September 2024
Europe: Eurocement Holding AG, the second-largest shareholder in Holcim with a 10.82% stake, plans to vote against the LafargeHolcim meger unless the financial terms of the deal are altered, according to local media.
Eurocement, which is owned by financier Filaret Galchev, believes that the terms of the deal continue to undervalue Holcim despite a revision of the agreement. The deal, which was originally structured as a one-for-one share swap, now offers nine Holcim shares for 10 Lafarge shares. According to local media, Eurocement's complaint is solely with the exchange ratio and it has notified Holcim and Lafarge of its concerns.
Eurocement alone can't derail the deal, which requires the approval of two thirds of Holcim's shareholders at an extraordinary shareholders meeting, scheduled for 8 May 2015.
US: FCT International, which has operations in Australia, the US, Europe, the Middle East and now Canada, has appointed Adriano Greco as its new US-based sales director. Greco has previously acted as managing director of Greco and as sales director for Gebr. Pfeiffer.
Holcim to sell off Siam City Cement stake 27 March 2015
Thailand: Swiss cement maker Holcim Ltd has launched an up to US$741.4m selldown of shares in Thailand's second-largest cement company Siam City Cement (SCC). Holcim is selling 63.3 million SCC shares through its Thai Roc-Cem Ltd unit at an indicative range of between US$10.73 and US$11.68, according to Thomson Reuters.
Dangote results take a dive in 2014 27 March 2015
Nigeria: Dangote Cement's pretax profit fell by 3.2% to US$928m in 2014 due to a gas shortage at its plants and low demand after prolonged wet weather. The company, Africa's biggest cement company, said that sales volumes in its main Nigerian market fell by 3.2% to 12.87Mt, weaker than the decline in the overall market of 0.8% to 21Mt. It expected market growth in Nigeria to be muted in 2015 owing to election and currency worries, worsened by the fall in government revenues that have triggered by the plunge in world oil prices.
Dangote's full-year revenues for 2014 climbed to US$1.97bn during the 12 months to 31 December 2014, up from US$1.97bn in 2013, due to growth from Dangote's other African operations. It said that unreliable gas supplies to its Obajana plant constrained production, while prolonged rainfall in the second half of last year led to a slowdown in construction. Dangote is increasingly turning its attention from Nigeria to elsewhere in Africa. In 2015 it expects to commission new cement plants in Cameroon, Zambia, Ethiopia and Tanzania.
ARM Cement’s 2014 pre-tax profit flat 26 March 2015
Kenya: ARM Cement posted a pre-tax profit of US$22m for 2014, up by 1% from 2013. ARM's revenue fell by 3% year-on-year to US$150m, mainly because there was no additional capacity expansion during the year.
ARM Cement has predicted that 2015 will be better, with growth in turnover and profit.
"The cement markets continue to grow at double digits with significant demand from the infrastructure segment," said ARM in a statement. Booming economies in east Africa have buoyed cement demand in recent years, but local firms are preparing for increased competition from new entrants like Nigeria's Dangote Cement.
Cementos Argos records ‘historic results’ in 2014 26 March 2015
Colombia/US: Cementos Argos recorded 'historic' results in terms of both income and earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) in 2014. Income grew to US$2.9m, a year-on-year rise of 17%, while EBITDA hit US$534m, a rise of 8%. The company reported record cement sales of 12.5Mt. Its net profit went up by 59%.
The company's improved performance can, in large part, be attributed to Cementos Argos' enlarged footprint in the United States, where it increased cement production capacity by 107% year-on-year in 2014. The company is now the second-largest cement produer in the southeastern US and the country's second-largest concrete producer. Its strong performance is expected to continue, with the Portland Cement Association (PCA) anticipating year-on-year cement consumption growth of 12% in 2015.
