September 2024
Zambia: Lafarge Zambia's CEO, Emmanuel Rigaux, said that its profit went up by 66% during the first six months of 2014, largely driven by favourable volumes, the launch of cost-control measures, improved industrial performance and positive foreign exchange gains.
"Our priority to improve our level of customer service through innovative new products, a re-focused sales and customer service team and state-of-the-art logistical solutions, have started to show results," said Rigaux. "Together with improvements in operational and industrial performance at our Ndola and Chilanga plants, we have managed to attain encouraging first half results despite a challenging environment in Zambia and key export markets."
Cement production grew by 13% to 600,000t, despite domestic and export markets facing challenges with stiffening competition, cost inflation and a number of changes in the regulatory environment. Lafarge Zambia expects continued efforts on the customer and cost-control sides to enable the firm to grow profitably and meet the needs of domestic and export customers, with a strong focus on infrastructure and mining projects in Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Rigaux said that Lafarge Zambia's current capacity expansion projects in Ndola and Chilanga would also enable the company to remain the preferred supplier of construction solutions in Zambia and the DRC. He added that cement demand is expected to remain strong for the rest of 2014, saying that innovative products, services and solutions would be introduced as required to satisfy the growing demand in the construction sector.
India: Orient Cement, a CK Birla Group company, is in talks with cement companies to acquire a cement plant as part of a plan to triple its capacity from 5Mt/yr to 15Mt/yr by 2020.
"We are in strategic discussions with three players to acquire a cement plant with a capacity of up to 2Mt/yr," said Deepak Khetrapal, managing director and CEO of Orient Cement. He declined to name the companies, but added that the plant would be ideally located in Madhya Pradesh or Chhattisgarh.
The expansion plan also involves setting up greenfield cement plants and expanding existing facilities. Orient Cement has set up a 3Mt/yr greenfield plant in Gulbarga, Karnataka, which will become operational shortly. The company also plans to open another greenfield plant in the next five years, according to Khetrapal.
Orient Cement has outlined a capital expenditure of around US$444m for the expansion plan, to be funded through internal accruals and debt. Currently the company operates in Telangana and three regions of Maharashtra: Khandesh, Vidarbha, Marathwada. The expansion will give Orient Cement access to markets in Karnataka and central India.
Mexico's Cemex to build new cement plant in Colombia 15 August 2014
Colombia: Cemex has announced that it will begin construction of a US$340m cement plant in Colombia. The first phase of the project includes construction of a new grinding mill that will begin to produce cement in the second quarter of 2015. The rest of the plant will be completed in the second half of 2016.
"We are proud to contribute to the development of Colombia and wish to continue to be a long-term partner on its path to a prosperous, sustainable future," said Cemex's CEO, Fernando Gonzalez. The investment by Cemex Latam Holdings is expected to boost production capacity in Colombia from 4.5Mt/yr to nearly 5.5Mt/yr.
The plant will be built in the north-western Colombian province of Antioquia, a region with high economic-growth levels. It is expected to create 1000 direct jobs in the construction phase and around 300 jobs once operations begin.
India: As a result of poor demand and unremunerative prices, several cement companies in Andhra Pradesh and Telengana have shut down plants or are running them on a campaign basis. Andhra Pradesh and Telengana have nearly 25% of India's limestone reserves.
"Demand continues to be weak, but prices have started to improve now as manufacturers have decided not to sell below cost," said one unnamed cement producer. "Several plants in Andhra Pradesh and Telengana have shut down or are in the process of a sale."
Among the plants that have shut down their operations temporarily is the Panyam Cements' 0.4Mt/yr capacity cement plant in Nandyal, Andhra Pradesh. "We had shut our plant due to internal financial issues, but that has been sorted out and the plant restarted 10 days ago," said a Panyam spokesperson. Bheema Coromandel, which has a 1.2Mt/yr plant near Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh is only running its plant for 'token' production, according to local sources.
"There is practically no demand in South India," said N Srinivasan, vice chairman and managing director of India Cements. "The negative growth in Andhra Pradesh and Telengana has continued for far too long." India Cements has reported a US$493,340 net loss for the quarter that ended on 30 June 2014.
Cement production capacity in the south of India is around 110Mt/yr, while demand is only 70Mt/yr. Consequently, existing cement makers have trimmed their capacity utilisation to around 65% and are holding on to prices to ensure there are no losses.
"There are expectations of improvements in the sentiment with the new Union Budget proposals for reviving growth, stepping up investments in infrastructure and housing," said Srinivasan. "The bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh has also raised hopes for renewed economic activity under the new governments in Andhra Pradesh and Telengana."
James Hardie’s first quarter 2015 net profit fell by 80% 15 August 2014
Australia: James Hardie Industries, an Australian fibre cement producer, has posted an 80% fall in its net profit to US$28.9m during the first quarter of its 2015 fiscal year, which ended on 30 June 2014. During the same period of its 2014 fiscal year, net profit was US$142m.
The company revised down its full year earnings expectations due to an uncertain US economic recovery. James Hardie generates 66% of its revenue in Europe and the USA. James Hardie's CEO, Louis Gries, said that the US market 'is recovering more modestly than we assumed at the start of the year.'
Wonder Cement orders further MPS mills from Gebr. Pfeiffer 14 August 2014
India: Wonder Cement, based in Rajasthan, India has placed another order with Germany's Gebr. Pfeiffer SE for the supply of raw meal and coal mills to India. The order was awarded to Gebr. Pfeiffer following positive experiences with identical mills that already operate at Wonder Cement's plant.
