September 2024
James Hardie faces class action over HardieTex 11 August 2015
New Zealand: Victims of leaky homes are being urged to join a class action being formed against James Hardie over one of its fibre cement cladding products, HardieTex.
Law firm Parker & Associates has filed a High Court case on behalf of a Wellington couple, who have claimed that HardieTex was the cause of their US$200,000 leaky home problem. The claim alleges that James Hardie was negligent in the design, manufacture and supply of HardieTex, which was used to build thousands of houses through the 1990s and early 2000s. Building owners who have suffered damage have until December 2015 to join the action.
The country manager for James Hardie in New Zealand, Justin Burgess, said that HardieTex is no longer on the market.
Zambezi Portland Cement lays off 47 employees 11 August 2015
Zambia: Some 47 employees at Zambezi Portland in Ndola have been laid off while a further 63 are earmarked for retrenchment. The redundancies are due to reduction in business volume at the cement company, which is now faced with stiff competition from the newly commissioned Dangote Cement plant.
Zambezi Portland Cement operations director Danielle Ventriglia confirmed the retrenchment and said that the affected workers had been paid US$308/each in benefits. Ventriglia said that the retrenchments were necessitated by economic reasons and that the company would maintain a lean workforce. He added that the company was also working towards reclaiming the market share and had reduced its cement price significantly. Another 63 workers are expected to be retrenched in the next six weeks and the company would retain a workforce of 340 employees.
China: China Resources Cement's net profit fell by 25.6% year-on-year to US$242m in the first half of 2015.
Somalia/Oman: Raysut Cement is in the process of setting up a subsidiary firm, Barqaaqo Cement Company, to supply cement mostly to Somalia through a newly built terminal there. Raysut Cement will have 51% stake in the newly-formed Barwaaqo Cement Company.
Poland: Cement production in Poland increased by 1.6% year-on-year to 1.65Mt in July 2015, while cement sales were up by 1.7% to 1.71Mt, according to Poland's Cement Producer Association. Year-to-date cement production grew by 2% year-on-year to 8.84Mt while year-to-date cement sales rose by 2.3% to 9.04Mt.
Lipetskcement plans plant upgrade 11 August 2015
Russia: Under instructions from the Rosprirodnadzor environmental watchdog, Lipetskcement has started to install electrostatic precipitators to prevent the pollution of air with cement dust. The precipitators are mounted on the third production line's kiln. Cement dust emissions were registered at the plant during the start-up and commissioning of the plant. As such, it received new instructions to strengthen environmental controls with laboratory measurements of air quality.
Anhui Conch to build cement plant in Ulyanovsk 11 August 2015
Russia/China: Anhui Conch Cement plans to build a 2Mt/yr capacity cement plant in Ulyanovsk, Volga for Euro274m.
Vietnam: Deputy prime minister Hoang Trung Hai has directed the implementation of solutions to treat waste at thermal power plants for energy conservation and environmental protection.
Trung Hai urged the concerned parties to more effectively implement Government Decision 1696/QD-TTg on measures to treat gypsum, ash and cinder from thermal power, chemical or fertiliser plants for the production of building materials. Special focus should be paid to the Vinh Tan in Binh Thuan, An Khanh in Thai Nguyen, Song Hau in Mekong Delta Hau Giang and Vung Ang in Ha Tinh thermal power plants, where waste treatment is a pressing issue.
He asked the Ministry of Industry and Trade and the Ministry of Construction to coordinate with localities to disseminate effective waste treatment models while supplementing and completing criteria on the quality of ash and cinder for recycling in cement and construction material production.
Vietnam is home to 19 operating thermal power plants with a total capacity of 14,480MW, which discharge about 15Mt/yr of ash and cinder. After 2020, the country is expected to have 43 thermal power plants with a combined capacity of 39,020MW, discharging over 30Mt/yr of ash and cinder.
Sumitomo Osaka Cement reports strong growth in the second quarter of its 2016 fiscal year 10 August 2015
Japan: In the April - June 2015 period, Sumitomo Osaka Cement's operating profit rose by 26.8% year-on-year to US$35.5m. Its sales rose by 6% to US$455m, according to Reuters.
Indonesia: Indocement Tunggal Prakarsa plans to discontinue production at its P1, P2, and P6 cement plants in Citeureup, West Java to improve efficiency and maintain margin stability amid weak demand in the cement industry.
"We seek to stabilise margins in 2015 by shutting down plants that are not efficient, including plants P1, P2 and P6 in Citeureup," said Christian Kartawijaya, president director of Indocement. He said that operations in plants P1, P2, and P6 were no longer efficient and that they were usually only used as backup when another plant was on maintenance. The lost production from the closure of the three plants will soon be replaced by production from the new 4.4Mt/yr capacity P14 plant, which is due for completion by the end of 2015.
Indocement also plans to reduce fixed costs and to postpone some of its non-urgent projects and expansions, including cutting down 2015's capital expenditure to maintain its performance. "We plan to decrease our 2015 capital expenditure to US$258m, as demand for cement has not risen amid a cement supply hike. Therefore, we will try to postpone our investments," said Kartawijaya. He added that the purchase of stone reserves and the investment in a new cement plant in Pati, Central Java will be postponed.
Indocement's revenues for the first six months of 2015 dropped by 6.6% year-on-year to US$654m due to an 8.8% decline of domestic sales to 8.2Mt. Its market share also shrank to 29.1% from 30.5% in 2014 due to weak domestic consumption, tight competition and oversupply in the national market. The decline in revenue and sales volume also resulted in 4.7% lower earnings (US$226m) before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) and an 8.4% lower net profit at US$169m for the first half of 2015.