Displaying items by tag: Russia

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.

China: Anhui Conch returned to rising sales revenue and profit in 2016 after a problematic year in 2015 beset by a poor market for cement. Its revenue rose by 9.7% year-on-year to US$8.12bn in 2016 from US$7.40bn in 2015. Its sales volumes of cement and clinker rose by 8% to 277Mt. Its net profit rose by 14% to US$1.24bn from US$1.09bn. The group says that its adoption of a flexible marketing strategy for different regions and plants and a focus on lowering production costs delivered sales growth and operating savings. However, its full year results are in contrast to its ones for the first nine months of 2016, in which it reported small declines in its revenue and net profit.

During the year the cement producer finished building six clinker production lines at Yingjiangyunhan Cement and Yiyang Conch Cement and it completed 18 cement grinding plants at Wenshan Conch Cement and Ganzhou Conch Cement. In addition to purchased the assets of Anhui Chaodong Cement. Outside of China the group completed lines in Indonesia and Myanmar, started buildings projects in Indonesia, Cambodia and Laos and started early work on new projects in Russia and Myanmar. At the end of 2016 the group says it has a clinker and cement production capacity of 244Mt/yr and 313Mt/yr respectively. It also reported that it had completed 15 waste treatment projects by the end of the year to feed cement plant kilns with domestic waste.

Libya: The Libyan Army’s spokesman Colonel Ahmed Mismari says that the Libyan Cement Company hired contractors from the Russian security company RSB Group to clear mines at its Benghazi plant, according to Russian Sputnik news agency. The clarification came in response to reports by Reuters that regional leader Khalifa Haftar had hired the contractors directly. Libyan Air Force Brigadier General Mohammed Manfour confirmed to Sputnik that Libya had no contracts with Russian private military companies. He added that the Libyan cement company had an agreement with a British insurance company that required it to clear the plant from mines, explosives and other remnants of military operations.

Lithuania: Mandatory cement certification in Russia has forced Akmenės Cementas and other cement producers based in the European Union (EU) to send their exports elsewhere. The Lithuanian cement producer has compensated for this by moving its sales in other markets, according to the Verslo Zinios newspaper. Akmenes Cementas’s sales fell by 8% year-on-year to Euro51m in 2016 from Euro55.4m in 2015.

Around 60% of its sales revenue came from local sales in Lithuania, 20% from sales in other Baltic countries and Belarus and 20% from Scandinavian countries. Previously, exports to the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad accounted for 30% of the company’s revenue. The company expects to generate sales of Euro54m in 2017 based on existing contracts.

Russia: Sibirsky Cement expects that demand for cement in Siberia will fall by 8 – 10% to 4.7 - 4.8Mt in 2017. The cement producer said that its output decreased by 22% to 2.15Mt from its Kemerovo Region-based Topkinsky Cement, by 3% to 0.75Mt from its Krasnoyarsky Cement plant and by 10% to 0.27Mt from its Timlyuisky cement plant, according to the Prime Tass news agency. Overall its cement production fell by 17% year-on-year to 3.17Mt in 2016. It has blamed falling production on an overall decline in Russia’s cement market.

Russia: The Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) has issued warnings to companies certifying cement products that certification has been mandatory since March 2016. The competition body reported that the decision by Cemiscon and SibNIIcement to refuse some applications for certification without adequate grounds could restrict competition in the cement market. The FAS has since warned the companies that their actions broke the law.

Russia: Sibirskiy Cement spent a total of US$17.8m towards upgrading its cement plants in 2016. It spent US$5.2m towards modernising and automating production and about US$12.6m on the repair and maintenance of equipment, according to local media. Installing automated control systems was a priority of the upgrade work. Notably, the cement producer’s Topkinskiy plant received upgrades to its grinding and finished products units. Upgrade work will continue in 2017 with purchases of both domestic and foreign equipment.

Russia: StandartCement plans to build a 3Mt/yr cement plant in the Krasnogvardeisk district of Belgorod with an investment of US$638m. FLSmidth has been designated as the equipment supplier and lead engineering contractor for the project, according to Construction magazine and Interfax. Local government has allotted land and the project is expected to create over 700 jobs. No schedule for construction and commissioning has been released.