Active in the lime and cement industries Wonder Cement is planning to extend its cement plant in Tehsil Nimbahera in the Chittorgarh District. A rotary kiln with a capacity of an approximate 8500t/day will be supplied by the raw mill and coal mill ordered from Gebr. Pfeiffer.
The MPS 5600 B to be installed for the production of 605t/hr of raw meal with a fineness of 1.5% residue on the 212µm sieve will be equipped with a 5600kW drive. The coal mill will be produced on an MPS 3070 BK with a capacity of 40t/hr with a product fineness of 2% residue on the 90µm sieve. Due to the high abrasiveness of Indian coal, the mill will be equipped with adapted wear protection
Mongolia: Senj Sant is in the midst of constructing a new dry-process cement plant, which will be the first of its kind in Mongolia. The plant is being built to meet rising demand generated by a rapidly-growing economy. The new Senj Sant plant is strategically located in southern Mongolia about 450km from the capital city, Ulaanbaatar.
A deal with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) to lend Senj Sant US$65m, following an earlier US$20m equity investment for a stake in Senj Sant that was agreed in May 2013, was signed recently by the EBRD's first vice president Phil Benett.
"This project represents yet another step towards the diversification of Mongolia's economy," said Bennett. Senj Sant, which is owned by Mongolia's Monpolymet Group, is using EBRD finance to continue funding the construction, commissioning and operation of the plant, which is expected to have a total capacity of about 3000t/day of cement with the start of production in 2015.
"The EBRD's long term finance, including equity, is not only helping us to build the first greenfield cement plant in Mongolia using the environmentally-friendly dry-process, but also supporting the company in raising business standards to international levels," said the CEO of Monpolymet Group, Munkhnasan Narmandakh. Mongolia's high levels of mining and infrastructure investment make investment in cement capacity key for future development.
Venezuela: On 21 July 2014 the president of Venezuelan cement producer La Corporación Socialista del Cemento, ángel Jesús Moreno Gudño, signed an agreement with the president of China's CATIC, Zou Kangning, for a new cement plant. The 1.2Mt/yr capacity plant will be located in Los Arangues, Lara State, Venezuela.
Turkey: Ireland's CRH and its Turkish partner Eren Holding AS have hired JP Morgan Chase & Co (JPM) to help sell their cement joint venture in Turkey. CRH and Eren Holding each own a 50% stake.
Companies including Haci Omer Sabançi Holding AS (SAHOL), Limak Holding AS and Oyak Cement Group are interested in the plant. The three potential bidders are among those shortlisted and the sale process for the venture, which is known as Denizli Çimento Sanayii TAS, could be finalised by October 2014.
Denizli produces about 3% of Turkey's and 31% of western Turkey's total clinker output, according to its website. It is aiming to increase its sales to Euro86.8m in 2014 from Euro76.1m 2013.
Who watches the cement plants? 13 August 2014
The comic book series 'Watchmen' takes its title from the Latin phrase 'Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?' which is translated as 'Who watches the watchmen?' Commonly used today to warn against government, police and judicial corruption, the saying might also apply to those groups who watch big industry such as the Atlas of Environmental Justice.
This initiative is an online database compiled by the Environmental Justice Organisations, Liabilities and Trade (EJOLT) to map environmental conflicts around the world. It's a great tool, it is professionally presented and the project is backed by the European Commission. EJOLT's goals are to give those fighting for environmental justice a voice and to gather data to allow policy change.
As ever the problem with any form of user-content database is who vets the submissions and how much of 'reality' does the data actually represent compared to a more curated project. The mass use of Wikipedia shows that these issues can be overcome to some extent, while user-submitted online hotel and restaurant reviews often suggest otherwise.
All three conflicts registered in the EJ Atlas in southern England, where the Global Cement office is based, offer incomplete or misleading data. The entry for the third runway expansion at Heathrow airport doesn't present the economic benefits of expanding the airport or what the alternatives are. Rightly, the activists will argue that they have significantly smaller resources compared to the big industrial multinationals to fight their corner. Unfortunately this shows in the EJ Atlas and the user-submitted data approach it uses.
At the time of writing only 15 cases are tagged as cement-related out of a total of 1154. This is far fewer cases than you might expect with no mention, for example, of any of the regular environmental scuffles the cement industry faces in North America. The cases it does list are mainly based in Latin America with other clusters in southern Europe and India. Of these, three have been mislabelled and are not even related to the cement industry. The rest are mainly concerned with pollution due to waste incineration and mineral extraction worries. The waste incineration listings have a certain irony about them considering that these cement plants are almost certainly praising themselves for their reduced carbon emissions!
In the online world big companies can sometimes be at a disadvantage to nimble activist campaigns. Journalists from national media outlets can easily find campaigns with a web or social media presence to provide counterpoint for editorial. A good example is the Stop Titan Action Network that formed to fight Titan America's cement plant in Castle Hayne in North Carolina, US.
If the EJ Atlas accrues more attention and/or carries on past its project deadline of 2015 then the problems with the atlas may be fixed as activists log more cases, industry refutes them and the moderators weigh up the arguments in line with the project's aims of environmental justice. As previous online examples have shown, engagement may be better than ignoring these kind of initiatives.