Displaying items by tag: Energy
South Africa: Saudi Arabia-based ACWA Power and Industrial Development Corporation of South Africa (IDC South Africa) have partnered to explore the development of green hydrogen infrastructure opportunities in South Africa. Together, they will aim to accelerate the country's transition into a green hydrogen economy across industries including cement production. ACWA Power projected the potential value of developments at US$10bn.
South Africa is committed to achieving net zero CO2 emissions by 2050.
ACWA Power's vice chair and chief executive officer Paddy Padmanathan said "As a company that is driving the energy transition, ACWA Power is proud to work closely with the IDC, with whom we share a robust working history, and today we are delighted to take our collaboration further. I am confident that our expertise in developing mega-scale green hydrogen projects in other geographies will enable us to successfully create a new avenue of sustainable energy generation - one that will pave the path to further progress.”
India: Ambuja Cements sold 6.7Mt of cement during the second quarter of its 2023 financial year, up by 12% year-on-year. Its standalone revenues were US$443m, up by 13% from second-quarter 2022 financial year levels. Cost growth outstripped sales at 32% year-on-year, resulting in earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) of US$36.7m, down by 57% year-on-year.
CEO Ajay Kapur said "The cement industry has been facing significant margin pressure resulting from a steep rise in global energy prices. However, recent cooling off in energy prices and post-monsoon demand pickup appears to present a silver lining for the coming quarters."
Kapur said that Ambuja Cement's focus is currently on future capacity expansions, with the aim of becoming India's market leader.
Bestway Cement commissions Mianwali cement plant
21 October 2022Pakistan: Bestway Cement has ignited the 7200t/day kiln at its new Mianwali integrated cement plant in Punjab Province. The plant has 20MW of dedicated solar power capacity and 9MW of waste heat recovery (WHR) power capacity.
UltraTech Cement's first-half 2023 financial year results show profit decline despite sales growth
20 October 2022India: UltraTech Cement's consolidated sales were US$3.51bn during the first half of the 2023 financial year, which began on 1 April 2022, up by 22% from US$2.88bn in the first half of the 2022 financial year. Its net profit was US$283m, down by 22% year-on-year from US$363m. This was due to a 32% cost rise to US$3.13bn from US$2.38bn. Power and fuel contributed 32% of costs at US$1bn, up by 68% from US$598m in the first half of the 2021 financial year.
UltraTech Cement said that it began to see signs of cement demand revival in September 2022, following traditionally subdued second-quarter demand due to seasonal rains.
Pakistan: Attock Cement recorded standalone sales of US$92.6m in its 2022 financial year, down by 3.6% year-on-year from US$96.1m in its 2021 financial year. The company produced 2.18Mt of clinker, down by 32% from 3.19Mt, corresponding to a capacity utilisation of 76%. The decision to reduce production came about due to high coal costs. Attock Cement sold 1.8Mt of cement, down by 10% from 2.01Mt in the 2021 financial year. The producer's cost of sales rose by 1.1% year-on-year to US$75.9m from US$75.1m. It profit after tax nonetheless grew by 1.2%, to US$5.07m from US$5.01m.
Chair Laith Pharaon said "The 2022 financial year was a challenging year for the company, as export sales remain depressed due to uncompetitive prices demanded by regional markets, which were also facing the uncertainties." He continued "Due to higher input costs owing to the significant increase in energy prices, the gross margin also declined by 4%. However, because of exchange gain on foreign receivables and dividend income received from its Iraq-based 60% subsidiary Saqr Al Keetan, operating margin improved by 3%.
India: During the second quarter of the 2023 financial year, Shree Cement recorded standalone sales of US$459m, up by 18% year-on-year from US$389m in the second quarter of the 2022 financial year. The figure represents a quarter-on-quarter drop of 10% from US$510m during the first quarter of the present financial year. The producer reported cost increases as a percentage of revenues to 33% for fuel and power, 7.6% for raw materials and 1.6% for inventory costs during the quarter. It said that this resulted in a 67% year-on-year drop in its standalone net profit to US$22.9m, from US$70.2m in the second quarter of the 2022 financial year.
Brazilian cement sales drop in first nine months of 2022
14 October 2022Brazil: Cement producers sold 47.7Mt of cement in the first nine months of 2022, down by 3% year-on-year from the same period in 2021. The Brazilian National Cement Industry Association (SNIC) has forecast a 2% year-on-year decline in full-year cement sales to 63.7Mt in 2022. The association foresees global finance-related challenges and high energy and raw materials costs during the fourth quarter of 2022. Annual cement sales previously grew by 23% to 65Mt in 2021 from 53Mt in 2019.
SNIC president Paulo Camillo Penna said “Our expectation for 2022 was to maintain the gains of this three-year period, but, unfortunately, due to high interest rates, indebtedness and cost pressure, we were not able to.”
Vicat expects earnings to drop in 2022
12 October 2022France: Vicat has revised its full-year 2022 earnings forecast. The group now expects to record a drop in its earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA). In France and Switzerland, rapidly rising energy costs have outstripped the producer's sales growth so far in 2022, while, in the US, its upgraded Ragland, Alabama, cement plant only entered production following a 'very gradual start-up' in mid-late 2022. Vicat also carried out debottlenecking work on its Kalburgi, India, cement plant during the year to date.
Vicat said that all other markets in which it operates are developing in line with the expectations detailed at the time of the publication of its first-half 2022 results in August 2022.
Heidelberg Materials considering shutting plants in Germany based on future energy prices
28 September 2022Germany: Heidelberg Materials says it is considering shutting down plants in Germany due to the high cost of gas and electricity. In comments reported by Reuters chief executive officer Dominik von Achten said, "If power prices won't come down sustainably, we would have to take individual plants in Germany completely off the grid. That's what we have prepared for." He added that the company is shifting production to times and days when power prices are lower including at the weekend. However, changing staff shift patterns has required ongoing discussions with labour unions.
The building materials company expects its energy bill to rise by around half year-on-year to over Euro3bn in 2022. It has called on the German government to place a cap on energy prices despite measures the company has already taken to protect itself from soaring costs, such as using alternative fuels.
Nuh Çimento to expand waste heat recovery unit at Hereke cement plant
16 September 2022Turkey: Nuh Çimento has applied for environmental clearance for the expansion of a waste heat recovery (WHR) unit at its Hereke cement plant in Marmara. En Kocaeli News has reported that the company seeks to expand the plant’s power capacity by 66% to 29.6MW from 17.7MW. The company estimates that the project will cost US$4.38m. Its construction will employ 50 people.