Displaying items by tag: Acquisition

Russia: Holcim’s divested Russian business has rebranded as Cementum. Local management concluded a deal to buy the company from Switzerland-based Holcim in December 2022. The new ownership agreed to change the name upon completion of the transaction. Holcim Russia had been operating as a deconsolidated subsidiary of Holcim since March 2022, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Cemex launched a new waste management division called Regenera this week. Cemex describes Regenera as a “business that provides circularity solutions, including reception, management, recycling, and coprocessing of waste.” The Mexico-based company has a long and leading history with sourcing and using alternative fuels in the cement sector and the new organisation looks set to utilise this experience. What is notable though is how the business is targeting three waste streams: municipal and industrial; industrial by-products; and construction, demolition and excavation waste (CDEW). Bringing the three waste streams together in this way appears to be novel for the heavy building materials sector, particularly the inclusion of CDEW, which we will explore further here.

CDEW is split into fractions, just like the municipal and solid waste streams that end up as alternative fuels at cement plants, but the biggest fractions are generally concrete, followed by bricks. The recycled concrete is then typically used as an aggregate, either in new concrete production or in areas like road construction and earthworks. The use of recycled aggregates (RA) made from CDEW goes back to at least the 1930s in its current form although ‘reusing’ materials from structures such as castles and churches goes back far further. Recycling and reusing CDEW gained a boost in 2020 when the European Union (EU) set a 70% recovery target. However, within the EU the CDEW recycling rates vary considerably and that 2020 target includes the use of CDEW in backfill applications.

In its launch statement for Regenera, Cemex noted that it operates a dock in Paris, where it receives a variety of materials, including construction debris, excavated material and inert soil. These materials are sorted, processed and then transformed into recycled aggregates or organic material used to restore quarries. Cemex then promptly followed up the official launch of Regenera on 30 January 2023 with the acquisition of a majority stake in Shtang Recycle, an Israel-based CDEW recycling company. It added that Shtang Recycle is preparing to build a recycling plant with a production capacity of 0.6Mt/yr of CDEW waste materials. The output from the plant will be used as raw materials for aggregate production.

The focus on CDEW recycling was flagged up at Cemex’s investor event in November 2022. It said that it was targeting a recycling rate of 14Mt/yr of construction and demolition waste by 2030. Other managed waste stream goals included doubling the amount of municipal and industrial waste it manages, to achieve a 50% to fossil fuel substitution rate, and increasing its usage of alternative raw materials and by-products by 30%, thereby eliminating 13Mt/yr of extracted materials.

Cemex is not alone in targeting the CDEW waste sector. Holcim’s recent work in the area goes back to at least 2016 when a recycling unit near its Retznei cement plant in Austria started processing 130,000t/yr of CDEW. It announced in December 2022 that it was setting up a similar recycling centre, also in Austria, at its Mannersdorf cement plant. In October 2022 Holcim acquired Wiltshire Heavy Building Materials in the UK. This company recycles 150,000t/yr of construction and demolition waste into aggregates and concrete. Holcim linked the acquisition to its Strategy 25 target of recycling 10Mt/yr of construction and demolition waste by 2025.

Activity by other cement companies includes the commissioning of a construction waste recycling plant at Gennevilliers in France by CRH-subsidiary Eqiom in April 2022. It was aiming for a target of 50,000t in 2022. In November 2022 Heidelberg Materials agreed to acquire RWG Holding based in Berlin, Germany. Then, in December 2022, it announced a deal to buy Mick George Group in the UK. Both proposed acquisitions are subject to competition authority approval. Heidelberg Materials’ current target is to offer circular alternatives for half of its concrete products by 2030.

