Displaying items by tag: China
Update on Indonesia in 2019
06 November 2019Semen Indonesia’s third quarter results this week give us a reason to look at one of the world’s largest cement producing countries, Indonesia. As the local market leader, Semen Indonesia’s financial results have been positive so far in 2019 following its acquisition of Holcim Indonesia at the start of the year. Analysts at Fitch noted that gross margins for Semen Indonesia and its rival Indocement grew in the first half of 2019 as coal prices fell and cement sales prices rose.
Sales volumes, however tell a story of local production overcapacity and a move to exports. Domestic sales volumes fell by 2.05% year-on-year to 48.8Mt in the first nine months of 2019. Cement and clinker exports nearly compensated for this by rising by 15.4% to 4.8Mt. This is brisk growth but slower than the explosion of exports in 2018. Semen Indonesia’s local sales from its company before the acquisition fell faster than the national rate at 4.9% to 18.7Mt. The new sales from Solusi Bangun, the new name for Holcim Indonesia, partially alleviated this. It’s been a similar story for HeidelbergCement’s Indocement. Its sales revenue and income have risen so far in 2019. At the mid-year mark its sales volumes fell by 2.3% year-on-year to 29.4Mt.
Graph 1: Indonesian cement sales, January – September 2019. Source: Semen Indonesia.
Geographically, Indonesia Cement Association (ASI) data shows that over half of the country’s sales volumes (56%) were in Java in the first half of 2018. This was followed by Sumatra (22%), Sulawesi (8%), Kalimantan (also known as Indonesian Borneo, 6%), Bali-Nusa Tenggara (6%) and Maluku-Papua (2%). By cement type the market is dominated by bagged cement sales. It constituted 74% of sales in September 2019. The main producers have been keen to point out growth in bulk sales as its share has increased over the last decade.
Graph 2: Indonesian cement sales by type, 2010 – 2019. Source: Semen Indonesia/Indonesia Cement Association.
Previously the main story from the Indonesian market has been one of overcapacity and this has continued. It had a utilisation rate of 70% in 2018 from production volumes of 75.1Mt and a capacity of 110Mt, according to ASI data. This was likely to have been a major consideration in LafargeHolcim’s decision to leave the country and South-East Asia (see GCW379) with no end in sight to the situation in the short to medium term. At the end of 2018 it felt like consolidation was in progress following this sale and the reported sale of Semen Panasia. So far though this has been all and perhaps the upturn in the second quarter might buy the producers more time.
As mentioned at the start, another aspect of the Indonesian market deserving comment is that it is one of the first countries with a large cement sector where a Chinese company has made a significant entry. Conch Cement Indonesia, a subsidiary of China’s Anhui Conch, became the third largest producer following the acquisition of Holcim Indonesia. Semen Indonesia and Indocement control 70% of local installed capacity across both integrated and grinding plants with 51Mt/yr and 25.5Mt/yr respectively.
Conch Cement Indonesia is the next biggest with 8.7Mt from three integrated plants and a grinding unit. It’s in a tranche of three smaller producers locally, along with Semen Merah Putih and Semen Bosowa. Fitch also picked up on this in a research report on the cement sector published in August 2019. It pointed out that, although Holcim Indonesia and Indocement had gained pricing power through their leading market share, this is being eroded by local producers owned by Chinese companies.
Depending on how you look at it, Indonesia has the ‘fortune’ to be only the second largest producer in South-East Asia, after Vietnam. China, the world’s largest producer, is not too far away either. As can be seen above this can be a mixed blessing for local producers as the market changes. Overcapacity abounds, a major multinational has moved out, a local firm has consolidated the market as a result and Chinese influence grows steadily. Indonesia could well be an example of things to come for other markets.
China: Huang Ting has ceased to be the chief financial officer (CFO) of China Resources Cement. He will remain as the company’s vice president and has been reassigned as chief procurement officer.
