Displaying items by tag: LafargeHolcim
Aggregate Industries buys Maxi Readymix Concrete in the UK
07 October 2019UK: Aggregate Industries has acquired Maxi Readymix Concrete, an independent readymix concrete (RMX) business based in Leicestershire and the East Midlands. The company operates a Betomix 2.66m3 twin shaft wet batch plant capable of producing 110m3/hr of compacted concrete with a silo capacity of 400t and aggregate capacity of 650t. It was supplied by Germany’s Liebherr and commissioned in 2014.
Romania/Switzerland: Romania’s anti-trust authority has completed its review of LafargeHolcim’s takeover of the precast concrete manufacturer Someco for an undisclosed sum. SeeNews has reported that the body found that “no significant obstacles to effective competition” were raised by the deal.
Somaco’s five precast concrete and one aerated concrete block production plants, which employ 750 people, made sales of Euro56m in 2018.
Switzerland: LafargeHolcim’s executive committee has taken on Magali Anderson in the newly-created role of Chief Sustainability Officer. Anderson is a mechanical engineer with extensive managerial and functional experience who joined LafargeHolcim in 2016 as its Head of Health and Safety. LafargeHolcim CEO Jan Jensich has stated that the appointment “will accelerate LafargeHolcim’s vision of running its operations with zero harm to people and the environment.”
EAPCC sacks management
23 September 2019Kenya: East Africa Portland Cement Company (EAPCC) dismissed its entire management staff except managing director Simon Peter Ole Nkeri with one month’s notice on 19 September 2019. Business Daily has reported that the company will seek to rehire a small proportion of the personnel with a 60% pay cut. The downsized management team will oversee the redundancy of its entire junior staff, some of whom will be taken back on with a view to reducing the total employees by 25% to 600 from 800.
EAPCC’s staff costs in the second half of 2018 were US$38.5m, 80% of its net revenue for the period. Its anticipated sales of land, if successful, are expected to exceed the US$52m needed to clear its outstanding debts. Shareholders in the company include LafargeHolcim (42%) and the Kenyan government (52%).
Holcim Belgium begins export of cement to France by rail
23 September 2019Belgium: Holcim Belgium has finished loading around 1250t of cement from its 1.7Mt/yr integrated Obourg cement plant onto a train in Obourg in Belgium’s Hainaut province. It leaves on 24 September 2019 for Lafarge France’s Bonneuile-Sur-Marne, Île-de-France depot. La Province has reported that LafargeHolcim began the process on 20 September 2019 with the conveyance of cement by three shuttle trucks to the train’s 12 carriages. LafargeHolcim spokesperson Séverine Baudoin has explained that the undertaking, LafargeHolcim’s first of its kind in the region, is a part of its sustainable development plan applied to distribution to new clients in the Paris area.
Update on Kenya
18 September 2019Pradeep Paunrana’s latest attempt to wrest back control of ARM Cement was dismissed this week in Kenya. Administrators PricewaterhouseCoopers rejected a US$12.5m guarantee to stop the sale to a rival, according to Business Daily newspaper. Paunrana, the former managing director and majority shareholder of ARM Cement, had teamed up with Rai Group to thwart a rival bid for his company from National Cement.
The guarantee was a 20% portion of a full bid of US$63m by Paunrana and Rai Group but the administrators rejected it on the grounds that it had a nine-month time limit. They were reportedly concerned that legal proceedings over ownership of the cement producer could last beyond this. A deal to sell ARM Cement to National Cement for US$50m was agreed in May 2019. However, Paunrana fought back and the courts are expected to deliberate over the issue for some time.
ARM Cement entered administration in August 2018 following a growing loss in 2017 and poor markets in Kenya and Tanzania. At the time the cement producer blamed its poor performance on elections in Kenya causing reduced cement demand, a coal import ban in Tanzania causing production issues at its Tanga cement plant and increased competition in both countries.
The implications of National Cement actually succeeding in its bid for ARM Cement would mean a realignment of the local industry. LafargeHolcim’s subsidiary Bamburi Cement leads the sector by production capacity and market share. It operates one integrated and one grinding plant. Mombassa Cement and then a variety of smaller companies, trail it.
The Devki Group-backed National Cement has steadily been expanding in recent years. In April 2018 it was announced that the International Finance Corporation (IFC) was going to invest US$96m in National Cement and that Devki Group chairman Narendra Raval was going to commit a similar sum towards a new integrated line in Kenya and two new grinding plants in Kenya and Tanzania. More recently it acquired the long-running Cemtech plant project in West Pokot, along with its mineral deposits and licences. If it were able to successfully buy ARM Cement it would become Kenya’s second largest cement producer by market share.
ARM Cement is not the only Kenyan cement producer facing these kinds of problems. The Kenyan government is the majority shareholder East Africa Portland Cement Company (EAPCC) and it has been working on a rescue package for it since early 2019. The local market had similarly negatively affected the EAPCC’s financial performance and it has been attempting to cut its debts. In its case, it has been trying to sell land to pay off its debts but it has faced disputes with local residents. It has also tried reducing its workforce, with varying degrees of success. Its integrated plant at Athi River near Nairobi was reported to be operating at a 50% capacity utilisation rate in late 2018.
Table 1: Cement production in Kenya, 2015 – 2019. Source: Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS).
Overall cement production in Kenya peaked at 6.7Mt in 2016 and has fallen since. It fell by 2.8% year-on-year to 2.9Mt in the first half of 2019 from 3Mt in the same period in 2018. Consumption fell by a similar amount to production in the first quarter of 2019. Analysts like Knight Frank have blamed this on a slowdown in the real estate market, although it holds up hope for government house building scheme to rescue the situation.
In this kind of market it is understandable that the cement market is rationalising. The World Bank has forecast gross domestic product (GDP) growth of 5.8% in 2019 and better in the years ahead. Whoever is left in the cement business once the corporate dust settles stands to benefit.
Switzerland: LafargeHolcim has revealed a Euro145m investment plan to reduce its CO2 emissions in Europe by 3Mt/yr, equivalent to 15% of its carbon footprint, by 2022. The investment will target advanced equipment and technology to increase the use of low-carbon fuels and materials.
Holcim Ecuador’s Agrovial and Base Vial cements certified carbon neutral
18 September 2019Ecuador: Sambito, the Ecuadorian environmental consultant, has endorsed the certification of two LafargeHolcim cement products as carbon neutral. Metro Ecuador has reported that both Agrovial and Base Vial, prepared at low heats for foundations and roads respectively, have 54% lower emissions than ‘traditional’ cement. Carbon neutrality was achieved by Holcim Ecuador’s ownership of the 6078 hectare Cerro Blanco Protected Forest, 2175 hectares of which suffices to offset the emissions from production of both products.
LafargeHolcim Awards North America panel and closing date announced
17 September 2019US: The Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) will host the 6th International LafargeHolcim Awards, North America, in 2020. The awards seek sustainable design in the construction sector and are open for entries until 25 February 2020. Reed Kroloff, Rowe Family Dean of the College of Architecture, IIT, heads the panel of nine judges.
LafargeHolcim lobbies Madagascan government on imports
04 September 2019Madagascar: LafargeHolcim has lobbied for cement homologisation norms to targeting importers. Chief Executive Officer François de Lesquen said that the company does not fear competition but wants a level playing field.
LafargeHolcim owns 90% and 66% respectively of Madagascar’s Ibity and Mahajanga cement plants, representing the entirety of domestic cement production. Holcim Madagascar yesterday launched its Orimbato 42.5 cement for heavy load-bearing concretes.