Displaying items by tag: Holcim
Switzerland: Despite net sales falling Holcim has reported a net income of Euro240m for the first quarter of 2013, compared to Euro91m in the same period in 2012. The gain was principally made through the sale of Holcim's 25% stake in Cement Australia. Elsewhere, market and weather induced decreases in sales volumes in all segments and higher variable costs impacted operating results.
The building materials producer reported that net sales fell by 7.2% to Euro3.52bn in the first quarter of 2013 from Euro3.84bn in the same period of 2012. Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) rose by 10.3% to Euro681m from Euro617m. Sales of cement fell by 5% to 32.1Mt from 33.7Mt.
By region sales of cement fell in Asia Pacific by 3.8% to 18.6Mt from 19.4Mt. In Latin America sales of cement remained stable at 5.9%. In Europe sales of cement fell by 2.5% to 4.4Mt from 4.5Mt. Weaker construction activities were noted in India, Morocco and France.
In its outlook Holcim expected an increase in sales of cement in 2013 led by its Asia Pacific, North America and Latin America regions.
Holcim opts for Loesche mill for Guayaquil plant
24 April 2013Ecuador: Loesche has announced that it will deliver one LM 56.4 type vertical roller mill for cement raw material grinding for the Guayaquil cement plant currently being expanded for Holcim Ecuador. The order was placed by the Chinese general contractor Sinoma-TJ (CBMI), which will supply a 4500t/day line.
The mill will grind cement raw material and has been designed for a capacity of 386t/hr. The mill motor capacity will be 4000kW. It will compliment an existing Loesche mill that has been operating at the same plant since 2010. Delivery is planned at the end of 2013.
Philippe Richart becomes CEO of Holcim Lanka
03 April 2013Sri Lanka: Philippe Richart, formally responsible for the Ready Mix Concrete business in Holcim Vietnam, has been appointed CEO of Holcim Lanka.
The change of CEO, which was announced in February 2013, was part of a generational change in the company's leadership. Philippe joined Holcim Group Support in 2004 as a Commercial Project Manager for the Aggregates and Constructions Materials function, working on aggregates market development and performance improvement in various regions of the Group.
In 2007 he was appointed RMX director for Holcim Vietnam and successfully brought the division into the leading position in South Vietnam.
Before joining Holcim, Philippe held various roles in construction project management and business development for Lafarge Cement and Metso Minerals in Taiwan, USA, China and France. He holds a Master's Degree in Civil Engineering from Ecole des Hautes Etudes Industrielles (Lille, France) and an MBA from George Washington University (DC, USA).
Holcim Indonesia to build capacity by 40% to 12.5Mt/yr
02 April 2013Indonesia: Cement producer Holcim Indonesia has announced plans to expand its production capacity by 40% to 12.5Mt/yr. Eamon J Ginley, Holcim Indonesian president director, released the news at a press conference in Jakarta reported on by the Jakarta Globe.
Ginley said that the increased output will come from the operation of Tuban 1 plant that will begin production in the second quarter of 2013, along with the acquisition of Tuban 2 plant in East Java. The capacity of both plants is estimated to be 1.7Mt/yr, adding 3.4Mt/yr to the company's current output of 9.1Mt/yr. Tuban 2 is expected to be completed in 2015. According to Ginley, Holcim Indonesia is investing more than US$800m - raised from internal cash, export credits and other loans - to boost its production capacity.
Overall in Indonesia, local and foreign producers have set aside US$6.7bn until 2017 on capacity expansion. This investment is expected to boost the country's cement production capacity by 80% to 109Mt/yr in 2017 from 60.5Mt/yr in 2012.
Bold moves from HeidelbergCement
20 March 2013Somebody at HeidelbergCement is brave. Making an investment in a cement market characterised in 2012 by job losses and carbon taxation takes some nerve. Yet this is exactly what HeidelbergCement has done with the announcement that it plans to take joint control of Cement Australia with Holcim.
So what's in it for Holcim and HeidelbergCement?
Opportunity and foreign supply chains to minimise the carbon tax seem to be the main reasons. With Holcim's 2012 financial performance dragged down by Europe and Africa, its cost reduction programme, the 'Holcim Leadership Journey,' continues into 2013. Australia, as one of the few disappointing spots in the producer's Asia-Pacific region, is an obvious asset to sell. By contrast, HeidelbergCement reported growth in its operating income in 2012.
With regards to supply chains, both Boral and Adelaide Brighton – Cement Australia's competitors in Australia – acted to seize foreign clinker supplies in 2012. As they are multinationals, Holcim and HeidelbergCement have ready-built supply chains. Figures from the Global Cement Directory 2013 show that Holcim holds a cement production capacity of 9.7Mt in Indonesia, 5.75Mt in the Philippines and 0.55Mt in New Zealand. HeidelbergCement hold 16.5Mt in Indonesia. Despite regular annual high performance and regular capacity growth in the cement industry in Indonesia and the Philippines, having the option to export excess clinker to nearby Australia must be enticing.
For Holcim, minimising risk may be a key factor in their decision to reduce their share in Cement Australia. Holcim dodged mentioning the country's cement performance in its 2013 outlook although it did report an overall volume decrease across all its business lines in 2012. Boral expects its sales volumes to remain flat in the first six months of 2013, with pricing challenged by the high Australian Dollar and low sea freight prices. Adelaide Brighton expects its demand for cement to continue coming from South Australia, Western Australia and the Northern Territory. Adelaide Brighton also took pains to point out the carbon tax will hit its 2013 profits by US$6m, nearly 4% of its 2012 profit. Going 50-50 with HeidelbergCement shares the risks for Holcim as well as the profits.