Duan Wanli, the general manager of finance department of the company will take on the duties of the CFO role on a temporary basis. She joined the finance department of the China Resources Cement in 2014. She holds a Master’s degree in accounting from the Macquarie University in Australia and is a member of CPA Australia.
Siam Cement Group plans multi-industry innovation hub with Chinese Academy of Sciences
06 November 2019Thailand: Siam Cement Group (SCG) has announced its involvement in the establishment of an innovation hub at the National Science and Development Agency in Pathum Thai. The Bangkok Post has reported that the development will cost US$14.3m. SCG’s partner for the project is the Chinese Academy of Sciences, a 100-site, 70,000-member body established under the Chinese Government’s Belt and Road foreign investment Initiative. When operational, it will market new products, initially consisting of petrochemicals, energy storage and batteries and smart cities.
High-value-added products and services made up 39% of SCG’s total sales in 2018 of US$15.7bn (US$6.11). It spent US$0.15bn on research and innovation over the period, around 1.0% of total revenue.
Afcham China National Consortium Material Company eyes Cameroon for 0.5Mt/yr integrated cement plant
31 October 2019Cameroon: The Chinese-based Afcham China National Consortium Material Company has signed a memorandum with the Kribi Industrial Cement Plant Company (CmIKri) for the construction of an integrated cement plant with a capacity of over 0.5Mt/yr, and the possibility of an extension to 1.5Mt/yr, in the port of Kribi. The installation, spanning 30ha, will include shipping facilities and an 18,000t clinker silo, and cost US$60m.
Anhui Conch increases third quarter net profit to US$602m
28 October 2019China: Anhui Conch’s three-month net profit to 30 September grew by 13% year-on-year to US$602m in 2019 from US$533m in 2018. The company attributed this to a leap in total operating income to US$5.53bn over the period compared to US$4.54bn in the third quarter of 2018, representing an increase of 22%.
China Resources Cement’s nine-month profit falls
28 October 2019China: China Resources Cement (CRC), China’s seventh-largest producer of cement, has reported a net profit for the nine months to 30 September 2019 of US$739m, down by 4.9% year-on-year from US$775m in the corresponding period of 2018. Its third quarter profit in 2019 was US$259m, down by 1.9% year-on-year from US$264m. CRC attributed the fall to lower turnover and the weak performance of the Yuan compared to the Hong Kong Dollar.
Huaxin Cement shows nine-month net profit boom
28 October 2019China: Huaxin Cement has reported a net profit of US$680m for the period of nine months to 30 September 2019. This represents a 42% year-on-year increase from US$478m in the corresponding period of 2018. Its operating income over the period grew by 18% year-on-year to US$3.18bn from US$2.69bn. Huaxin Cement made several investments in emerging markets over the period, with its Uzbek plant in Zarafabad set to become operation in December 2019.
Asia Cement (China) Holdings grows nine-month profit by over 40%
28 October 2019China: Asia Cement (China) Holdings has reported a net profit of US$320m in the nine months to 30 September 2019, up by 40.2% year-on-year from US$228m. The company attributed this to steady earnings growth.
Xinjiang Tianshan Cement grows third quarter net profit
24 October 2019China: Xinjiang Tianshan Cement has recorded a net profit of US$72.2m in the three months to 30 September 2019, representing an increase of 12% from US$64.5m in the corresponding quarter of 2018. Revenue leapt up to US$464m from US$376m.
Shangfeng Cement also improved its profits in the quarter by 70% year-on-year to US$839m from US$494m in the three months to 2018.
Anhui Conch Cement boosts nine-month profit by 15% year-on-year
23 October 2019China: Anhui Conch cement made a net profit of US$3.36bn in the nine months to September 2019, up by 15% from US$2.92bn in the corresponding period of 2018. Sales over the period were US$15.7bn, having increased by 42% from US$11.0bn in the first nine months of 2018. The company explained the disparity between revenue and profit in terms of increased operating costs of 32% compared to 2018, “due to the expansion of product sales and trading business.”