Displaying items by tag: ASEC

Egypt: Arab Swiss Engineering Company (ASEC) has launched legal action against Misr Beni Suef Cement. The latter terminated the supplier’s technical management contract in mid-February 2021. Arab Finance has reported that the producer alleges that ASEC breached its commitments regarding its Beni Suef cement plant’s production capacity.

Egypt: Misr Beni Suef Cement has ended a contract with Arab Swiss Engineering Company (ASEC). In April 2019 the companies signed a contract for ASEC to provide technical management at the producer’s plant. Reuters News has reported that the cement company will now undertake the operation of its production lines.

Egypt: Cement Engineering and consultancy company ASEC has appointed Ashraf El-Kahky as its managing director. It follows the retirement of Khaled El-Sebaie, who has been in post for eight years. El-Sebaie will continue to work for the company as a technical consultant.

El-Kahky joined ASEC Group as the Group Chief Financial Officer in September 2019. He brings over 30 years of experience from roles in financial management, risk management, strategic planning and restructuring, having previously held leading roles in several national and multinational organisations.

Iraq: Arab Swiss Engineering Company (ASEC) will cover operation and maintenance of KAR Group’s 1.9Mt/yr integrated Qarachogh cement plant in Erbil. In a press release, ASEC stated that it has already overseen recruitment and planning and implementation of personnel development programs. ASEC's chairman and managing director Khaled El-Sebaie said he was ‘thrilled’ at the completion of the plant's hand-over.

Egypt: ASEC Engineering has renewed its technical management contract with Misr Beni Suef Cement until the end of 2023. ASEC originally worked on the first production line at the plant in 2001. It maintenance contract was renewed in 2007 with the addition of a new production line. The cement plant has a production capacity of 3.1Mt/yr.

Algeria: Egypt’s Qalaa Holdings has announced that its subsidiary ASEC Cement is looking to exit from Algeria-based Zahana Cement Factory. ASEC holds around a 35% stake in the Algerian facility and has so far invested US$62m in the plant, taking its capacity to 0.75Mt/yr. A new 1.6Mt/yr production line is currently being constructed at the plant, with commissioning expected in early 2020.

Algeria: ASEC Cement Company and ASEC Cement Djelfa Offshore have sold their 100% stake in ASEC Ciment Algerie to an Algerian investor for US$60m. ASEC Cement is based in Egypt, while ASEC Cement Djelfa and ASEC Ciment Algerie are based in Algeria.

Sudan made a rare mention in the cement news this week when state plans to increase production capacity were revealed. Minister of Investment Mudathir Abdul-Ghani commented on a visit to a cement plant in River Nile State that the government wants to increase production capacity from 3Mt/yr to 5Mt/yr.

It's likely that the minister meant cement production as opposed to production capacity and that something was lost in translation from the original source via the Sudan News Agency. Global Cement Directory 2016 data places the country's cement production capacity at just under 7Mt/yr from six plants. ASEC and the United States Geological Survey (USGS) have cited similar figures in recent years too. A Global Cement contact reported in June 2015 that only three of the six cement plants were generally operational. These were Atbara Cement, Alshamal Cement and Al Takamol Cement (ASEC). The last available figures from the Bank of Sudan reported cement production was 2.9Mt in 2013, excluding data from one plant.

Regardless, the focus on Sudan is worth attention. The usual African demographic factors and rebuilding potential following the secession of South Sudan in 2011 suggest that the country is ready for increases in cement consumption. In 2009 per capita cement consumption was placed at 65kg/capita, an extremely low figure. After this point cement production leapt up from 0.6Mt/yr in 2009 to 2.91Mt/yr in 2013. This was due to expansion projects and new plant builds such as the Al Takamol (ASEC) cement plant. Using the current 2015 estimate for population this would still keep the country's per capita consumption below 100kg/capita.

Back in its 2012 annual report ASEC described the Sudanese market as one 'plagued' by oversupply and fuel shortages, creating a difficult environment to operate within. Transportation challenges, political instability, economic sanctions and the separation with South Sudan were all mentioned as problems to the local cement industry, hitting utilisation rates. ASEC's stated plan at the time was to reduce costs to stay in business. This all chimes with direct reports to Global Cement placing the utilisation rate at 50%. Demand for cement reportedly fell in January 2016 due to high inflation rates, at about 35%, and a poor economy.

With these kinds of conditions it would take a brave investor to spend their money in Sudan despite the golden demographic trends. State investment or incentives could be instrumental. This makes the Minister of Investment's comments noteworthy. Despite all the problems ASEC reported a 'marked' rise in sales revenue in 2013 to US$70m for its subsidiary Al-Takamol in Sudan.

Egypt: ASEC Cement, part of Egypt-based Qalaa Holdings, has finalised the sale of ASEC Minya Cement and ASEC Ready Mix to Misr Cement Qena for a total of US$128m.

ASEC Minya Cement is located in Upper Egypt. It began commercial operations in August 2013, with a capacity of 2Mt/yr. ASEC Ready Mix is a producer and distributor of ready-mix concrete. The company operates six batch plants in Upper Egypt with 382,000m³ of production in 2014.

At the time of sale, ASEC Cement held 46.5% of ASEC Minya Cement and 55% of ASEC Ready Mix. Qalaa and its subsidiary National Development and Trading Company (NDT) together own 70% of ASEC Cement.

"We are pleased to announce that the sale process closed today, putting in place another cornerstone in our strategy to deleverage at both the holding and platform company levels," said Ahmed Heikal, Chairman and Founder of Qalaa Holdings. "Both ASEC Minya and ASEC Ready Mix have established themselves as critical players in the vital Upper Egyptian market and we are honoured to have worked with an exceptional management team at each of them to build them into the companies they are today."

Egypt: Misr Qena Cement has denied that it has acquired a 46% stake of ASEC Cement Company and a 55% stake of ASEC Concrete, which has been published in local newspapers. Misr Cement said that the published news was based on an assumption and that it would announce the deal when it was finalised.