Displaying items by tag: Ukraine
Ukrainian cement production rises by 23% to 9.3Mt in 2017
25 January 2018Ukraine: Cement production rose by 2.3% year-on-year to 9.3Mt in 2017. In 2016 it rose by 7.1% to 9.1Mt, according to the Ukrainian News Agency. Despite the growth in 2017 production fell slightly in December 2017. 15 companies produce cement in the country with a total production capacity of 25Mt/yr.
Ukraine: Cement production fell by 4.8% in Ukraine in September 2017, with total production of 899,000t, according to the State Statistics Service. The figure was 10.7% lower than in August 2017. In the first nine months of 2017, production of cement rose by 1.5% to 7.24Mt year-on-year. The country’s total cement production is more than 20Mt/yr. This indicates a capacity utilisation rate of 48% for the first nine months.
Driver shortage may affect Polish cement sales
14 September 2017Poland: A shortage of truck drivers may negatively affect cement sales. Vacancies for drivers have grown to the extent that even migrant workers from the Ukraine are unable to meet demand, according to the Polish News Bulletin newspaper. The exodus of drivers from the Ukraine has also reportedly impacted upon that country’s cement market. Industry sources say that railway transport is unlikely to help the situation due to a lack of loading facilities. Cement production rose by 7% year-on-year to 9.4Mt in 2017. Cement sales are expected to reach 16.5Mt in 2017 and 17.5Mt in 2018.
Belarus to ramp up exports to Ukraine
09 August 2017Belarus: Construction Minister Anatol Chorny expects that Belarus will export 0.3 - 0.4Mt of cement to Ukraine in 2017 and to then increase cement exports to that country to 1Mt in 2018. Speaking in Minsk, Chorny was responding to ‘efforts’ by the Association of Cement Producers of Ukraine and certain high-ranking Ukrainian government officials that had earlier tried to ‘force’ Belarusian producers out of the Ukrainian market, by accusing them of providing false quality certificates. The dispute has since been settled.
Belarusian exports of building materials rose by 29% year-on-year between 1 January 2017 and 31 July 2017, noted Chorny, adding “We managed to reduce production costs and therefore the profitability of sales increased by 25-30%.”
Ukrainian cement production rises marginally
25 July 2017Ukraine: Cement production in Ukraine rose by 2.6% to 0.96Mt in June 2017 compared to sales in May 2017, according to data from the State Statistics Service. In the first six months of 2017 production of cement rose by 1.3% year-on-year to 4.23Mt. In 2016 production rose by 7.1% compared to 2015 to 9.1Mt. However, with a total capacity of 20Mt/yr, this implies a capacity utilisation factor of just 46%.
Ukraine: Pavel Kachur, the head of the Ukrainian cement producers association Ukrcement, has accused imports of cement from Belarus of not following the proper certification process. He said that imported cement had not been tested properly in an independent laboratory, according to Interfax-Ukraine. He also complained about energy subsidies for Belarusian cement that make it more competitive internationally and noted that Belarus is closed to exports of cement from the Ukraine.
Italy: Buzzi Unicem says that a cyberattack on its information systems could delay its interim accounting closings and related financial disclosures. The attack, believed to be the Petya ransomware virus, which originated in the Ukraine where the producer operates two cement plants, has caused problems in managing and administrating its processes. Buzzi said that it is taking ‘all necessary measures’ to restore its systems but was unable to provide a recovery timescale.
Ukraine: The supervisory board of Podilsky Cement has appointed Leonard Barry as its supervisory board chairperson. Previously, he was the director of CRH in the country, according to the Ukrainian News Agency. Barry, aged 52 years, is an Irish national. He joined Irish Cement in 1989 as a process engineer before becoming its managing director in 2011. He trained as a chemical engineer at University College Dublin and holds an MBA from the University of Limerick.
Other personnel changes include the appointment of Declan Maguire, CRH’s chief operational director for Eastern Europe, as deputy supervisory board chairperson. Alan Connolly has also been appointed as secretary of the supervisory board.
Ukraine: Cement production has increased by 10.5% year-on-year, to 3.19Mt/yr according to Roman Skilsky, CEO of the Ukrcement cement producers' association. Skilsky expects for the country’s annual cement production to grow by 10% to over 9Mt in 2016 in comments made to Interfax-Ukraine.
Exports of cement grew by 71% to 62,700t in January to March 2016. However, Skilsky attributed the rise to the introduction of various restrictions by key exports markets including Moldova and Belarus. Skilsky also said that the introduction of European standards for cement production in Ukraine could help to restrict counterfeit products on the market.
Dyckerhoff Cement Ukraine, HeidelbergCement Ukraine, Ivano-Frankivskcement, Eurocement-Ukraine, Podilsky Cement, Mykolaivcement and Cement LLC (part of CRH Group) are all members of Ukrcement.
Mykolaivcement cuts loss in 2015
04 May 2016Ukraine: Mykolaiv-based Mykolaivcement reduced the loss that it made by 25.3% to US$8.75m in 2015, having boosted its net revenue by 31.9% to US$27.2m.