Displaying items by tag: Jobs
Brazil: Votorantim Cimentos intends to temporarily suspend production at its cement plant in Ribeirao Grande, Sao Paulo from August 2015. The plant will operate as a distribution centre from this time. The decision has been blamed on current Brazilian financial climate.
A total of 128 workers are to lose their jobs, of which 83 have already been suspended, according to Valor Econômico. The company has also confirmed it is working with the workers union for the region to try to relocate the dismissed workers.
Estonia: HeidelbergCement's Kunda Nordic Tsement has reduced its output and made 30 employees redundant, citing a decline in clinker exports to Russia. CEO Meelis Einstein said that the need to cut expenditures has had a negative impact on suppliers of support services to Kunda Nordic Tsement.
Switzerland: Holcim is preparing the reorganisation of group functions in the context of the proposed merger with Lafarge. The objective is to create a lean organisation with empowered countries, regional management platforms and group functions for the combined company.
Group functions are designed to increase the competitiveness of the group at global, regional and local levels, to implement best practices and to support and enable LafargeHolcim to achieve the highest possible performance. The proposed new organisation would result in a net reduction of approximately 120 positions in Holcim group functions in Switzerland.
The social consultation process to reduce the impact on roles that are affected by reductions will now be launched with the employee representatives in Switzerland. In parallel, Lafarge is presenting to its social bodies' representatives the proposed organisation of central functions in the context of the creation of LafargeHolcim.
The merger project is expected to close in July 2015, subject to the acceptance of Holcim's public exchange offer by the shareholders of Lafarge. The implementation of the new organisation is expected for early 2016 after completion of all relevant social consultations in Switzerland and France.
France: Lafarge has proposed to cut 380 jobs as part of its pre-merger preparations ahead of its merger with Holcim to form LafaregHolcim. The new group, set to be the world's largest building materials group, will employ approximately 115,000 people.
The organisation of the new group will be balanced between a decentralised structure and strong central functions based on three organizational levels: Countries; Regions (Europe, North America, Middle East & Africa, Latin America, Asia-Pacific, and; Corporate functions, which will help define the Group's key strategies.
There will be an equivalent number of personnel in the central functions in France and Switzerland. The new group's research and development centre will be located in France.
Concerning Lafarge at worldwide level (i.e., in sites located in Atlanta (USA), Beijing (China), Cairo (Egypt), Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia), Lyon (France), Montreal (Canada), Paris (France) and Vienna (Austria)), the proposed new organisation of central functions will result in approximately 380 net job losses, with 166 of these in Paris and Lyon.
The social support measures that will be negotiated with employee representatives will mostly consist of solutions based on internal mobility, early retirement and (in France) voluntary departures. The proposed merger will not affect employment in Lafarge's operational functions in France, which employ more than 4500 people.
This procedure is a key phase in the preparation of the creation of the new LafargeHolcim Group. The completion of the proposed merger is expected to occur in July 2015. Before this can happen, the public exchange offer will have to be successful, with shareholders tendering at least two-thirds of Lafarge shares.
Cementos Andino Dominicanos suspends 170 staff
23 January 2015Dominican Republic: Cementos Andino Dominicanos has temporarily suspended around 170 workers. Company executives have said that the decision was made to save financial resources and use them instead to speed up completion of its new clinker plant.
Titan America appoints Bill Zarkalis as its new CEO
06 August 2014US: Titan America has appointed Bill Zarkalis as CEO for Titan America. Zarkalis joins from parent organisation Titan Cement SA, where he has served as CFO since 2010. Prior to that, Zarkalis was Titan Cement SA's executive director of business development and strategic planning.
"It was a great learning opportunity and a privilege to take a detour from a long career in business management roles and serve Titan as CFO and I'm now thrilled to be with Titan America," said Zarkalis. "The building materials and construction industry has faced a deep and prolonged crisis. Our company has successfully weathered economic storms on both sides of the Atlantic and I'm grateful for our dedicated employees and the character and leadership that it took to get through this difficult period. We'll continue to focus our efforts on restoring financial fitness while we build a healthier, more profitable Titan America. Our future looks strong and I'm confident about our continued growth and success."
Before joining Titan, Zarkalis served in a variety of executive positions with Dow Chemical, including global vice president of Dow Automotive, global business director of specialty plastics and elastomers and global business director of synthetic latex. He has represented Titan in the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), the European Round Table (ERT) and the Cement Sustainability Initiative (CSI).
