Displaying items by tag: Grupo Cementos de Chihuahua
Grupo Cementos de Chihuahua offers to build Donald Trump’s wall
24 November 2016US: Enrique Escalante, the chief executive officer of Grupo Cementos de Chihuahua (GCC), has said that his company is ready to help president-elect Donald Trump build his proposed wall on the border with Mexico. Escalante told Reuters in an interview that GCC was an ‘important’ producer that had to respect its clients wishes on both sides of the border. Trump campaigned in the US presidential elections on the pledge that he would build a wall along the 2300km border between the US and Mexico.
Grupo Cementos de Chihuahua completes purchase of Cemex assets in US
21 November 2016US: Grupo Cementos de Chihuahua (GCC) has completed its purchase of a selection of assets from Cemex for US$306m. The assets consist of a cement plant located in Odessa in Texas, two cement distribution terminals located in Amarillo and El Paso in Texas and concrete, aggregates, asphalt and building materials businesses in El Paso, Texas and Las Cruces, New Mexico. The acquisition comprises all facilities, equipment and inventories. The purchase was financed with internal funds and an unsecured loan of US$254m.
“This acquisition represents a significant advance in our strategy of sustainable cement growth in the US, in markets contiguous to those of GCC ́s geographic footprint. With these assets and colleagues joining the company, we will enhance the competitive advantage of our logistics system, expand our product portfolio and optimise our operations by sharing best practices,” said Enrique Escalante, chief executive officer of GCC.
Cemex to sell 23% stake in Grupo Cementos de Chihuahua
03 October 2016Mexico: Cemex wants to sell its 23% stake in Grupo Cementos de Chihuahua through a secondary public offering. Cemex has asked the Comisión Nacional Bancaria y de Valores, Mexico's banking and securities regulator (CNBV), to approve the planned transaction, under which the Mexican building materials company will offer the shares to domestic and foreign investors in a concurrent private placement. The sale will be part of Cemex’s previously announced asset disposal plan. The company wants to sell up to US$2bn worth of assets to reduce its debts.
Cemex amends US asset sale to Grupo Cementos de Chihuahua
30 August 2016US: Cemex and Grupo Cementos de Chihuahua (GCC) have amended the terms of a sale of assets to GCC previously announced in early May 2016. The assets being sold by an affiliate of Cemex to an affiliate of GCC in the US have changed and mainly consist of Cemex’s cement plant in Odessa, Texas, two cement terminals and the building materials business in El Paso, Texas and Las Cruces, New Mexico. Cemex’s cement plant in Lyons, Colorado and cement terminal in Florence, Colorado are no longer part of the assets being sold to GCC. Upon closing of this transaction GCC will pay Cemex US$306m.
The sale is subject to customary closing conditions, including approval from the US competition authorities and GCC’s shareholders, as well as GCC obtaining financing to purchase the assets. The deal is expected to be completed before the end of 2016.
Grupo Cementos de Chihuahua to restructure company
30 August 2016Mexico: The board of directors of Grupo Cementos de Chihuahua (GCC) has proposed a new corporate structure to simplify GCC’s controlling shareholder structure and make such structure clearer to investors. The restructuring, if approved by GCC’s shareholders, will consist of a merger between two entities controlling GCC into GCC, in which GCC would be the surviving entity.
Once the corporate restructuring is finalised, GCC’s principal direct shareholder will be Cancem, which will hold a majority and controlling interest in the shares of GCC. In addition, as a result of the proposed corporate restructuring, if approved by GCC’s shareholders as proposed, Cemex will own a direct stake equal to 23% of the outstanding share capital of GCC and a minority stake in Camcem. Cemex has expressed that it expects to hold its interest in Camcem as a long-term investment and will therefore remain an indirect minority shareholder of GCC.
The proposed corporate restructuring has been approved by the Mexican competition regulator, the Comisión Federal de Competencia Económica, and will require the approval of GCC’s shareholders to be completed.
