Displaying items by tag: Cementos Molins
Colombia: Empresa Colombiana de Cementos has appointed Martha Patricia Quintero Valderrama as its director general. She succeeds Juan Martínez in the post, according to Valora Analitik. The company is a joint venture between Spain-based Cementos Molins and Corona. It operates the Alión brand.
Quintero has worked for Alión as its commercial director since 2018. Prior to this she worked for Polpaico in Chile and spent over 20 years with LafargeHolcim and its associated companies in Colombia. She is a trained civil engineer from the University of Cartagena. She also holds postgraduate qualifications from the EAN University and Tecnológica del Caribe.
Spain: Cementos Molins' consolidated sales were Euro342m during the first quarter of 2023. This corresponds to a rise of 25% year-on-year from first-quarter 2022 levels. Its earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) rose by 47% to Euro86m, while its profit rose by 70% to Euro37m.
At the end of the period, Cementos Molins had financing lines amounting to Euro642m, 61% with maturity after 2026. It reduced its net debt by 43% year-on-year and by 26% quarter-on-quarter.
Argentina: Cementos Avellaneda has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with energy provider YPF Luz for the construction of a new wind farm. Local press has reported that the planned plant will have a capacity of 63MW and be situated in Olavarría, Buenos Aires Province. There, it will supply 100% of the energy used in cement production at Cementos Avellaneda's Olavarría cement plant. The cement producer will transmit any surplus energy from the wind farm to its San Luis plant at La Calera, with the longer-term aim of becoming Argentina's first 100% renewably-powered cement company.
The partners will carry out technical and economic feasibility studies in mid-2023, and publish plans and budget before the end of the year.
Cementos Molins reports full-year 2022 sales and earnings growth
28 February 2023Spain: Cementos Molins' sales were Euro1.27bn in 2022, up by 31% year-on-year from 2021 levels. Its earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) were Euro276m, up by 14% over the same comparison period. The producer noted significant earnings contributions from its South American and Asian business, as well as from new acquisitions during the year. Its implementation of its operational efficiency plan and price rises successfully offset inflationary pressures. Throughout the year, the group's debt dropped by 18% to Euro145m.
Cementos Molins CEO Julio Rodríguez said "We have achieved record sales and profits in a very complex year with a constantly changing environment; despite this, once again we have been able to confirm the strength of our business model by achieving the objectives of the strategic plan 2020-2023 one year ahead. I would like to highlight that these results are the consequence of the contribution and talent of the Cementos Molins team worldwide and imply a boost of energy to continue working on the priority objective: our 2030 Sustainability Roadmap.”
Update on Uruguay, January 2023
25 January 2023Cementos Artigas inaugurated an upgrade to its integrated Minas plant this week. The joint-venture between Spain-based Cementos Molins and Brazil-based Votorantim Cimentos has been working on the US$40m project since mid-2020. The main plan is to combine the functions of the integrated Minas plant in Lavalleja and the company’s cement grinding plant at Sayago in Montevideo at one site. Key parts of the upgrade included the installation of a new vertical grinding mill, a cellular silo and a bulk cement despatching centre. The Uruguayan president Luis Lacalle turned up for the opening ceremony.
The cement sector in the country is modest compared to those in its much larger neighbours, Argentina and Brazil. It only has four integrated plants with a total production capacity of around 1.4Mt/yr compared to, say, Brazil’s 70-odd plants with a capacity in excess of 85Mt/yr. However, a few things have been happening recently that are worth noting. Firstly, a new integrated plant operated by a new entrant opened in mid-2021. Cielo Azul Cementos y Calizas was set up by investors in Brazil with links to Uruguay. It started in ready-mixed concrete (RMX) in the early 2010s before it contracted FLSmidth in 2017 to build it a 0.6Mt/yr integrated cement plant at La Pacífica in Treinta y Tres. It has also opened an RMX plant in neighbouring Paraguay.
Votorantim Cimentos may have been irked by the opening of a new competitor in Uruguay as it blamed it for a drop in its third quarter revenue in 2022 in its Latin American region outside of Brazil. It described the dynamic in the country as ‘challenging.’ Its local business partner, Cementos Molins, was a bit more balanced in its assessment for 2021, reporting that earnings had falling slightly due to global input cost rises and that sales had fallen due to increased competition from new capacity. Whatever else happens, now that the Minas upgrade project has finished, it seems likely that Cementos Artigas’ costs have the potential to decrease.
The country’s third cement producer, Cementos del Plata, was also busy in 2022. The subsidiary of state-owned Administración Nacional de Combustibles, Alcohol y Portland (ANCAP) announced in September 2022 that is was going to seek a business partner in its business. Its reasoning was that it wants to restore competitiveness to the local cement market and reverse the ‘deficit’ economic situation of the last 20 years. By November 2022, 11 companies had been selected for the next stage of the process. Notable entrants include InterCement-subsidiary Loma Negra, Empresa Publica Productiva Cementos de Bolivia (ECEBOL), Cementos Artigas, Cielo Azul Cementos y Calizas and the Turkish Cement Manufacturers' Association (TürkÇimento). That last name is particularly interesting as it is the only organisation with an obvious link to the cement sector from outside of South America. Two China-based engineering companies are also among the contenders.
