Displaying items by tag: US
Lafarge overhaul of Albany cement plant
19 November 2013US: Renovation of Lafarge's 50-year-old cement plant in Ravena, New York will be completed by mid-2016, preserving 112 jobs at the plant.
This is the first fixed timeline for the project since it was proposed in 2008. Delays have been blamed on the poor state of the economy. Lafarge also needed to obtain state and federal environmental permits, a process that involves rounds of reports and public hearings.
Construction is expected to cost several hundred million US$. A specific price tag has not been disclosed.
Company officials say that renovation was necessary in the face of stricter pollution controls from the federal government. Either they would shut down and abandon the location, or gut it and build a massive new kiln to meet the stronger standards. Pollution is a particularly sensitive issue as the cement plant and its quarry sandwich the middle school and high school for the Ravena-Coeymans-Selkirk district.
Residents fears allayed at Union Bridge
06 November 2013US: Residents close to Lehigh Cement's Union Bridge cement plant that had been concerned over proposed changes to the mining provisions of the county code have largely had their worries addressed by Lehigh Cement Co., which is looking to expand its quarry in the town and transport limestone via a conveyor belt to its plant in Union Bridge.
Concerns about what time of the day Lehigh would be allowed to store excavated materials and how far away reclamation piles would be from property lines and public roads initially had residents worried about the impacts of the changes sought by Lehigh, a cement manufacturer that employs many residents in the area.
However, after discussions with residents about the proposed changes, residents confirmed that Lehigh had addressed most of their issues.
"They listened, we listened and the relationship at this point in time is pretty decent," said Brian Mobley, chairman of the New Windsor Community Action Project, which was initially concerned about the changes proposed by Lehigh to the mining provisions. Residents had feared that noise and lights late at night could be a nuisance to those who live near the quarry.
Short cuts and shutdowns
16 October 2013If you try visiting the website of the United States Geological Survey (USGS) this week you are going to be disappointed.
As part of the on-going US federal government shutdown the site has been marked as 'unavailable'. Anyone in search of US cement data and a raft of other national and international statistics will have to wait. Ditto the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Although its website is still live, its last tweet on 1 October 2013 was, 'The federal government is currently shut down.'
Some cement producers in the US may be relieved that the EPA is on a hiatus. However if you cast your mind back to the Portland Cement Associations' (PCA) optimistic growth forecast in September 2013 you may remember the following from PCA chief economist Ed Sullivan. "Assuming Congress has learned its lesson from the fiscal cliff and will take a more rational approach with the upcoming debt limit discussions, political uncertainty and its adverse impact on the economy is expected to dissipate."
Whoops.
The construction industry will be watching carefully to see how planned future infrastructure spending emerges from the debacle. If it gets cut in the horse-trading then US cement consumption growth will take a blow. Meanwhile, if the residential construction market takes a knock due to all the uncertainty and general reduction of money in the economy from federal employees not working then cement consumption gets hit immediately. Hence Sullivan's get-out comments about Congress.
Perhaps what will really concentrate minds on the fragile state of the US construction economy is if a Chinese company buys into the cement industry, as is happening elsewhere around the world. As reported this week, the state-owned Chinese aerospace and defence company AVIC International made an offer to shareholders to take over German cement plant builder KHD Humboldt Wedag.
The US federal government needs to get back to work.
US: Registration has opened for the 2014 IEEE-IAS/PCA Cement Industry Technical Conference to be held in Washington, DC from 13 - 17 April 2014. The conference theme will be 'Two Great Ideas".
For the 2014 conference the organisers have introduced training for industry 'junior' professionals. The conference will also feature a tour of the Martinsburg Cement Plant owned by Essroc.
TXI cements sales up by 20% to US$104m in Q1 2013
03 October 2013US: Texas Industries (TXI) has seen its cement sales rise by 20% year-on-year to US$104m for the first quarter of its 2013 – 2014 financial year, compared to US$87.3m in the same period in the previous year. Cement shipments rose by 17% to 1.31Mt from 1.12Mt.
Although the company noted a general improvement in construction markets, in the cement sector it also saw an increase of sales and prices in its Texas market. CEO Mel Brekhus stated that the start up of the company's new kiln in Central Texas was the most successful of any he had been involved with in his career.
TXI reported a net income of US$429,000 for the first quarter of 2013 – 2014, up from a net loss of US$2.66m in the same period in 2012 – 2013. Net sales rose by 34% to US$233m from US$175m.
PCA stands by brighter US cement future
18 September 2013US cement consumption may have disappointed some in the first quarter of 2013 but solid growth lies ahead, according to the Portland Cement Association (PCA). Just how solid that growth will be remains open to interpretation.
PCA chief economist Ed Sullivan forecast 8% growth in cement consumption at the start of 2013. Now's its been halved to just 4%. Yet he's standing by the hint of good news ahead, upping the growth from 2014 to 9.7%.