The Great Wall of Donald Trump
20 July 2016Back in the May 2016 issue of Global Cement Magazine we asked key people at the Portland Cement Association how they thought the US presidential election might affect the local cement industry. Wisely, for an advocacy organisation with offices in Washington DC, no one would be drawn, citing a lack of information. At that point it was still unclear who was going to be on the final ticket. However, we all missed a trick because one candidate, Donald Trump, had been talking about building ‘a border fence like you have never seen before’ since at least mid-2014. And that fence could potentially require a lot of cement.
Researchers at market analysts Bernstein’s sent a note to clients last week ahead of the Republican National Convention looking at the implications of if Donald Trump became president of the US and actually set out to build his 40ft high concrete wall between the US and Mexico. The result would be a 2.4Mt boost in demand for cement from cement producers near to the border. In terms of market demand Bernstein concluded that this would add over 1% to cement demand in both 2018 and 2019, a healthy ‘shot in the arm’ to the already pepped-up US cement industry, which is currently growing at around 5%/yr.
Map 1: Map of cement and ready-mix concrete plants near to the US - Mexico border. Source: Bernstein Materials Blast. Note – Bernstein does not show the Capitol Cement plant in San Antonio.
Needless to say, Bernstein’s calculations pile-drive assumptions into assumptions, atop of Trump’s political rhetoric. It bases its calculations on a border wall similar to the Israeli West Bank barrier built out of precast concrete panels. It also tries to model how much concrete and cement would be required depending on the differing height’s Trump has trumpeted at his rallies.
The kicker to this tongue-in-cheek analysis is that the construction company that stands to benefit the most from this infrastructure project is Mexican!
Cemex has significantly more cement plants and ready-mix concrete plants than any other company within a 200-mile zone either side of the border. Looking at integrated cement plants alone, it has six plants in the regions near to the proposed wall from the east and west coasts. Its nearest competitors, CalPortland with four plants and Grupo Cementos de Chihuahua with three plants, are more regionally based in the western US and Chihuahua state in Mexico. Clearly Cemex didn’t rate the chances of Donald Trump’s wall actually happening when it agreed to sell its Odessa cement plant to Grupo Cementos de Chihuahua in May 2016.
All of this goes to show that, wherever you stand on the Donald Trump presidency bid, if you manufacture cement near the US-Mexican border you might be working overtime if he (a) actually becomes president, (b) actually manages to start building his wall and (c) actually decides to make it using cement. Yet before anybody starts popping champagne corks consider this: there might also be unintended consequences for the cement sector. Restricting current legal and illegal migration trends from Mexico to the US might have a greater negative effect on the US cement industry, and the overall economy, than ordering one large infrastructure project. Working that one out is harder than a guesstimate of how much cement a border wall might consume. Probably best not to ask at this stage who might actually pay for the Great Wall of Donald Trump.
Cemex walks the line in the US
11 May 2016Cemex took a major step towards cutting its debts last week when it announced the sale of selected assets in the US for US$400m. Two cement plants in Odessa, Texas and Lyons, Colorado were included in the deal along with three cement terminals and businesses in El Paso, Texas and Las Cruces, New Mexico. Grupo Cementos de Chihuahua (GCC) was announced as the buyer.
Together the two plants being sold hold a cement production capacity of 1.5Mt/yr giving a rough cost of US$267/t for the assets. This compares to the cost of US$170/t that the European Cement Association (CEMBUREAU) estimates is required to build new capacity. Back in August 2015 when Taiheiyo Cement’s Californian subsidiary CalPortland purchased Martin Marietta Materials’ two cement plants in the state it paid US$181/t. Summit Materials paid far more at US$375/t in July 2015 when it purchased Lafarge’s cement plant in Davenport, Iowa, although that deal included seven cement terminals and a swap of a terminal. Other sales in 2014 to Martin Marietta Materials and Cementos Argos also hit values of around US$450/t involving lots of other assets including cement grinding plants and ready mix concrete plants.
Back on Cemex, the current sale to GCC maintains its position as the third largest cement producer in the US after the HeidelbergCement acquisition of Italcementi completes in July 2016 subject to Federal Trade Commission approval. However, it holds it with a reduced presence. Its cement production capacity will fall to 13Mt/yr from 14.5Mt/yr. It loses cement production presence in Colorado although it may retain distribution if it holds on to its terminal in Florence. In Texas it retains the Balcones cement plant near San Antonio and up to nine cement terminals depending on which ones it sells to GCC.
