Displaying items by tag: Australia

Australia: Wagners’ net profit fell by 49% year-on-year to US$8.66m in its financial year to 30 June 2019 from US$16.8m in the same period in 2018. It blamed lower cement sales volumes on a dispute with Boral and a delay in large infrastructure projects. It suspended its supply of cement to Boral in March 2019 when the latter company said it had found cheaper cement from a ‘long established’ supplier in South East Queensland. Wagners sales revenue grew by 2.3% to US$161m from US$157m.

Australia: Adelaide Brighton says that it expects its net profit, after tax excluding property, to be no higher than US$90m in 2019. This is a further reduction on the forecast of around US$110m it made in May 2019. It has blamed poor residential and civil construction markets, continued competition in Queensland and South Australia, growing raw material costs and fees related to a cancelled import order.

Australia: Southern Cross Cement, a joint venture between Brickworks, Neilsen Group and Neumann Group, is planning to open a 0.2Mt/yr terminal by October 2019. The US$60m unit will import cement from south east Asia, according to the CourierMail newspaper. It is anticipated to supply 10% of Queensland market. A 12,000t/day mechanical ship unloader will be installed at the site.

Australia: ThyssenKrupp Industrial Solutions has opened a new service centre in Brisbane. The US$0.7m centre will be used to support customers in the mining, cement and chemical industries. It includes office, warehouse and workshop space.

“This new facility enables us to co-locate our engineering and project staff with our service personnel. For our clients in the mining, cement and chemical industries this means they benefit from an integrated project life-cycle approach, incorporating the latest products and technologies. After having worked successfully with our customers in Australia for many years, this investment was a logical consequence”, says Andrew Howie, chief executive officer (CEO) of ThyssenKrupp Industrial Solutions Australia.

Australia: Adelaide Brighton has signed a deal with Oz Minerals to continue supplying cement to the Oz Minerals Prominent Hill Operation. It will last five years with options to extend. In addition to the supply of cement, Adelaide Brighton will also supply aggregate and sand from its Sellicks Hill Quarry and its Price sand operation, as well as auxiliary logistics services.

Australia: Adelaide Brighton expects that its net profit in 2019 will fall by up to 15% year-on-year from the US$133m it reported in 2018. It forecasts that the decline will be driven by weakening demand from the residential market, increased competition from cement imports, higher competition in Queensland and rising raw material costs.

Australia: Wagners expects that its on-going suspension of cement products to Boral will cost it around US$7m in 2019. The company decided to stop the supply following Boral’s notification that it had found a cheaper source in March 2019. Since neither Wagners nor Boral have been able to resolve the disagreement it has now been referred to the Supreme Court of Queensland.

Australia: Raymond Barro will be appointed as the next chairman of Adelaide Brighton at the company’s annual general meeting (AGM) in May 2019. He succeeds Zlatko Todorcevski, who will become Lead Independent Director and deputy chairman. Todorcevski has spent less than a year in the role. The Barro family owns a 43% stake in Adelaide Brighton. Rhonda Barro was nominated as a director of Adelaide Brighton earlier in March 2019.

World: FCT Combustion has released details on new burner projects it is involved with. Selected projects include a new contract in the US to convert both kilns to natural gas firing at Ash Grove Cement’s Louisville plant in Nebraska. The order includes Gyro-Therm MKII Burners, Natural Valve Trains and NFPA 86 BMS for both kilns.

Nova Cimangola in Angola has contracted FCT to convert its 5000t/day kiln to fuel oil firing. The order includes a multi fuel main burner, calciner burners, oil heating units, oil pumping and filtering units and control panels.

FCT also provided details about a low NO_x kiln conversion for an undisclosed client. Other selected cement sector projects include the commissioning of Turbu-Flex burner systems for clinker kilns at Finnsementti’s Parainen and Lappeenranta plants in Finland. These are scheduled for commissioning in March 2019 and April 2019 respectively. Baumit’s Wopfing plant in Austria is due for a natural has lance for kiln preheating to be delivered later in March 2019.

It also plans to deliver a Turbu-Flex burner system for a clinker kiln to an undisclosed client in China later in March 2019. It is based on a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) study undertaken by FCT is to allow for the firing of natural gas and to modernise the plant. Commissioning is scheduled for March 2019.

Australia: Wagners Cement has suspended its supply of cement products to Boral for six months. Wagners has a cement supply agreement with Boral where it supplies cement on an annual basis for a fixed price. However, Boral issued a notice to Wagners saying that it has found cheaper cement from a ‘long established’ supplier in South East Queensland.

As per the agreement Wagners can either match the lower price or suspend its supply. Wagners has decided to suspend its supply to Boral pending a resolution of the issue. It said that the potential financial impact of the pricing notice is US$14m.