September 2024
Elementia’s Jamie Ruiz Sacristán dies 22 April 2020
Mexico: Elementia has announced the death of its board member Jaime Ruiz Sacristán who died on 12 April 2020. The company said that Sacristán worked with ‘tireless dedication’ at the company for 20 years to ‘build Elementia, contributing knowledge, talent and direction.’
During a distinguished career, Sacristán held positions such as president of the board of directors of the Mexican Stock Exchange, president, partner and founder of Grupo Financiero Ve por Más and president of the Mexican Association of Bankers. He was also a member of the board of directors of numerous companies in the financial, industrial and commercial sectors.
Francisco del Valle Perochena, chairman of the board at Elementia said, “I am very sad to report the death of a great man and friend. He will always be present in our lives and in our hearts. He leaves us an invaluable legacy as a professional and as a great human being. His temperance, wisdom, good sense and prudence are just some of the great qualities that we admired and respected in him.”
ACC records coronavirus-related downturn 22 April 2020
India: The impact of the coronavirus pandemic was visible in the financial performance of ACC, one of LafargeHolcim’s major Indian subsidiaries, during the three months to 31 March 2020. For the quarter, the company’s consolidated net profit fell by 6.6% on a year-on-year basis to US$42.1m, while net sales declined by 11% to US$448m on the back of a steep fall in volumes, which came to 6.6Mt, 12% lower year-on-year. ACC’s ready mix concrete (RMC) volumes remained stable at 930,000t.
The pandemic mainly impacted sales volumes in March 2020, whereas January and February 2020 saw healthy growth in both cement and RMC sales. ACC said that this was due to a focus on premium products, increase in value-added solutions in its ready mix business, cost reductions on the manufacturing side and logistics-derived savings. Input cost of raw materials were lower on account of material source mix optimisation and supply chain efficiencies. Consequently, the company’s earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) for the first quarter increased by 10% year-on-year to US$76.4m.
Sridhar Balakrishnan, ACC’s managing director and chief executive officer (CEO), said, “We believe that with a high probability of a normal monsoon season, growth in the rural economy will revive and stay strong. We expect cement demand to increase in the medium term once the pandemic subsides and business operations commence”.
Pakistan: Fauji Cement has reported that its net profit fell by 88% to US$3.53m for the first nine months of its 2020 fiscal year, a period that ended on 31 March 2020. The company reported that its sales plunged, having previously made a net profit of US$32m in the first nine months of its 2019 fiscal year. Analysts reported that the company’s revenue saw a 2% year-on-year decline in sales to 0.71Mt during the nine-month period. Lower sales prices, currency depreciation and higher coal prices all contributed to the weaker performance.
Kazakhstan: The acting Minister of Industry and Infrastructure Development of Kazakhstan has signed an order regarding the regulation of several types of cement. This includes the provision for a ban on the import of cement from countries not within the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) for six months from Monday 27 April 2020. Specifically the ban concerns cement clinkers, Portland cement, alumina cement and other forms of hydraulic cement.
Eagle Materials sells aggregates and concrete operations 22 April 2020
US: Eagle Materials has sold its Western Aggregates and Mathews Ready Mix subsidiaries for a combined value of US$93.5m. Eagle’s President and chief executive officer (CEO), Michael Haack said that the transaction represented the sale of non-core assets on the heavy-side of the company that do not provide essential support to its primary cement plant network.
Moderate fall in cement activity in Qatar 22 April 2020
Qatar: The manufacturing sector of Qatar recorded a 2% month-on-month decrease in activity in February 2020 compared to January 2020. Cement and non-metallic mineral product production decreased by 1.6%.
Triple-whammy hits cement sales in Egypt 22 April 2020
Egypt: Cement sales have fallen by around 35 - 40% in Egypt. This is reported to be due a number of factors that has each taken a chunk out of demand, including coronavirus lockdown measures, the imminent onset of Ramadan and the start of the wheat harvest season. Cement sales prices are reported to have fallen as a result of the lower demand.
Japan: Taiheiyo Cement has partnered with JFE Steel and the Global Institute for Environmental Technology to develop a carbon capture and storage system. The system will use wet alkaline earth metals extracted from steel slag to produce carbonates from exhaust gases at cement and steel plants. The partners are investigating the possibility of using these carbonates, specifically calcium carbonate and magnesium carbonate, as additives in cement production at Taiheiyo Cement’s plants. Taiheiyo Cement president Masafumi Shigehara said, “With the effects of climate change becoming apparent both in Japan and overseas, the importance of global warming counter-measures is increasing.”
HeidelbergCement launches short-time working 21 April 2020
Germany: Staff of HeidelbergCement in Germany will be employed on a ‘short-time’ basis, with hours reductions of up to 100%. HeidelbergCement says that it agreed upon the measure with employee representative bodies.
HeidelbergCement’s supervisory board and management board members have waived 20% of their fixed salaries in the second quarter of 2020 due to the financial impacts of the coronavirus outbreak.
Russia: Sibirskiy Cement produced 525,000t of cement at its three plants in the first quarter of 2020, up by 14% year-on-year from 460,000t in the corresponding period of 2019. The 3.7Mt/yr Topkinskiy Cement plant produced 388,000t, up by 21% year-on-year from 320,000t; the 1.1Mt/yr Krasnoyarsk Cement plant produced 97,600t, down by 17% year-on-year from 118,000t and the Timluy Cement plant produced 39,600t, up by 73% year-on-year from 22,9000t. Sibirskiy Cement’s first vice president Gennady Rasskazov said, “Cement consumption in Siberia, Buryatia and the Trans-Baikal Territory reached 845,000t in the first three months of 2020, up by 15% year-on-year from 735,000t.” He said that April 2020 has brought a ‘significant decrease in demand,’ and revised Sibirskiy Cement’s projected 2020 sales to an estimated decrease of 7-10% from 3-5% growth. Over a two-and-a-half-month period, Rasskazov predicted a 30-50% sales fall.