September 2024
Saudi Arabia: Al Jouf Cement has signed a non-binding memorandum of understanding with China’s Riga Company to convert its second production line to produce white cement. The agreement will last six months.
Iraq: Al Shumookh Lucky Investments, a subsidiary of Pakistan’s Lucky Cement, has ordered a power pant from Finland’s Wärtsilä for its Najmat Al-Samawa cement plant. The equipment is scheduled for delivery towards the end of 2019, and the plant is expected to become fully operational during the third quarter of 2020. No price for the order has been disclosed.
The power plant will operate on two Wärtsilä 32 engines running on locally-available heavy fuel oil (HFO) with diesel as a back-up fuel. The engine is designed to operate with reduced fuel and water consumption in hot climates.
RHI Magnesita raises prices by 5% 25 April 2019
UK: Refractory manufacturer RHI Magnesita has increased its prices for industrial and steel users by 5%. It says the rise is a consequence of the persistent increase in operating, raw materials, manufacturing, environmental and regulatory costs. The increase has been applied to the whole product range including basic (magnesia and dolomite based) and non-basic products, varying in a range of 3% to 20%. Customers have already started to be informed accordingly.
The company said that global scarcity of raw materials was still evident, mainly due to Chinese environmental regulations that have restricted mining and processing. Since 2017 there has been a ‘step’ change in refractory raw material production as China has implemented new environmental standards, which adjusted the level of production to global standards. Consequently, the refractory industry has been faced with supply shortages, leading to elevated raw material prices especially in higher grade dead burned and fused magnesia. This situation is expected to continue in 2019 although in the medium term prices are expected to fall below levels seen before 2017.
Fuchs opens new plant in Suzhou 25 April 2019
China: Germany’s Fuchs Petrolub has opened new plant in Wujiang, Suzhou. The Euro46m unit replaces a plant in Shanghai. Work on the plant started in 2017.
The new 80,000m² plant has a capacity of 100,000t/yr in phase one, almost double the capacity of the Shanghai plant. The automated high-bay warehouse has a capacity of 12,000 pallets. The production portfolio includes automotive oils, industrial oils, metalworking fluids, corrosion preventatives, rolling oils, coating materials and products for the forging industry. Expansion in phase two is at the development stage. Fuchs is also expanding its offices and laboratories at the site in Shanghai.
Clinker wars 24 April 2019
One of the long running trends in the cement industry is that of production overcapacity. Sure enough more than a few news stories this week covered this, as various players reacted to international trade in clinker and cement. The Bangladesh Cement Manufacturers Association wants its government to cut import duties on clinker. Algeria’s shift from an importing cement nation to an exporting one continues.
Armenia and Afghanistan are coping with influxes of cement imports from neighbouring Iran. Pakistan’s cement exporters, who have been losing ground in Afghanistan, are once again lobbying to remove anti-dumping measures in South Africa. The argument between Hard Rock Cement and Arawak Cement in Barbados may have swung Hard Rock Cement’s way as the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) has ruled in favour of lower tariffs for imports. Last week it was reported that the Rwanda Bureau of Standards had blocked cement imports from Uganda on quality requirement grounds.
The summarised version is that all this excess clinker and cement can cause arguments and market distortions as it finds new markets. Typically, the media reports upon the negative side of this, when the representatives of national industries defend their patch and speak out about ‘quality concerns,’ potential job losses and blows to the local economy. However, it isn’t always like this as the Afghan story shows this week. Here, although the Chamber of Commerce and Industries wants to promote locally produced cement, imports are welcome and the relative merits of different sources are discussed. Ditto the situation in Bangladesh where a predominantly grinding-based industry naturally wants to cut its raw material costs.
We’ve covered clinker and cement exports more than a few times, most recently in September 2018 when the jaw-dropping scale of Vietnam’s exports in 2018 started to become clear. Yet as the continued flow of news stores this week makes clear it’s a topic that never grows old.
Graph 1: Top cement exporting countries in 2018. Source: International Trade Centre.
Looking globally raises a number of issues. First, a warning. The data in Graph 1 comes from the International Trade Centre (ITC), a comprehensive source of trade statistics. Most of its figures are in line with data from government bodies and trade associations but its export figure is around a tenth of the estimated export figure for Iran of around 13Mt for its 2018 - 2019 year. Last time this column looked at exports similar issues were noted with a discrepancy between Vietnam’s exports from the ITC compared to government data.
Iran aside, all the usual suspects are present and correct. A point of interest here is that the list is a mixture of countries that make the headlines for their exports, like Vietnam, and those that are quietly just getting on with business. Japan for example exported 10.7Mt in 2018. More telling are the changes in exports from 2017 to 2018. Exports fell in Japan, China and Spain. They rose in Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, Pakistan and South Korea.
Looking globally, China is the elephant in the room in this topic given its apparent massive production overcapacity. The industry here is structurally unable to export cement on the scale of other countries but, as its major companies expand internationally, this may change. Despite this China still managed to be the third biggest exporter of cement to the US in 2018 at 2Mt and the fifth biggest in the world. Yet, as the ITC data shows, its exports fell by 30% year-on-year to 9Mt in 2018.