The moves by the bigger cement companies into the CDEW sector follow sustainable thinking and the waste hierarchy. Yet the big prize here is to gain a route to dispose of some of their CO₂ emissions through recarbonation and this has been flagged up in several net-zero roadmaps for the cement sector such as those by Cembureau and the Global Cement and Concrete Association (GCCA). Holcim has been involved in the FastCarb project in France, running a pilot at its Val d’Azergues cement plant in 2021. Heidelberg Materials has been testing its own process with so-called recycled concrete paste. The development now appears to be that utilising CDEW has entered the sustainability strategies for some of the big cement-concrete-aggregate producers, targets have been set and acquisitions are happening.

For more information on Heidelberg Materials research into concrete recycling read the January 2023 issue of Global Cement Magazine

Oman: Aditya Birla Group subsidiary UltraTech Cement signed an agreement with Seven Seas Company to acquire a 70% majority stake in Duqm Cement on 30 January 2023. ET Now News has reported that UltraTech Cement’s UAE-based subsidiary Cement Middle East Investments concluded the deal in the form of a share sale and purchase agreement. the parties expect to complete the transaction in late April 2023.

France: Private equity investment company Platinum Equity has completed its acquisition of Calderys from Imerys. It announced in July 2022 that it had agreed to pay around Euro930m to buy Imerys’ High Temperature Solutions business (HTS). Michel Cornelissen will remain as the president and chief executive officer of the refractory manufacturer.

In December 2022 Platinum Equity said that it has signed a definitive merger agreement to buy HarbisonWalker International (HWI), a supplier of refractory products and services in North America. the move is intended to create a global refractories supplier. The HWI deal is expected to complete in the first half of 2023 subject to closing conditions and regulatory approval.

Philippines: Cemex has launched an offer to acquire 12% of outstanding shares in Cemex Philippines, giving it a 90% stake in the company, for US$38m. Axis Negocios News has reported that the group is seeking to increase and consolidate its interests in Cemex Philippines in order to assess a potential divestment from its position.

In December 2020, Cemex increased its stake in its subsidiary Cemex Latam Holdings by 20% to 93%. It subsequently divested part of that business in 2022.

Australia: The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has called for public comment on Switzerland-based Sika's proposed acquisition of Germany-based fellow construction chemicals producer MBCC Group. The commission has raised 'preliminary concerns' over the possible competition impacts of Sika obtaining an 80% Australian market share as a result of the deal.

Sika group responded to the ACCC's concerns with an offer of an undertaking to divest MBCC Group's entire Australia and New Zealand business.

The Ministry of Trade in Türkiye said this week that it was monitoring developments in the construction industry. Specifically, the ministry is reacting to complaints it has received about the high price of cement and supply issues. It has been looking at exports of clinker and cement. The statement noted that prices had risen particularly in the last one to two months and that the government was prepared to take unspecified action to alleviate the situation.

The comments hark back to the autumn of 2021 when members of the Construction Contractors Confederation (IMKON) stopped working for two weeks in response to high prices including cement. At the time the ministry tightened its rules on exporting cement and clinker. This followed the start of an investigation into alleged anti-competitive behaviour by the regulator Rekabat Kurumu into nine cement producers in the first half of that year. Around the same time Türk Çimento, the Turkish Cement Manufacturers' Association, had also been warning about growing raw material and energy costs. It noted that declining domestic sales between 2017 and 2019 had encouraged its members to focus on export markets more. All of this was overshadowed in February 2022 when Russia invaded Ukraine and global energy prices spiked. Türk Çimento then warned of the trouble that high coal prices were causing the sector.

Graph 1: Domestic and export cement sales in Türkiye, January – September, 2017 – 2022. Source: Türk Çimento.

Graph 1 above shows that the trend towards exports that Türk Çimento pointed out in mid-2021 has continued. Domestic sales fell to a low of 33.2Mt in 2019, recovered to 2021 and dropped somewhat so far in 2022. As an aside, that decline in domestic sales from 2017 to 2019 was the first the local cement industry had experienced a fall in sales since at least 2002. Exports fell year-on-year in 2018 but have increased steadily since then to 14.6Mt in the first nine months of 2022. Exports represented 10% of total sales in 2017. So far in 2022 they have accounted for 27% of total sales. Türk Çimento’s take on the picture so far in 2022 is that it expects the domestic market to decline by 10% in 2022 in all regions of the country principally due to high commodity prices. Cement exports are expected to increase but clinker exports to decrease.

