Nesher Haifa, who has known the lime incinerators, the primitive kilns and the limestone deposits in the Ramla area since World War II, convinced the management members that the site near Ramla, located at an important crossroads and close to the raw materials, is suitable for the establishment of the new factory. The news of the new plant raised hope for a livelihood among the many immigrants who lived in Ramla.
The construction of the Ramla Nesher plant was completed in July 1953, and the stone crushing began. On August 23, 1953, the kiln was put into operation, and in September of the same year, the customers were supplied with the first sacks of the new plant's cement.
Facing the sun
The demand for cement increased even further after the crushing victory in the Six-Day War, and Nesher purchased the Shimshon cement plant in Har Tuv “Beit-Shemesh” (house of the sun in Hebrew).
The plant, which was established as the Shimshon Plant more than 15 years earlier and was based on the limestone deposits in the area, was transferred to a receiver after reaching bankruptcy in 1968, and was purchased by Nesher for renovation and reuse. Nesher Ramla employees were enrolled in the task, new kilns were purchased and installed, a planning team was enrolled in training the workers and put the plant back "on its feet", and even provided a leading nucleus of workers for the plant. The few workers of Shimshon's veteran workers who were hired to work at the restored factory were required to undergo a difficult adjustment. The restoration took a long time, and the large kiln, equipped with central control and full automation, was only put into operation for the first time in September 1974.
The First Million
For the first time in Nesher's history, the Nesher Ramla plant sells 1 million tons of cement per year.
The national enterprise for the absorption of immigrants from the Commonwealth of Independent States was the beginning of the technological leap that characterized Nesher at the end of the 20th century.
The increase in demand for cement, which originated from the urgent need to house the hundreds of thousands of new immigrants from the former Soviet Union and Ethiopia, was gaining momentum. Nesher employees work in three shifts, 365 days a year and at full capacity to satisfy the demand, and the plan to establish the first dry line in Nesher Ramla was expedited.
When the sales were concluded in 1990, it became clear that the plant had made history, producing one million tons of cement in just one year.
Dry Building
Dry line number 1 was inaugurated at the Nesher plant in Ramla. In the dry production method, the raw materials are ground and dried and then transferred to be burned in a kiln without using water.
The method enables huge energy savings and consumes about half of the energy used in the wet method.
The first dry line's location in Ramla was selected based on the area's technological infrastructure, the raw materials available in the area, and the plant's marketing preference. Following the recession that hit the Israeli economy in the mid-1980s, the plan to build the dry line was frozen until the early 1990s. The cornerstone for the project was laid in October 1992 in the presence of Prime Minister and Minister of Defense Yitzhak Rabin.
About 2,000 people from a wide variety of professions, including construction, metal works, electricity, instrumentation and control, were involved in the construction work. In light of about ten years of experience in the world, Nesher engineers dared to introduce several innovations in the dry line, such as the massive use of coal ash from the power plant as a raw material, the use of in-process control measures, and more.
The Second Dry Line
Despite the drop in demand for cement in the second half of the 90s of the 20th century, Nesher launched a second dry line at the plant in Ramla.
The company's management declared its ambition to switch to clinker production on dry lines only and take all wet kilns out of commission by the end of the decade. The decision stemmed from a desire to complete the technological shift, which would increase production capacity, streamline it, and, above all, reduce the energy consumption required for the production of cement.
Saving energy costs would allow Nesher to lower the cost of cement for the customer and free it from dependence on clinker imports to complete the plant's production needs.
For the second dry line, the engineers used control measures for large electric motors and a more advanced drive and made changes and improvements in the construction field. The dome of the stacker-reclaimer, under which the raw materials for the line are stored, is the largest circular structure in the Middle East. It is built of concrete and not supported by internal columns.
Its diameter is 107 meters and its height is 30 meters.
UN Award
Nesher wins the UN & ICC Millennium Award for its achievements in environmental quality and becomes the only cement plant to win the award.
According to the Award Committee, "the company's emission records position it among the most advanced cement plants on the planet, right at the forefront of technological capability."
Facing the World
Nesher signs a strategic partnership agreement with the Irish CRH company, which focuses on expanding its investments in cement plants around the world.
Together with CRH, Nesher works with the WBCSD (World Business Council for Sustainable Development) to find quantitative indicators, methods, and solutions to improve the cement industry's environmental, social, and economic performance. As a company operating in a changing and dynamic business world, Nesher must adapt to the business circumstances and seek new sources of income for the future.
At the beginning of 1996, Mashab, Nesher's parent company, purchased 50% of the shares of a Taavura transport company, which, among other things, engages in the transport of cement, and becomes an equal partner in the ownership and control of this company. Later, Clal Industries acquired control of Mashab shares, and an opportunity arose to examine the possibility of having an international strategic partner join Nesher.
After a thorough examination, the selected candidate was CRH, an Irish company whose market value was estimated at 7-8 billion dollars and which deals in various fields related to the world of construction materials. The partnership, the decision regarding which provides clear evidence of Nesher's resilience, was a window of opportunity to expand Nesher's horizons overseas with an outlook of an international future. At the end of 2015, CRH sold its holdings in Mashab (Nesher's parent company), and now Mashab is fully owned (100%) by Clal Industries.
Cement mill 12
Construction of cement mill 12 - one of the largest in the world using a vertical method, producing high yields utilizing energy efficiency in the production process.
Mashab Energy Power Plant
Nesher begins to consume electricity from Mashab Energy's power plant, a power plant operated by natural gas.
Supply of RDF to the Plant
An agreement with the Union of Dan Cities for Sanitation and the Veridis Company for the supply of RDF to the plant
The First Environmental Product Declaration
Nesher is the first and only company in Israel to publish an environmental product declarations (EPD), which is an expression of the Company's transparency and environmental policy.
Environmental Industry Award
Nesher receives the Environmental Industry Award for its activity in the field of alternative fuels.
Cement mill 13
Construction of cement mill 13 - one of the largest in the world using a vertical method, producing high yields utilizing energy efficiency in the production process.
Alternative energy is rising to new levels
The use of alternative energy in the production process reaches 30%.
A real contribution to the promotion of waste treatment and circular economy.
Shutting down the activity at the Nesher Haifa plant
About 100 years after the establishment of the Nesher plant in Haifa, its activity was finally shut down.
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The establishment of a new packing facility
As part of the process to improve the services we provide to our customers, we established a new packaging facility.