Displaying items by tag: Jamaica
Caribbean Cement to start 240,000t Venezuelan shipment
28 October 2014Jamaica: Caribbean Cement Company Ltd (CCCL) has commenced supply of a new 240,000t clinker order to Venezuela. The US$20.5m contract will run over an 18-month period and will help boost export revenues from the Rockfort cement plant.
The new order from Caracas extends a previous agreement that saw CCCL ship 100,000t of clinker between December 2013 and April 2014 in a US$8.5m deal. The new contract is said to signal 'business as usual' at the works, which recently saw the replacement of Brian Young as board chairman by Christopher Dehring.
In September 2014, CCCL recorded clinker exports of 80,373t, compared to 6757t in September 2013. Cement exports also increased during the January – September 2014 period, from 178,643t in 2013 to 191,556t. In addition, CCCL noted a 10,000t rise in domestic sales to 458,644t as the construction market recovers.
"The recent trend in the domestic market is expected to continue as well as improvement in the export earnings," said Caribbean Cement's chairman Dehring and director Hollis Hosein.
"In addition, we have entered into a new agreement to supply 240,000t of clinker to Venezuela, starting shipments in October 2014. We, therefore, remain cautiously optimistic that these favourable results can be sustained."
Jamaica: The Caribbean Cement Company and the Venezuelan government are close to a supply agreement for approximately 340,000t of clinker. The deal is valued at about US$29m, according to the Jamaican government. The clinker will be used by Venezuela as part of an initiative to build two million homes over a seven-year span to address a housing shortage.
Caribbean Cement sends clinker to Venezuela under Petrocaribe
08 January 2014Venezuela: Caribbean Cement Company, a subsidiary of the TCL Group, has entered into an agreement to supply 100,000t of clinker to Venezuela from December 2013 to April 2014. This arrangement was facilitated under the compensation mechanism of the Petrocaribe Agreement where the government of Jamaica could repay the loan to Venezuela with goods and services in lieu of cash.
This contract is the outcome of more than three years of negotiations between Caribbean Cement, the government of Jamaica and the government of Venezuela. What started as an initiative to export cement ended instead in an agreement to supply clinker.
Caribbean Cement will export 20,000t/month of clinker to Pertigalete, Venezuela. The company will continue negotiations to continue to supply clinker after April 2014. The company said in a statement "Caribbean Cement is pleased to be a trailblazer in setting a precedent for other goods and services to be negotiated under the compensation mechanism of the Petrocaribe."
Venezuela considers Jamaican cement payment for oil
16 September 2013Venezuela/Jamaica: Venezuela's Minister of Petroleum and mining Rafael Ramirez is 'listening' to a proposal Jamaica has made to pay for its debts to Petróleos de Venezuela, SA (PDVSA). Jamaican minister Phillip Paulwell made the offer to tackle debts of US$350m raised under the Petrocaribe agreement between the nations where Venezuela supplies oil. However, Caracas-based newspaper El Nacional has reported doubts that Caribbean Cement Co would be able to meet the level of cement exports to Venezuela required to meet the Gran Mision Vivienda state housing programme.
PDVSA currently ships 26,000 barrels/day of oil to Jamaica's state energy company Petrojam. The Petrocaribe agreement includes Antigua, Barbuda, Bahamas, Belice, Cuba, Dominica, Granada, Guatemala, Guyana, Haití, Honduras, Jamaica, Nicaragua, the Dominican Republic Dominicana, San Cristóbal & Nieves, San Vicente & Granadinas, St Lucia and Suriname.
TCL on the up: trend set to improve
19 June 2013Trinidad & Tobago: For the first quarter of 2013, Trinidad Cement (TCL) recorded earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) of US$17.8m. The result represented a significant improvement over TCL's results for the same period of 2012. The first quarter 2013 EBITDA represents 74% of its EBITDA for the whole of 2012.
Revenue for the quarter increased by US$18.3m compared with the same period of 2012 as a result of higher cement sales volumes. Volumes increased by 52% in Trinidad & Tobago, by 7% in Jamaica and by 29% in export markets. It was helped by higher selling prices in most markets.
TCL said that, as a result of the significant expenditure made in the latter part of 2012, plant performance has been more reliable and efficient, with clinker production exceeding prior year by 32%. Part of this is due to a prolonged TCL strike in 2012. Cement production was up by 21% year-on-year.
As a consequence of the above factors, TCL has reported a net profit after tax for the first quarter of 2013 of US$$2.22m compared with a net loss of US$11.7m in the same quarter of 2012.
Looking ahead the company says that the Trinidad & Tobago market has recorded very strong demand and it is anticipated that this will continue. While it saw a declining demand trend in Jamaica and Barbados, it is hoped that growth will return to these markets following elections in Barbados and the conclusion of an IMF agreement in Jamaica. In addition, TCL said that the growth being experienced in Guyana and Suriname and the initiatives by the group in the pursuit of additional export markets, plant efficiency and cost containment, are likely to contribute to the continuation of its good results for the coming months.