Displaying items by tag: Anhui Conch

China: Anhui Conch Cement Co Ltd has announced that its output and sales of its major subsidiaries hit record highs in September 2014.

Its Foshan subsidiary in Guangdong Province saw sales exceed 10,000t/day for five consecutive days in September 2014, with average sales stablising at 8000t/day. Anhui Conch claimed that the subsidiary's September 2014 output, sales, clinker and cement production all hit new highs in 2014, with output and clinker cement production reaching historical highs.

In Jiangxi Province, its Ganjiang subsidiary witnessed 67% year-on-year growth in sales in September 2014. Anhui Conch's production in Guangxi was also robust. Its Beiliu unit completed 104% of its production target in the third quarter of 2014, while its Tongling unit produced over 10Mt of clinker cement in the first nine months of the year.

Indonesia: Two Chinese companies signed an agreement on 25 September 2014 to invest in an Indonesian cement plant as part of investment cooperation measures that were agreed by China and Indonesia in 2013.

State Development and Investment Corp (SDIC) and Anhui Conch Cement Company will fund the project for the plant located in West Papua Province. After the construction is completed, the plant will have 3Mt/yr of production capacity, serving Indonesia and neighbouring countries, including Papua New Guinea. SDIC and Anhui Conch will have stakes of 51% and 49% respectively.

China: Anhui Conch's revenue rose by 22% year-on-year to US$4.68bn in the first half of 2014 from US$3.84bn in the same period in 2013. The group's net profit rose by 90% to US$945m. It attributed the growth in revenue and profit to increased sales volumes and prices.

During the reporting period, the group acquired four cement projects including Shaoyang Yunfeng New Energy Technology, Hunan Yunfeng Cement, Shuicheng Conch Panjiang Cement and Kunming Hongxi Cement. It started work on building three clinker production lines including Baoshan Conch Cement and ten cement grinding units, including Liangping Conch Cement, increasing its clinker and cement production capacities by 10.9Mt/yr and 17.7Mt/yr respectively. Outside of China, the installation of equipment at PT Conch South Kalimantan Cement in Indonesia was noted and a project in Myanmar was acknowledged as having made progress.

Four residual heat electricity generation units located at Guangxi Lingyun Tonghong Cement, Baoshan Conch and other companies were put into operation with an additional installed capacity of 36MW. The group continued to implement low-NOx staged combustion technology modification for clinker production lines and SNCR flue gas denitration technology modification. As at the end of the reporting period, the Group had completed technical upgrade of NOx reduction to 101 production lines, which are all reported to be running smoothly.

As at the end of the reporting period, the production capacity of clinker and cement of the group reached 200Mt/yr and 245Mt/yr respectively.

China: Anhui Conch Cement Company ranks as first in terms of comprehensive strength among Chinese listed cement companies in 2014, according to a latest list released by the China Cement Association. China National Building Materials (CNBM), with a grade of 219.19 and China Resources Cement Holdings, with a grade of 72.72, followed the 239.97-graded Anhui Conch on the list.

The China Cement Association conducted the evaluation among companies matching the following criteria: Chinese mainland-based independent listed company; clinker production capacity of 3Mt/yr or above; main business of cement contributing at least 25% to company's total revenue; listed on Shanghai, Shenzhen or Hong Kong bourse. The assessment indicators included sales of cement (50%), total pre-tax profit (20%), total company assets (10%) and market value (20%).

China: Anhui Conch Cement Co Ltd expects net profit for the first half of 2014 to increase by 90%, up from US$493m during the same period of 2013. Anhui Conch attributes the upward trend in profit to increasing cement sales and prices.

The third quarter results are in and signs of a recovery in the construction industry are present. Generally for the European producers, volumes of cement sold in the third quarter of 2013 have improved year-on-year compared to the figures for the first nine months of 2013. Although many of these third quarter sales changes are still negative it seems like the industry has turned a corner.

Lafarge reported that cement sales fell by 4% year-on-year to 102Mt for the first nine months in 2013. In the third quarter of 2013 sales remained stable year–on-year at 36.7Mt. Holcim saw its nine month sales fall by 3% to 104Mt while its third quarter sales remained stable at 36Mt. HeidelbergCement saw its nine month sales rise by 1% to 67.7Mt while its third quarter sales rose by 4% to 25.3Mt. Italcementi saw its nine month sales fall by 6% to 32.6Mt while its third quarter sales fell by 2% to 10.8Mt.

By region some of the differences between the European-based multinational cement producers have been telling. Lafarge, for example, is still down year-on-year on cement volumes sold in North America, denting the perceived wisdom of a strong North American recovery. However, profit indicators such as earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) have risen in that region, increasingly in the third quarter. Cemex and Holcim have done better in this region.

Notably, the unstable political situation in Egypt has also impacted the balance sheets for Lafarge and Italcementi. Lafarge reported that cement sales volumes fell by 27% for the first nine months of 2013, principally due to gas shortages, and 19% for the third quarter as the company started to substitute other fuels. Similarly, Italcementi saw overall cement and clinker sales drop by 11.2% in the nine months and 14% in the third quarter.