Vietnam, Pakistan and Turkey continue to be some of the key exporting nations with production capacities rising in defiance of domestic realities. Pakistan, for example, is coming off a building boom from the China–Pakistan Economic Corridor infrastructure project and all those plants are now looking for new markets. Vietnam says it is benefitting from industry consolidation in China. Its exports grew by 55% year-on-year rise to 31.6Mt. It shipped 9.8Mt to China in 2018. Its main export markets in 2019 are expected to be the Philippines, Bangladesh, China, Taiwan and Peru. Turkey, meanwhile, struggled with general economic issues in 2018. Its cement exports fell by 6% to 7.5Mt in 2018 according to Turkish Cement Manufacturers Association data. Once again this is at odds with ITC data, which reports nearly twice as many exports.
This touches the tip of the iceberg of a big issue but while production over-capacity continues these kinds of trade arguments will endure. Vietnam, for example, may be enjoying supplying cement in China as that country scales down production. Yet, what will happen to all of those Vietnamese plants once Chinese consumption stabilises?! Similar bear traps lie in wait for the other major exports. Alongside this many of the multinational cement companies are pivoting to concrete production. This may be in recognition of the fact that in a clinker-abundant world profits should be sought elsewhere in the supply chain. A topic for another week.
For an overview of some of these themes and more read Dr Robert McCaffrey’s article ‘The Global Cement Industry in 2050’ in the May 2019 issue of Global Cement Magazine and his forthcoming keynote presentation at the 61st IEEE-IAS/PCA Cement Conference 2019 at St Louis in Missouri, US.
Eagle Materials to appoint Mike Nicolais as chairman 24 April 2019
US: Eagle Materials is planning to appoint board vice-chairman Mike Nicolais as chairman. He will succeed Rick Stewart, who will continue working for the company as a director.
Nicolais currently serves as vice chairman at Highlander Partners, a Dallas-based private equity firm. From 2001 - 2003, he served as a partner in the private investment firm of Olivhan Investments, followed by being named managing director at Stephens. Previously, he spent 14 years in the investment banking division of Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette Securities, and was managing director and co-head of the company’s Dallas office.
CRH first quarter sales up by 7% 24 April 2019
Ireland: CRH’s sales rose by 7% year-on-year for the first quarter of 2019. It said that sales volumes benefited from mild weather conditions, good momentum across most of its major markets and price rises.
Sales from its Americas Materials business grew by 4% although it noted falling cement and concrete volumes in its West US and Canada regions. It also said that its acquisition of Ash Grove Cement that was completed in mid-2018 had met its synergy delivery programme targets. Sales from its Europe Materials business increased by 12% due in part to better weather than the first quarter in 2017. By key markets the group reported strong sales volumes in Germany, Poland, Romania and the Philippines.
India: ACC’s sales rose by 8% year-on-year to US$551m in the first quarter of 2019 from US$509m in the same period in 2018. Its sales volumes of cement grew by 6% to 7.5Mt from 7.1Mt. Ready-mix concrete (RMX) sales volumes grew by 19% to 0.94Mm3 from 0.79Mm3. Its operating earnings before interest, taxation, deprecation and amortisation (EBITDA) increased by 8% to US$76.1m from US$70.4m.
"Our three-pronged strategy of customised solutions for consumers, focus on premium products and operational improvements are enhancing our bottom-line and powering ACC's strong growth trajectory,” said Neeraj Akhoury, managing director and chief executive officer (CEO) of the subsidiary of LafargeHolcim.
The company noted that fuel and slag prices rose in the quarter although this was compensated by market growth, cost reductions, fuel mix improvements and general production optimisation. It added that plant capacity utilisation improved during the reporting period. ACC also commission eight new RMX plants in the first quarter of 2019, bringing its total to 80.
Mexico: Grupo Cementos de Chihuahua’s (GCC) sales fell in the first quarter of 2019 due to lower cement and concrete volumes in the US. Sales volumes rose in Mexico and the group described a ‘favourable pricing environment’ in both markets. Its net sales dropped by 1.9% year-on-year to US$163m from US$167m. Cement sales volumes fell by 7.3% in the US but they rose by 3.8% in Mexico. Earnings before interest, taxation, deprecation and amortisation (EBITDA) fell by 16% to US$38.3m from US$45.6m.
“The US operations slowed, with severe inclement weather continuing into the first quarter. However, there is a strong backlog and we are picking up the pace as the weather conditions improve,” said Enrique Escalante, GCC’s chief executive officer (CEO). He added that Chihuahua in Mexico continued to perform well driven by mining shipments, industrial maquiladora plants and warehouse construction and middle-income housing starts.
Bangladesh Cement Manufacturers Association calls for clinker import duties to be reduced 24 April 2019
Bangladesh: The Bangladesh Cement Manufacturers Association (BCMA) has asked for import tariffs on clinker to be reduced. In a letter to the National Board of Revenue (NBR) it requested that the duty be cut to either US$2.40/t or a fixed rate of 5%, according to the Dhaka Tribune newspaper. Importers pay around US$6.00/t at present. The BCMA argues that the cement industry is paying more than other industries for its imports.
The association has also called for value added tax (VAT) on raw materials to be cut to 5% from 15%, reducing advance income tax to 2.5% from 5% and exempting regulatory duties for fly ash and import duties for cement bulk carriers.