September 2024
India: According to the Financial Chronicle, Birla Corporation plans to increase its cement capacity to 15Mt in the next four years.
"At present our cement production capacity is 9.3Mt/yr. We want to take it to 15Mt/yr in the next four years," said Birla Corporation chairman Harsh Lodha. He said that there is an oversupply situation in the cement market at present as capacities have been built in the last three to four years on higher demand expectations, but demand has not risen.
Meanwhile, Birla Corporation is awaiting a limestone mining lease from Assam Mineral Development Corporation (AMDC). It had earlier signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with AMDC to set up a 1Mt/yr plant there. Once it gets the mining lease from AMDC, it will form a joint venture company with the state-run corporation and get the project off the ground. AMDC will hold 12.5% of the equity and Birla Corporation will hold the remaining 87.5%. Lodha said that the proposed plant would be set up with a capital outlay of US$94.5m.
UltraTech Cement’s non-executive director resigns 06 July 2015
India: Adesh Gupta, UltraTech Cement's non-executive director, has resigned from the board with effect from 30 June 2015. Gupta cited time constraints for pursuing professional and personal engagements as reasons for his stepping down.
India: According to the United News of India, ACC has suspended limestone mining operations at its Chaibasa plant in Jharkhand because of regulatory issues. ''The limestone mining operations at the Chaibasa plant have been suspended on account of the requirement of further clearances from the government of Jharkhand,'' said ACC in a statement.
The company is in discussion with the concerned authorities and expects that limestone mining operations would resume shortly. Cement grinding continues with the transfer of clinker from sister cement plants and the purchase of clinker. ACC said that the impact of the closure of the mining operations at Chaibasa is not expected to be material.
Nigeria: Following criticisms by foreign media, which has called for a massive devaluation of the Nigerian Naira instead of foreign exchange restrictions on certain items by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Alhaji Aliko Dangote, owner of Dangote Cement, has voiced his strong support of the CBN's decision, calling the ban on 41 items from the foreign exchange market as 'excellent and one of the best decisions taken so far by the CBN governor Godwin Emefiele.' Dangote described the CBN's intervention as appropriate for the Nigerian economy. "We cannot be importing poverty and exporting jobs," he said.
The CBN recently announced the restriction of importers of 41 items from the official foreign exchange market. Some of these items include cement, rice, wheel barrows, head pans, margarine, palm kernel/vegetable oil, meat and processed meat products, vegetable and processed vegetable products, poultry, private airplanes/jets, Indian incense, toothpicks and canned fish in sauce, among others.
Dangote believes that this should be seen as a call for all hands to help with the development of the nation's economy. He said that the measure would encourage Dangote Group, "To look inward and produce locally to create jobs for our growing young population." Dangote said without the ban by the administration of former president Olusegun Obasanjo, he wouldn't have got the opportunity to grow his cement business as it is today, such that he is now exporting cement when only 10 years ago Nigeria was importing cement massively. His cement companies have a combined capacity of 20Mt/yr, providing hundreds of thousands of direct and indirect jobs across Nigeria.
Cementos Molins to invest Euro127m in 2015 06 July 2015
Spain: According to the Spanish Collection, Cementos Molins plans to invest Euro127m in 2015 to boost its expansion on the markets where it already has presence. Its investments on the Spanish market will stand at Euro10m and its main project abroad will be the construction of a furnace at the San Luis plant in Argentina. Cementos Molins expects a rise in profit year-on-year in 2015. In the first quarter of the year, its consolidated profit was Euro15.1m.
Pakistan: Cement sales, including exports, in the fiscal year that ended on 30 June 2015, grew by 3.5% year-on-year to 35.4Mt, according to Topline Securities. On a month-on-month basis sales grew by 9% to 3.3Mt in June 2015.
Domestic sales grew by 8% year-on-year to 28.3Mt in the 2015 fiscal year, better than the average 5% growth seen in the last five years. This was due to an increase in private sector expenditure on construction and housing, an improved security situation, improving macroeconomic indicators and higher government infrastructure spending. On month-on-month basis, domestic sales grew by 12% to a record 2.8Mt in June 2015.
Export dispatches in the 2015 fiscal year fell by 12% year-on-year to 7.2Mt, which was attributed to falling exports to Afghanistan, due to competition from low-priced Iranian cement and political instability in the country. In June 2015, export sales declined by 4% month-on-month to 540,000t.
Cement demand in the 2015 fiscal year, which started on 1 July 2015, are expected to improve further on the back of higher development spending, the initiation of projects due to the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, favourable macroeconomic indicators and lower interest rates. Additionally, higher disposable income due to lower inflation will also boost private sector expenditure on construction and housing.
Russian plant elects board chairman 03 July 2015
Russia: The Board of Directors of Verkhnebakanskiy Cement Works elected Lev Kvetnoy as Chairman of the Board of Directors on 1 July 2015.
India: Dalmia Cement Bharat says that it is engaging with dealers in the Maharashtra region to market its new 'superior grade' Dalmia Ultra Cement. "Dalmia Cement is engaging with over 800 dealers in the region, who will be supported with marketing, technical and logistics support," said the company in a statement. Group CEO Mahendera Singhi said that the launch would 're-define product quality parameters,' in the market.
Dalmia Cement Bharat started operations at its greenfield cement plant in Belgaum district, Karnataka in March 2015. The US$205m plant has a total capacity of 2.5Mt/yr and caters to the needs of customers in Maharashtra and Karnataka.
Cemex to expand social responsibility schemes 03 July 2015
South America/Asia: Mexican cement company Cemex has confirmed plans to expand its social responsibility programme to Guatemala, Bangladesh and the Philippines by 2016. The firm intends to installed self-employment production centres (CPA) in these countries to help low-income families renovate their houses.
The initiative, developed in collaboration with authorities and non-governmental organisations, provides construction training and teaches how to manufacture concrete blocks. Half of the production obtained at these centres is used in the construction or renovation of the participants' houses and the other half is bought by local governments to develop infrastructure projects. The income achieved by the initiative is then reinvested by Cemex in the centres.
Cemex already operates 80 CPAs in Mexico and expects to open 20 additional centres in 2015. It has also developed the initiative in Colombia since 2010.
Pioneer signs waste heat recovery deal with CITIC 03 July 2015
Pakistan: Pioneer Cement has signed an agreement with CITIC Heavy Industries, China to purchase a 12MW Waste Heat Recovery (WHR) system. The company's plant is located at Chenki, District Khusshab, in the heart of Punjab Province, 250km from Lahore. According to the company notice sent to the Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE), the total estimated cost of the plant is US$14.7m.