Prior to the current initiative to gain inward investment into Cementos del Plata, ANCAP has been noteworthy for union activity at its plants such as strikes in recent years. A reported attempt to privatise the Paysandú plant in 2020 was blocked by the unions, according to local press. In separate news, ANCAP concluded from an investigation in June 2022 that persons unknown had attempted to intentionally damage the kiln of its Minas plant through the introduction of foreign materials. There is no reason to connect the two stories but it does suggest that any investor into the business might want to consider a wide variety of stakeholders as part of any due diligence process.
Uruguay’s cement sector is changing as we have seen above. Cementos Artigas has completed an upgrade to one of its plants, Cielo Azul Cementos y Calizas built a new integrated plant in 2021 and Cementos del Plata is actively hunting for a partner. Just who that new investor might be has implications for the local sector. The Government of Uruguay announced in 2021 that it wanted to set up free trade agreements with China and Türkiye. Unsurprisingly, both Turkish and Chinese organisations are amongst the ones that have made it to the current selection stage.
Cementos Artigas commissions Minas integrated cement plant
20 January 2023Uruguay: Cementos Artigas has successfully commissioned its upgraded Minas integrated cement plant. The new plant consolidates the operations of the former 350,000t/yr Minas clinker plant and the 500,000t/yr Sayago grinding plant. Crónica Global News has reported that the project consisted of the construction of a new vertical roller mill and storage facilities at the Minas site. The work lasted 18 months and cost US$40m.
Cementos Artigas says that the Minas integrated cement plant will increase the efficiency and reduce the electricity and transport costs of its operations.
Spain: Cementos Molins' consolidated sales were Euro959m over the first nine months of 2022, up by 37% year-on-year from the same period in 2021. Cementos Molins attributed the growth to an increase in sales across all of its businesses and the 'significant' contribution of new acquisitions from 2021. Its earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) rose by 11% to Euro208m, while its net profit rose by 3% to Euro90m. The group noted a 'strong performance' by its South American and Asian business. In general, it faced high costs growth, offset partly by increased product prices and the effects of its successful operational efficiency plans. Costs rose especially sharply in Spain, leading to margins deterioration there, while the impacts of hyperinflation in Argentina were lower than in the corresponding period of 2019.
Cementos Molins' net debt continued to decline throughout the period, to reach Euro137m, 0.5x its EBITDA. The group said that its financial position will give it leverage in its execution of new growth opportunities and its 2030 sustainability roadmap.
Regarding the company's third-quarter 2022 performance, chief executive officer Julio Rodríguez said "Despite a very challenging and uncertain global environment and the negative impact of high inflation costs, once again Cementos Molins has delivered very solid results in the third quarter. This performance is the outcome of the contribution of a very professional and committed team worldwide, whom I would like to thank for their big effort in such a difficult environment."
US: Calucem, part of Cementos Molins, plans to establish a new calcium aluminate cement plant in New Orleans, Louisiana. The company will invest US$35m in the project and expects to commission the plant in mid-late 2023. It expects to create 70 new direct jobs and a total of 228 new jobs locally.
Calucem president and chief executive officer Yuri Bouwhuis said “Calucem is taking on a new investment that will support our growth and diversification in the US and ensure that we continue to offer high-value products to our global customers. Our choice of Louisiana for our first all-new manufacturing project in the US is due to the availability of strategic raw materials such as limestone and natural gas, access to waterways and skilled labour and the long history of using speciality cement products in the US.”
Spain: Cementos Molins increased its first-half 2022 consolidated sales by 35% year-on-year to Euro608m and its earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) by 4% to Euro132m. The group said that its implementation of operational efficiency plans successfully offset cost inflation. Its net profit was Euro57m, in line with that in the first half of 2021.
Chief executive officer Julio Rodríguez said "Despite the markets growth slowdown and the uncertain global context, at Cementos Molins we continue to move confidently towards achieving the objectives of our strategic plan 2020-2023.”
Cementos Molins increases sales in first quarter of 2022
27 April 2022Spain: Cementos Molins recorded first-quarter consolidated sales of Euro274m in 2022, up by 23% year-on-year from first-quarter 2021 levels. The group's net profit for the period fell by 34% year-on-year to Euro22m. It attributed this to material, power and transport costs inflation. During the quarter, Cementos Molins acquired Hanson Hispania's Catalonian ready-mix concrete and aggregates operations. It says that its 0.8x debt-to-earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) ratio positions it well to continue with the execution of its Strategic Plan 2020-2023.
Chief executive officer (CEO) Julio Rodríguez said “The year 2022 has an uncertain and highly complex global environment, in which the war in Ukraine and its global effects are added to the previously existing problems of costs inflation and supply chain disruptions. Despite this complex environment, we expect to continue in 2022 the path of solid results achieved in previous years."