Figures from the major US cement producers present a mixed picture. The major multinational cement producers mostly suffered from the weather in early 2013. Lafarge saw its cement sales in North America drop by 23% year-on-year for the first half of 2013 to 4.4Mt from 5.7Mt in the same period of 2012. Cemex's cement sales in the US rose by 3% but no specific figures were released. Holcim's cement sales in North America fell by 7% to 5Mt from 5.4Mt. HeidelbergCement's cement sales in the North America grew by 5% to 5.7Mt from 5.4Mt.
Of the rest, Texas Industries reported a rise in cement shipments of 29% to 2.23Mt from 1.73Mt for the six months to the 31 May 2013. Titan saw sales in the US rise by 10% to US$258m.
Preliminary United States Geological Survey data for June 2013 suggests that the increase in portland and blended cement shipments in the US slowed in the first half of 2013. In 2011 32.1Mt were shipped, in 2012 37.0Mt were shipped and in 2013 37.2Mt were shipped.
Meanwhile the construction figures US Department of Commerce mostly suggested growth but not without the odd jitter. Construction spending fell slightly in June 2013. Total construction spending adjusted seasonally fell by 0.4% to US$869bn due to a fall in non-residential construction. Since then though the July 2013 figure hit US$901bn, the highest since June 2009.
Accordingly, in his forecast Sullivan pins his hopes on the residential sector in the near term. It has seen consistent growth since October 2012. However other industry commentators, like the American Institue of Architects, have focused on poor growth in non-residential construction.
Let's hope Sullivan's got it right.
PCA forecasts US cement consumption to grow by 9.7% from 2014
13 September 2013US: The Portland Cement Association (PCA) has forecast that cement consumption will increase by 4% in 2013, followed by 9.7% in 2014 and 2015.
"Nearly two-thirds of the anticipated growth in 2013 cement consumption will be caused by gains in the residential construction market," said PCA chief economist Ed Sullivan. "Home inventories are declining, signalling that it is time to start building, while the lingering effects of damaged credit due to foreclosure activity have created a robust apartment demand."
According to the PCA's forecast, consumer and business attitudes are expected to increasingly focus on the recovering economy rather than political uncertainty. However Sullivan hoped that the US House of Congress would avoid the political brinksmanship shown during the fiscal cliff crisis of early 2013 during future debt limit discussions.
Sullivan predicts that an increase in local spending on public construction starting in the 2016 financial year will drive a recovery in cement consumption in the US. Due to the high level of cement usage in road construction a rise of 11% in cement is forecast for 2016.
Roanoke Cement certified as Exemplary Environmental Enterprise
11 September 2013US: Roanoke Cement Company has been accepted as an Exemplary Environmental Enterprise within the Virginia Environmental Excellence Program (VEEP). VEEP was established to encourage superior environmental performance by encouraging organisations within the state of Virginia, that have strong, established environmental records, to surpass their own performance levels.
Eagle Materials reports strong increases in revenue and earnings in first fiscal quarter
08 August 2013US: Eagle Materials has reported financial results for the first quarter of the 2014 fiscal year, which ended on 30 June 2013. It saw its revenue for the quarter increase to US$227m, an increase of 47% year-on-year and earnings before interest and income taxes were up by 109% to US$49.5m. Its net earnings were US$30.1m, a 115% rise from US$14m in the first quarter of the prior fiscal year.
Operating earnings from Eagle's cement activities were US$19m, a 93% increase from the same quarter a year earlier. The earnings increase was driven by increased sales volumes and average net cement sales prices partially offset by a slight increase in operating costs.
Cement revenues for the first quarter, including joint venture and inter-segment revenues, came to US$117.7m, 55% higher year-on-year. The revenue improvement reflects a 46% increase in its first quarter cement sales volume, including sales volume attributable to cement plant assets acquired form Lafarge in 2012. The average net sales price for this quarter was up by 6% from the first quarter of the 2013 fiscal year.
Vulcan sales up by 7% in Q2
07 August 2013US: Vulcan Building Materials has increased its sales year-on-year by 7% to US$696m in the second quarter of 2013 from US$649m. The construction aggregates and building materials producer said that demand for its products had followed the recovery in private construction activity, particularly residential construction.
"Each of our operating segments reported solid growth in second quarter earnings, contributing to improved gross profit margin and earnings per share. We achieved these results despite challenging, wet weather conditions that sharply reduced June shipments in many markets, " said chairman and chief executive officer Don James.
Vulcan's gross profit for the quarter rose by 25% year-on-year to US$133m from US$106m. Its net earnings were US$28.8m up from a loss of US$18.3m. Vulcan's cement business reported a rise of 11% to US$11.9m from US$10.7m. Volumes of cement shipped rose by 20% to 0.26Mt from 0.22Mt.
In its outlook for the rest of 2013 Vulcan expects the continued recovery of the US economy and building sector to drive demand. Cement earnings are predicted to improve overall in 2013 due to higher shipments and pricing as well as lower production costs.