Holcim faces the same dilemma that Lafarge faced in mid-2012 when it sold two cement plants in the US. It needs to sell assets to cut costs and raise capital but it also needs to pick assets to sell that won't boost its competitors too much. The on-going recovery in the US building industry suggests at present that Lafarge may have made a poor choice in North America. Holcim's decision suggests that they aren't expecting a recovery in Australia anytime soon.
Wolfgang Reitzle to become chairman of Holcim in 2014
20 March 2013Switzerland: Swiss-based multinational building materials producer Holcim has announced that Wolfgang Reitzle will take over as chairman in 2014. To ensure continuity, current chairman Rolf Soiron has been proposed for re-election at the annual general meeting of 17 April 2013. Also at the meeting the board of directors will propose the election of Hanne Birgitte Breinbjerg Sørensen and Anne Wade to the board of directors of Holcim.
Sørensen is currently the CEO of Maersk Tankers based in Copenhagen, one of the world's largest tanker operators. She holds an MSc in Business Economy from the University of Aarhus.
Wade, an investor with extensive experience in capital markets, was the Senior Vice President and Director of an investment management company, Capital International, based in London from 1995 to 2012. She graduated with a BA from Harvard University and holds a Master of Science from the London School of Economics.
In addition the board of directors is proposing the re-election of Beat Hess for a three year term. He is currently deputy chairman of the board of directors. Markus Akermann and Peter Küpfer are no longer available for re-election. Christine Binswanger has resigned from the board effective from the date of the meeting.
Australia: Swiss cement maker Holcim has announced plans to operate Cement Australia as a joint venture (JV), in which both Holcim and Germany's HeidelbergCement AG will hold equal 50% stakes. Holcim will therefore sell 25% of its stake in Cement Australia to HeidelbergCement for an undisclosed amount. The move has already been approved by the Austrian authorities, according to Holcim.
Cement Australia operates two cement plants and a grinding station in the east and southeast of Australia and in Tasmania with a total cement capacity of 4.2Mt/yr. In addition, a new grinding station in Port Kembla with an annual capacity of 1.1Mt/yr is expected to go online in 2013.
Holcim Lebanon to burn expired pharmaceuticals
20 March 2013Lebanon: Holcim has been named by the Environment Ministry as the country's sole disposer of pharmaceutical waste, according to a press release. The ministry issued a permit to the company to burn the drugs in its cement kiln. Holcim is in the process of destroying hundreds of tons of expired pharmaceuticals in the kiln at its factory in Shekka, in the north of Lebanon.
The drugs that are to be burnt were discovered during investigations that uncovered hundreds of tonnes of expired medicinal goods around the country. Officials sought a responsible way to dispose of the material and discovered that they could be used as an alternative fuel for a cement kiln. The high temperatures (~1500°C) in the kiln ensure that organic materials are completely destroyed during combustion.
ACC orders two Loesche mills for Jamul plant
20 March 2013India/Germany: ACC has ordered two vertical roller mills from Loesche, in a consortium with KHD, for its Jamul cement plant.
The Holcim subsidiary has ordered a Loesche Mill Type LM 56.3+3 CS equipped with a classifier type LDC to grind clinker. The vertical roller mill will be operated with the power of a 5600kW motor and will have a capacity of 195t/hr. In addition a Loesche vertical roller mill Type LM 43.4 D will be part of the project and is designed to have a capacity of 90t/hr. The gearbox has a capacity of 1300kW.
Loesche's scope of supply for the Jamul project of Holcim will include additional equipment which is delivered in a joint venture by Loesche GmbH, Duesseldorf, as well as by Loesche India Pvt. Ltd.
Despite Europe - European cement production in 2012 continued
27 February 2013With the annual results for 2012 in from Lafarge, Holcim and CRH we now return to look at how the European markets coped.
Holcim summed up the mood perfectly in its media release on its annual results for 2012. First it pushed the big positive (net sales up overall) but then finished its first (!) sentence with: '...despite the difficult economic environment in Europe.'
Overall in Europe, Lafarge saw its cement volumes fall by 9% to 29.6Mt from 32.5Mt. Notably sales volumes fell significantly in Spain and Greece, by 26% and 37% respectively.
Holcim saw its cement volumes fall by 2% in Europe to 26.3Mt from 26.8Mt. There were specific country figures from Holcim but it did comment that the 'severe crisis' in southern Europe had 'contaminated' economies further north such as a France, Benelux, Germany and Switzerland.
CRH was less candid about its cement business in Europe although it did report that its sales revenues fell by 10% to Euro2.69bn in 2012 from Euro2.99bn in 2011. Notable losses occurred in Poland (11% volume decline), Ireland (17% decline) and Spain (30% decline).
These figures compare against a 4% decline in volumes in Western and Northern Europe to 22.1Mt from 21.3Mt by HeidelbergCement, a 13% drop in overall net sales to Euro3.05bn in Cemex's Northern Europe section and a 16% drop in volumes to 16Mt from Italcementi in its Central Western Europe region.
The question to ask at this point is how HeidelbergCement and Holcim managed to suffer smaller losses compared to everybody else. Less exposure to southern Europe is one answer. Depressingly though they both suffered similar drops in profit indicators such as earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation (EBITDA) to the others (20% and 33% respectively).
Both Holcim and CRH are expecting continued tough conditions in Europe in 2013. However, both companies are mildly optimistic that the worst has passed, with talk of the work of the European Central Bank supporting peripheral Eurozone economies showing some effect. Lafarge doesn't even mention Europe in its outlook.
As mentioned in Global Cement Weekly #87 on 13 February 2013, EU regional GDP growth is forecast to become positive in 2013. Everybody is going to be watching the European quarterly results for the cement majors in 2013 very carefully indeed. In the meantime all every cement producer with a presence in Europe can do is to carry on cutting costs.