Meanwhile in China, Anhui Conch produced 86.2Mt for the nine months, a year-on-year increase of 12.1%. Overall revenues in China seem to have risen after decreases in 2012. Anhui Conch reported that its operating revenue rose by 15% to US$6.08bn for the first nine months and US$2.20bn for the third quarter of 2013. Analysts have pinned the return to profit to building in the country's eastern and southern provinces and the effects of government-led industry consolidation. Bucking this trend though, China National Building Materials (CNBM) saw its revenue rise by 37% to US$13.5bn for the first nine months of 2013 but its profit fell by 8.1% to US$542m.

Anhui Conch, Lafarge, Holcim, CNBM, Italcementi and HeidelbergCement all feature at the top of Global Cement's list of the 'Top 75 global cement companies' to be published in the December 2013 issue of Global Cement Magazine. Ahead of final publication we want to know whether readers agree with the rankings. Download our list (registration required) and let us know your comments by 1 December 2013.

China: The board of directors of Anhui Conch has announced that Ji Qinying tendered his resignation as an executive director on 1 November 2013. A new executive director will be elected and appointed in due course.

China: Anhui Conch has reported that its net profit rose by 4.9% year-on-year to US$501m for the first six months of 2013 from US$477m in the same period of 2012. The leading Chinese cement producer attributed its result to lower input costs such as coal and cutting operating costs.

Conch reported a 14.7% increase in revenue year-on-year to US$3.86bn from US$3.36bn. However, its net cash flow generated from operating activities fell by 5.61% to US$1.04bn from US$1.10bn.

By region, sales revenue fell by 1.0% in its East China territory, the cement producer's biggest sales area, due to a decrease in prices to combat increased competition. Sales rose markedly in its Central and West China territories at 33.7% and 39.6% respectively. Sales rose more modestly in South China and for exports.

Projects that Conch completed in the first half of 2013, including three 5000t/day clinker production lines and eleven grinding plants, added 5.4Mt/yr of clinker production capacity and 12.1Mt/yr of cement production capacity. Two waste heat recovery systems were installed at Jianghua Conch and Guiding Conch adding 18MW of power. The group also successively implemented staged combustion technology modification for 45 clinker production lines and SNCR flue gas denitration technology modification for 25 clinker production lines.

Anhui Conch Cement has reported that its net profit fell by 22.2% year-on-year to US$157m for the first quarter of 2013. Its operating revenue rose by 11.8% on-year to US$1.6bn.

Shaanxi Qinling Cement has reported that its net loss was US$6.32m for the first quarter of 2013. It's operating revenue was US$21.4m for the same period. The company predicts that its cement sales would increase and that it would make profits in the second quarter. However, it is likely to suffer 'slight' losses in the first half of 2013.

Zhejiang Jianfeng Group has reported an operating revenue of US$267m in 2012, a year-on-year increase of 0.26%. Its net profit fell by 39.2% year-on-year to US$26.5m.

Cement companies in Zhejiang Province produced 115Mt of cement and 56.7Mt of clinker in 2012, year-on-year decreases of 4.8% and 5.9% respectively.

Last week's news that Sinoma is considering European acquisitions may seem a little odd considering that Sinoma saw its profit halve in 2012. Yet the Chinese cement equipment builder and cement producer's income (US$3.42bn) puts it level with the likes of European producers, like Italcementi (US$5.75bn) and Buzzi Unicem (US$3.58bn), and the company still made a sizeable profit (US$123m).

Now what really seems odd is the amount by which each of the major Chinese cement producers' profits fell in 2012. Each of the top five producers by capacity, including Sinoma, saw their profits decrease by 40% to 50%. CNBM 'forgot' to report its profit drop but in November 2012 it recorded a 40% fall. Anhui Conch Cement's profit fell by 45.6% to US$1.03bn. Jidong Cement hasn't released any figures but was expecting a 50% drop in late October 2012. China Resources' profit fell by 44.4% to US$300m. Compare that with the diversity of profits reported by the top five European cement producers.

As has been clearly signposted by the Chinese government, the country is overproducing cement. Just how much we can't be sure but the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology declared that 220Mt/yr of 'obsolete' capacity was eliminated in 2012. The country's entire output was placed at 2.18Bt in official figures.

Outmoded capacity is being shut down and industry consolidation encouraged for the main players. Given the state-owned nature of Chinese heavy industry some level of coordination between bad results is to be expected. To give readers an idea of the challenge facing Chinese central planners, Anhui Conch added 28.3Mt/yr of additional cement production capacity in 2012. This is equivalent to the entire capacity of Nigeria or Germany!

Of interest here are China's cement export figures that the government's General Administration of Customs recently released. Exports hit a peak of 33Mt in 2007 and then declined by 68% to 11Mt in 2011. In 2012 they increased slightly to 12Mt. That's 20Mt of cement not leaving the country any more. Plus, the 'Shenzhen sea-sand in concrete scandal' can't be helping the industry's reputation abroad either.

Also of note last week, a Kyrgyzstan minister proposed restricting imports of Chinese cement to his country. Cement produced at Chinese-owned plants will be much harder to block. The next prong of the Chinese plan to tackle its cement industry is direct overseas expansion and this is what we're seeing from the likes of Sinoma and Anhui Conch. Sinoma, as mentioned above, appears to have cash to spend and in 2012 Anhui Conch began its first international project in Indonesia.