"We see the next decade as the period in which Cementos Argos will see even greater rewards from the largest investments ever made by a Colombian company in the United States, which, jointly, reached a value of more than US$2.2bn," said Jorge Mario Velásquez, CEO of Cementos Argos. "These investments were consistent with our coherent strategy that was carried out with a great degree of discipline and at an opportune moment by taking advantage of a favourable exchange rate."
The company has also consolidated its presence in Central America and the Caribbean, after acquiring new assets in French Guiana for Euro50m and successfully integrating its operations in Honduras. As this is a region that receives a lot of remittances with currencies that are mostly tied to the US Dollar and the drop in oil prices further favours its economies, the countries in the region will also benefit from the upward trend of the North American economy.
Additionally, in Colombia, the company kept its leading position in a dynamic market driven by housing and infrastructure construction. Cementos Argos is participating in more than 70% of the infrastructure projects being carried out within the country and in 60% percent of the free homes programme being implemented by its national government.
Cement firm sales set to surge 10 - 15% 25 March 2015
Turkey: Sabancı Holding expects its cement business sales to rise by 10 – 15% in 2015 and is looking for acquisition opportunities, according to its chief executive Hakan Gurdal. Sabancı's cement group, which consists of Akçansa and Çimsa, posted a 16% increase in sales to US$980m in 2014.
"We are chasing opportunities for growth abroad. The financial structures of Akçansa and Çimsa are getting stronger, creating serious potential. We currently have the ability to borrow up to US$1.5bn to fund an acquisition," said Gurdal.
Sabancı Holding has long been interested in acquisitions, but has not bought any companies. Gurdal explained that this was due to geopolitical risks in the countries bordering Turkey. Gurdal added that the group had an investment target of US$117 – 129m, most of which would be invested in a plant in the Aegean province of Afyon. The plant is expected to start producing in May 2016.
Mexico: Holcim has announced plans to reduce its water consumption by 14% year-on-year in 2015 in Mexico. It has invested US$332,167 in the initiative and has installed meters at all of its cement plants. The installation was carried out to reduce the business's operational water footprint.
Donskaya Tekhnicheskaya Company to build cement terminal 25 March 2015
Russia: Donskaya Tekhnicheskaya Company, one of the largest suppliers of construction materials, intends to construct a cement terminal in Azov, Rostov in 2015, for Euro3.13m. The terminal will load out over 490,000t/yr or 2000t/day of cement. The cement will be dispatched by rail and by ships from the Sebryakovcement plant in Volgograd and the Novoroscement plant in Krasnodar. The project will help solve the cement deficit in the region.
QPMC cement terminal to be operational in 2015 25 March 2015
Qatar: The upcoming cement storage and conveying terminal being developed by Qatar Primary Materials Company (QPMC) in Mesaieed will be completed by the end of 2015, according to a senior official of a consultancy associated with the project.
The facility has been designed to discharge 1.8Mt/yr of cement into the 12 silos with a total storage capacity of 60,000m3. Once operational, the plant will be able to load 1000t/hr of cement in trucks, which will significantly reduce the truck loading time to about 90 seconds per truck.
"Once completed, the facility will help Qatar to import and store more cement than what it is able to do today. In case the local producers have a surplus output, in future, they can also use the storage facility, which will maintain the quality of cement intact for a longer period of time," said Marc Stordiau, managing director of 'Rent A Port', a Belgium-based engineering consultant specialising in port designing and logistics operations. "Although the temrinal has been designed for cement, it can also be used to store gypsum and clinker after minimal modification," added Stordiau.
According to Stordiau, the terminal will also improve the cost efficiency and handling capacity of the port significantly as the latest technology will help unload a vessel with 60,000m3 of cement within a day, instead of 10 - 15 days without the conveyor belts and silos facilities. The high rate of discharge capacity from ships will also reduce ship waiting times. The cement terminal is also equipped with smaller silos, which have been designed to load up to four trucks simultaneously, taking the total loading capacity to 40 trucks per hour or 20,000t/day.