Australian and New Zealand cement industry shrinks
25 June 2014Bad news for both cement workers and local clinker production in Australia and New Zealand this week with the announcement of job cuts and planned closures of clinker plants. Holcim New Zealand has confirmed that around 120 jobs will go when its Westport cement plant closes in 2016 along with the rationalisation of a few management jobs when the company integrates its Australian and New Zealand businesses. Meanwhile, Boral announced that it will cut 28 jobs from its Maldon Cement plant in Australia when it ceases clinker production at the end of 2014.
With these planned closures cement production capacity in the antipodes will shrink by just over 1.5Mt/yr to around 7.5Mt/yr, a reduction of over 15% Alongside the drop in native cement production players are re-focusing on an import market.
The trend is highlighted by the fact that Boral's Maldon site will retain its grinding mill. Earlier in June 2014 it was reported that Vue Australia is planning to convert a brownfield site on Kooragang Island, New South Wales into a cement storage and transfer plant. In February 2014 Cockburn Cement cut 44 jobs at its Munster cement plant as it started to restructure its operation for grinding using imported clinker. Also in February 2014 Cement Australia, the joint-owned company between Holcim and HeidelbergCement, had a US$17m expansion of its cement loading and storage facility for processing at Osborne approved by local authorities.
Following its restructuring in 2013, which has seen clinker production cease at Waurn Ponds and soon to cease at Maldon, Boral reported that its cement revenues grew in its 2012 – 2013 financial year. This is likely to continue when the 2013 – 2014 year is reported in August 2014. Likewise, Adelaide Brighton reported growing revenues in 2013. Cement Australia reported growing cement sales year-on-year in the first quarter of 2014 following reduced sales in 2013.
All in all the local cement industry in Australia and New Zealand has taken quite a knock in recent years. Reasons for this have included a poor recovery for the local building materials market, high-energy costs, the Carbon Tax in Australia, competition concerns and the spectre of cheap clinker imports from East Asia undercutting everything. However the return to revenue and then profit suggest that the worst of the job cuts and clinker production shrinkage is over.
In this business environment, revelations such as a China Resources spending upwards of US$300,000 on golf are unlikely to garner sympathy for any measures that appear to reduce international competiveness for Australian industry. The current Australian government led by Tony Abbott is set to make good on its promise to repeal the Carbon Tax from July 2014. The environmental effects will be unclear given that the tax may have cut emissions from participating companies by 7%, falling from 342Mt in 2011 – 2012 to 321Mt in 2012 – 2013, according to the Investor Group on Climate Change. As is usual with localised carbon taxation or legislation, whether global emissions fell during this period or whether emissions grew in looser jurisdictions to compensate is hard to calculate. The trend towards clinker imports suggests that there may be a significant contribution from the latter.
Mexico: Cemex has announced that it has promoted its chief financial officer (CFO), Fernando Gonzalez, to chief executive. Gonzalez replaces Lorenzo Zambrano, who died suddenly on Monday 12 May 2014. It also named Rogelio Zambrano, a cousin of the late executive, as its new chairman. Lorenzo Zambrano had been chief executive since 1986 and chairman since 1995.
"We will stay focused on creating value for all of our stakeholders," said Rogelio Zambrano in a statement. "I am very optimistic about Cemex's future." He has been a member of the Cemex board since 1987 and president of the company's finance committee since 2009.
Fernando Gonzalez joined the company in 1989 and held senior positions in a number of regions before being named executive vice president for finance and administration several years ago. "We are encouraged by the positive outlook and the improving business environment in the markets where we operate," he said in the release.
The board's decision to replace Lorenzo Zambrano from within the company is likely to reassure investors of continuity at Cemex, which is seeing a recovery in earnings after the recent economic crisis led the highly leveraged firm to refinance debt, sell assets and lay off around 10% of its workforce. The speed at which the board has responded is also likely to instill confidence.
After taking over the company, Zambrano embarked on a rapid and ambitious international expansion that transformed Cemex from a regional producer into a global supplier of cement and building materials, borrowing heavily to acquire companies and aggressively paying down debt.
Holcim Belgium to cut 48 jobs at Obourg cement plant
30 April 2014Belgium: Holcim Belgium has announced plans to cut 48 out of 200 jobs at its cement plant in Obourg to restore profitability. By enhancing efficiency the management hopes to attract important investments.
Although cement demand in Belgium has remained stable in France and the Netherlands, which are supplied by the factory in Obourg, demand fell by 30%. In addition the plant at Obourg faces high fixed costs from taxes and an old production fleet.
The management believes the factory in Obourg may continue operating with 152 workers by improving flexibility and simplifying the organisation. Talks with trade unions will be started as soon as possible, the company added.
Spain: Workers at Holcim Spain have approved a preliminary agreement for a downsizing plan for 122 employees. With the agreement, the trade unions managed to reduce the number of employees included in the downsizing plan by 13.4% from the 141 workers originally intended.