Commercially, Türkiye-based cement producers have reacted to high energy prices by upping their own product prices in turn. OYAK Çimento, for example, reported significant rises year-on-year in sales revenue and earnings in the first nine months of 2022. Net sales grew by 160% year-on-year to Euro403m and earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) increased by 202% to Euro106m. Akçansa and Çimsa reported a similar situation.

Despite the high energy costs, both investment and merger and acquisition activity has continued in the cement sector in 2022. In August 2022 Fernas Group completed its purchase of two integrated cement plants, a grinding plant and associated ready-mix concrete assets from Çimsa Çimento for US$110m. Later in the year, in November 2022, Safi Çimento acquired Sancim Bilecik Çimento’s integrated plant from Aşkale Çimento. Various upgrade projects to cement plants were also reported including projects at KÇS Kipaş Çimento’s Kahramanmaraş plant, Nuh Çimento’s Hereke cement plant, MEDCEM’s Silifke plant and OYAK Çimento’s Ünye plant.

Recent reporting by the Economist newspaper suggests that the government is targeting the domestic housing sector in response to higher than inflation price rises even compared to Türkiye’s high consumer price inflation rate. The next general election in June 2023 may also be encouraging legislators to look at the accommodation needs of their constituents. Whether this is connected to the Ministry of Trade’s recent decision is unknown. Cement producers have followed the money to lucrative export markets in recent years. How far the government is willing to intervene in this strategy could mark a change in direction for the sector.

Denmark: Equipment manufacturer FLSmidth has launched new corporate strategies for its cement and mining sectors. The so-called ‘pure play’ plans are intended to further focus on technology, products and services and sustainability. The group says it is also simplifying its operating model to reduce risks, improve efficiencies, ensure stronger execution and improve profitability and quality of earnings. The announcement was made at the same time as the group’s latest investor event.

Mikko Keto, the chief executive officer at FLSmidth, said “We must prioritise our efforts on our core business, reduce risk and execute with excellence. We have already started to fundamentally transform our business to ensure stronger strategy execution and to achieve our long-term ambitions to the benefit of our stakeholders.”

In the cement sector the group’s ‘Green 26’ plan aims to make the company the preferred service supplier for the industry. It added that it has a “clear commitment to drive the green transition in the cement industry.” It has set a target of reaching an 8% earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) margin by 2026. For the mining sector the target is a 13 - 15% margin.

In provisional financial results for 2022, FLSmidth revealed that it had an EBITDA margin of 3.3% for cement and 7.6% for mining. Group revenue rose by 24% year-on-year to Euro2.93bn in 2022 from Euro2.37bn in the 2021. Revenue from the cement and mining sectors grew by 7% to Euro847m and 29% to Euro2.03bn respectively. The group said that the short-term outlook for the cement industry remained impacted by overcapacity and that a potential recession is expected to impact market demand negatively over the coming period. Its mining sector revenue was inflated by the acquisition of ThyssenKrupp Mining in 2022.

India: Sagar Cements has won the auction to acquire Andhra Cements from Jaiprakash Associates (Jaypee Group), a company currently undergoing an insolvency process. The committee of creditors of Andhra Cements voted to approve the sale, although the amount of the bid has not been disclosed, according to the Press Trust of India. Dalmia Cement (Bharat) was also reportedly made a bid for the cement producer.

Andhra Cements operates an integrated plant at Durga and a grinding plant at Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh. It was previously acquired by Jaypee Group in 2012 from Duncan Goenka Group.

Zimbabwe: Lafarge Cement Zimbabwe has rebranded to Khayah Cement amidst its on-going corporate restructuring. The Sunday News has reported that Khayah Cement is in the process of reconstituting its board of directors and board committees.