Displaying items by tag: Anhui Conch

Startling news from Hebei, China this week. The northerly province intends to move out its excess capacity in heavy industries, including cement, to other countries by 2023. 5Mt of cement production capacity is planned for transfer by 2017 and 30Mt is planned for transfer by 2023. The larger figure is about the same as the cement production capacity of France or Germany!

Hebei isn't the biggest cement-producing province in China but it has received attention as the authorities have cut down on 'out-dated' production capacity. The region was targeted in a programme to cut emissions from heavy industry due to its proximity to Beijing and that city's smog issues.

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) set a target of 60Mt/yr in cement production capacity to be cut by 2017. The region was also the site of massive cement plant demolitions in late 2013 and early 2014. 18 cement plants were demolished in December 2013 followed by 17 cement plants in February 2014 alongside the destruction of connected grinding and storage capacity. Overall an incredible 74 cement plants in the area surrounding Shijiazhuang alone were targeted for demolition by March 2014.

Following this massive spate of capacity elimination, the public announcement to actively move abroad marks a stark change to China's general cement industry strategy so far. The country's equipment suppliers like Sinoma have been taking business from European rivals like FLSmidth or KHD for some time now especially in developing markets.

In 2013, FLSmidth reported a cement market order intake of US$575m and KHD reported an order intake of US$216m. In comparison Sinoma's cement equipment and engineering services reported order intake of US$5.59bn. In its annual report for 2013 FLSmidth estimated that the global market for new kiln capacity was 50Mt. At a capacity construction price of US$150/t this suggests that Sinoma took orders for nearly three quarters of the world's required capacity for new cement kilns in 2013. Order intake covers more than just building cement plants, so this quick calculation presents only a rough impression of what's going on.

More recently Chinese cement producers have started building their own cement plants or funding them outside of China. In October 2014 State Development and Investment Corp and Anhui Conch Cement Company announced plans to fund a plant in Indonesia. In September 2014 ground breaking was held for a Chinese-funded plant in Kyrgyzstan. In June 2014, Huaxin Cement invested in Cambodia Cement. This was its second overseas investment following a project in Tajikistan in 2011.

With China's government still attempting to avoid a hard economic landing as its growth slows, moving industrial overcapacity overseas makes sense. International and national players must be worried about the potential scale of this transition. On the plus side, however, those notorious inscrutable Chinese production figures in the cement industry will be far easier to analyse in plants outside of China facing international competition. Today Hebei, tomorrow the world!

China: The board of directors of Anhui Conch have announced that Zhu Yuming has resigned as a supervisor of the company due to other work commitments. Zhu's resignation will be effective upon the appointment of a new supervisor to fill the vacancy. Anhui Conch have thanked Zhu for his 'invaluable' contributions to the company.

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.