Displaying items by tag: Results
Perfect storm in Panama
26 November 2018Panama: The economic slowdown and a strike by the Trade Union of Construction Workers, combined with a fall in consumption and construction permits have hit the cement sector hard. It is expected that this will mean a 13% fall in cement demand in 2018, according to José Luis González Habas, Cemex's planning director. Cemex is the country’s only integrated cement producer.
González said that the cement sector had been growing by 13-14% and that infrastructure was growing even more. However, he was worried by the situation, stating that it was intolerable that the sector could be so unstable.
Héctor Ortega, president of the Panamanian Chamber of Construction has suggested a reduction in paperwork to help free up planning procedures and ensure infrastructure growth.
Diversification bears fruit for PPC
26 November 2018South Africa: PPC reports that its strategy to expand into the rest of Africa has started to bear fruit, despite continuing challenges in many markets. Johan Claassen, the chief executive of PPC said that the group's diversified portfolio had enabled the company to offset the weaker South African performance with robust growth in its rest of Africa segment.
"We are very pleased with our rest of Africa operations, which grew volumes by more than 34%, increased revenues by 36% to US$120m and improved earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) by 18% to US$36.7m. "This performance was supported by robust volume growth in Zimbabwe and a positive contribution from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC),” said Claasen.
Claassen added that the first phase of PPC's Cimerwa plant upgrade in Rwanda, which involved de-bottlenecking the plant to increase production capacity, was successfully completed in the six months to September 2018 and that PPC began to realise the benefits towards the end of the reporting period when record volumes were achieved.
However, the revenue achieved by the Cimerwa plant declined to US$29.1m from US$31.9m in the prior period because of a 7% reduction in volumes. PPC’s Rwandan EBITDA slumped to US$6.7m from US$12.2m, because of unexpected maintenance associated with clinker imports costs. Claassen added that its operations in the DRC continued to encounter challenging market conditions, which were characterised by overcapacity and muted cement demand due to political uncertainty.
Ecocem’s turnover rises but costs bite
26 November 2018Ireland: Ecocem Materials’ turnover rose by 9.4% in 2017 to Euro79.4m from Euro72.6m in 2016. Pre-tax profit fell by 37.5% to Euro2.5m from Euro4m in 2016, as its costs rose by 12% to Euro76.5m from Euro68.6m.
Ecocem makes cement using waste from steel slag. The company has its head offices and a factory in Dublin, as well as businesses in the UK, France and the Netherlands. It is looking to expand into the US, although its subsidiary Orcem Americas has come up against stiff resistance from environmental groups in San Francisco.
Breedon Group sales rise by 32% to Euro830m
21 November 2018UK: Breedon Group’s sales revenue rose by 32% year-on-year to Euro830m in the first 10 months of 2018. The result included the contribution of Lagan Group, which it purchased in April 2018. It described its cement business as performing within expectations.
CRH earnings driven by American markets so far in 2018
20 November 2018Ireland: CRH’s sales rose by 3% year-on-year to Euro19.9bn in the first nine months of 2018. Its earnings before interest, taxation, deprecation and amortisation (EBITDA) increased by 2% on a like-for-like basis to Euro2.5bn. The building materials producer said that its earnings had been supported by growth in the Americas despite poor weather. It added that ‘momentum’ remained positive in Europe and demand had improved in Asia. However, its EBITDA dropped by 44% in Asia.
By region the group reported falling cement sales volumes in the UK and Ukraine. Sales volumes rose in most other European territories, with particular growth in Hungary, Germany, Poland, Serbia and Switzerland. In the US it said that its newly acquired Ash Grove Cement assets and ones in Florida had performed in line with expectations. However, sales in Canada fell due to poor weather. Sales in the Philippines rose by 3% due to rising cement sales volumes and prices following growing demand. However, here earnings were hit by higher fuel and power costs.
Golden Bay Cement hit by four-week stoppage in September 2018
20 November 2018New Zealand: Fletcher Building says that its Golden Bay Cement plant in Auckland was forced stop its cement mill for four weeks in September 2018. It said it had insurance to cover this but that its earnings for its 2019 financial year are likely to be impacted by up to US$8m. Generally, the building materials producer reported that, until the end of October 2018, its business in New Zealand had been flat. In Australia it is facing ‘challenging’ conditions with growing input prices and a slowing residential sector.
EAPCC described as insolvent by Auditor-General
19 November 2018Kenya: Edward Ouko, the Auditor-General, has described the East Africa Portland Cement Company (EAPCC) as insolvent because it cannot pay its debts. The cement producer made an operating loss of US$34m in its financial year that ended on 30 June 2018, according to the Standard newspaper. Its revenue fell by 25% year-on-year to US$50m. The company said it devised a new strategy to focus distribution on it own depots and to compete on pricing to counteract a lack of distribution of its products in common retail stores.
Carthage Cement makes loss of US$16m in first half of 2018
16 November 2018Tunisia: Carthage Cement’s loss has grown to US$16.2m in the first half of 2018 compared to US$9.6m in the same period in 2017. The cement producer has managed to increase its revenue but mounting operating costs have outpaced this, according to African Manager. Its turnover grew by 25.6% year-on-year to US$32.9m but operating expenses rose by 38.5% to US$47.6m. A dispute between management and staff also led to a production suspension in the first half of 2018.
A majority stake in the cement producer remains on sale following a call for expressions of interest in early 2018. The latest round of bidding is open until early December 2018.
National Cement Company’s profit wilts so far in 2018
16 November 2018UAE: National Cement Company’s profit fell by 5.8% to US$12.1m in the first nine months of 2018 from US$12.9m in the same period in 2017. This was accompanied by a marked increase in administration, selling and distribution costs. Despite this, its revenue rose by 7.6% to US$55m from US$41.8m.
JK Lakshmi Cement’s earnings hit by fuel prices in first half
15 November 2018India: JK Lakshmi Cement’s income fell slightly to US$250m in the first half of its financial year to 30 September 2018, from US$251m in the same period in 2017. Its earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) decreased by 13% to US$29.4m from US433.7m It has blamed the fall in its profitability on rising petcoke and diesel prices.
In its half-year report it added that work on a 20MW power plant at its Durg cement plant is expected to be completed by the end of March 2019. A cement grinding plant in Orissa is also expected to be finished from the start of 2019.