Displaying items by tag: Russia

Europe: RHI and Magnesita have announced divestment agreements ahead of their proposed merger. RHI has signed a contract with a European refractories supplier for an undisclosed sum regarding the sale of its dolomite business in the European Economic Area. The sale consists of the production sites at Marone in Italy and Lugones in Spain. Magnesita has entered into a definitive agreement with Intocast to divest its business related to the production and supply of magnesia carbon bricks produced at the company's Oberhausen plant in Germany for Euro20.3m. Both sales were required by the European Commission as part of the merger process.

“With the sale of the two sites, the combination of RHI with Magnesita is also still right on schedule,” said RHI’s chief executive officer Stefan Borgas with regards to his company’s divestments “We expect the confirmation by the European Commission in the near future.”

RHI signed a contract in August 2017 to sell its production sites at San Vito in Italy and Sherbinska in Russia that produce fused cast refractories for the glass industry. Production at the company’s plant at Aken in Germany was stopped in the first half of 2017 for an indefinite period. RHI plans to sell or close the plant to maintain its production utilisation rate across the business.

Germany: Ireland’s CRH has acquired Fels, a lime and aggregate business, for Euro600m from Xella International. The purchase includes nine production locations in Germany, one in the Czechia and one in the Moscow region of Russia, as well as over 1Bnt of limestone reserves. The assets will be added to CRH’s Europe Heavyside division. The purchase is expected to make CRH the second largest business in the European lime market. The acquisition has been funded by the sale of CRH’s Americas Distribution business to Beacon Roofing Supply for Euro2.2bn.

Russia: LafargeHolcim’s local subsidiary Holcim Russia has launched an upgrade at its cement plant in Saratov Region at a total cost of US$300m. The project to build a new dry process line began in 2012 and has increased the plant’s capacity to 4500t/day. According to local press the plant meets all modern standards and environmental safety requirements. It is expected that the line will be at full capacity by the end of 2017.

Russia: Sibirsky Cement’s cement production fell by 11% year-on-year to 1.4Mt in the first half of 2017. Particular declines were registered at its Topkinsky Cement and Timlyuysky Cement plants. The cement producer has blamed falling production on the poor economic situation in the region. Cement consumption in the Siberian federal district fell by 10% to 1.9Mt in the five months to 31 May 2017. The majority of this cement is used for residential construction.

Russia: Anhui Conch plans to start building a cement pant in the Ulyanovsk region by the spring of 2018. The local development corporation also announced that staff have been recruited for the project and early design work has started, according to Construction magazine. The 5000t/day plant is expected to start operation by early 2021.

Russia: Iskitimcement has expanded its fleet with the purchase of three Scania P Series trucks with Sespel bulk cement semi trailers for Euro557,000. The new 28.1t vehicles have been designed specifically for the Russian market. The trailers can transport up to 30t of cargo each. Vladimir Skakun, the general director of the cement producer, commented that its road shipments are growing and that it expects to deliver up to 24,000t/month of cement in the summer of 2017 from a fleet of 26 vehicles. The company has plans to increase its fleet further in the future.

Iran: The Iran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture has urged cement producers increase their exports to Russia to take advantage of rising demand. Russian cement consumption is expected to reach 140Mt as it builds infrastructure for projects like the FIFA 2018 World Cup, according to the Islamic Republic News Agency. Iran exported 11.5Mt of cement in the 11 month period to 18 February 2017. Exports are hoped to nearly triple to 32Mt/yr by 2025 following targets set by the government’s Vision Plan.

Russia: The Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) has approved Siberian Cement Holding Company (SibCem) to acquire executive body rights in Angarskcement and Iskitimcement. In the case of the transactions, the charter capital structure of Angarskcement and Iskitimcement will not change, the companies will sign management contracts, according to the Kommersant newspaper. Sibcem holds a 49.9% stake in Iskitimcement, via Topkinsky Cement, and a 43.33% stake in Angarskcement.

Russia: Soyuzcement, a cement manufacturing union, predicts that cement production could rise by up to 3% to 57Mt in 2017. In the short-term cement production is expected to benefit from infrastructure investment to local government municipalities from the federal budget and from a reduction to the mortgage rate by the banks. In the longer term the union expects that housing development and concrete road construction will drive the industry, according to Interfax. However, cement production fell in the first two months of 2017 and remained stable in March 2017. Soyuzcement has also prepared a negative forecast that stated that production could fall by 4% in 2017.

Russia: Mordovcement, part of Eurocement Group, has commissioned a new bagging line using equipment from Newtec Bag Palletizing and OMS Systems. The pallet-free palletiser has a rate of 130t/hr or 2600 bags/hr processing bags of 40kg or 50kg. The cement producer invested over Euro950,000 on the new line and the upgrade is expected to increase the plant’s cement delivery volume to 9000t/day.