Selling assets in the US must be a tough decision for Cemex given that a quarter of its net sales came from the country in 2015. This was its single biggest territory for sales. This share has increased in the first quarter of 2016 as the US market for construction materials has continued to pick up.
Withdrawing from western Texas with its reliance on the oil industry makes sense. The plant it has retained in that state, the Balcones plant, is within the so-called Texas Triangle and so can hopefully continue to benefit from Texas’ demographic trends for continued housing starts and suchlike. Colorado is one of the middling US states in terms of population and likely to be a lower priority than other locations. The sales will see Cemex retrench its cement production base in southern and eastern parts of the country with the exception of the Victorville plant in California.
We’ve been watching Cemex keenly as other multinational cement producers have merged and laid out plans to merge in recent years. Saddled by debts, Cemex has appeared unable to either buy more assets itself and has remained distant from any talk of merger activity itself. The sales announcements in the US reinforce the image of a company taking action to relieve itself of its debts in 2016 following sales in Thailand, Bangladesh and the Philippines, and amended credit agreements and more borrowing. However, sales of cement plants in west Texas and Colorado outside of the strong markets in the US don’t quite suggest a company that has really committed yet to reducing its debt burden. Cemex continues to walk a tightrope between keeping the creditors at bay and riding the recovery in the US construction market.
This article was updated on 14 June 2016 with amended production capacity data for the Odessa cement plant
Cemex to sell major cement assets in US
04 May 2016US: Mexico’s Cemex has agreed to sell a raft of assets in the US in a US$400m divestment to pay down the company's debt. The assets include the Lyons cement plant in Colorado, the Odessa cement plant in Texas, three terminals in Texas and building materials businesses in Texas and New Mexico.
The assets will be purchased by Mexican rival Grupo Cementos de Chihuahua (GCC), which already has three integrated cement plants in the south and central United States. The acquisition, due to be completed by the end of 2016, will increase GCC’s cement capacity in the US by 1Mt/yr to around 5.6Mt/yr.
Cemex is expected to sell up to US$1.5bn worth of assets during the course of 2016 and 2017. It is still reeling from debt that it took on from its 2007 acquisition of Australian rival Rinker, which came directly before the onset of the global economic downturn.
Court ruled in favour of Cementos de Chihuahua
15 October 2015Bolivia/Mexico: A civil court in La Paz, Bolivia has ruled to suspend the damages sentence imposed by the Inter-American Commercial Arbitration Commission (CIAC) that obliged Mexican cement company Grupo Cementos de Chihuahua (GCC) to pay Bolivian investment company Compania de Inversiones Mercantiles (Cimsa) compensation. The decision, announced on 9 October 2015, sets the arbitration court to issue a new resolution and cancels the embargo sentence ruled by a court in Colorado, US. This resolution obliged GCC to provide information about its properties in Colorado and to cancel any assets sales in that area.
Grupo Cementos de Chihuahua on the lookout for acquisitions in Central and South America
18 September 2015Mexico/US: Grupo Cementos de Chihuahua (GCC) is ready to grow its operations in the USA and make an acquisition in Central and South America after refinancing its debt and improving its earnings margins via a cost cutting programme, according to local business daily El Universal.
Luis Carlos Arias, director of corporate treasury at GCC, explained that the company currently has only one syndicated bank loan of US$194m, which has been refinanced. As such, it has a more flexible credit structure, which allows it to take advantage of different growth opportunities.
In the US, GCC will invest US$90m in 2015 - 2018 to boost production capacity at its plant in South Dakota by 60% to 1.2Mt/yr. GCC has six cement plants, 117 concrete plants and 21 distribution centres from the north of Mexico to the north of the USA.
According to Arias, GCC is looking for opportunities to expand its business to Central and South America in order to have alternative revenues during the harsh winter in North America, which does not allow production during the coldest months. The company has not decided in which country it could make an acquisition as the cement market is highly concentrated in a few big companies. "There are not many opportunities, we are looking at the region as a whole," said Arias.