Displaying items by tag: Australia
Australia: Adelaide Brighton’s cement sales volumes rose in the first half of 2018 due to new infrastructure projects and ‘strong’ markets in Melbourne and Sydney. Its sales rose by 11.7% year-on-year to US$593m from US$531m in the same period in 2017. Its net profit after tax increased by 17.7% to US$62m from US$53m.
Chief executive officer (CEO) and managing director Martin Brydon said that the company had benefited from improved demand across residential, non-residential and infrastructure sector in Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland and South Australia, with ‘stable’ demand in Western Australia and the Northern Territory.
The building material producer’s cement prices increased in most markets. However, it said that import costs were ‘adversely’ affected by higher shipping and material procurement costs, and negative currency effects. Demand for lime was stable with sales similar to the first half of 2017. Margins were hit by increased energy costs, although this is expected to be recovered through price increases.
Wagners’ revenue boosted by cement volumes
22 August 2018Australia: Wagners’ sales revenue grew in its 2017 financial year due to ‘strong’ growth in cement volumes as well as better utilisation of its transport, quarry and pre-cast assets. Its sales revenue rose by 20.2% year-on-year to US$170m in the year that ended on 30 June 2018 from US$142m in the same period in 2017. Its earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) increased by 25.4% to US$37m from US$29.5m. Its cement sales volumes rose by 14.8% year-on-year.
“We have experienced strong cement sales as a result of increased concrete consumption and increased activity in the renewable energy projects in South East Queensland. We have also seen significant improvement across the balance of the construction materials and services business compared to the previous financial year,” said chief executive officer (CEO) Cameron Coleman.
James Hardie profit jumps 58%
10 August 2018Australia: James Hardie Industries increased its net profit by 58% year-on-year to US$90.6m in the three months to 30 June 2018. Adjusted earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) were up by 21% to US$107.1m. Net sales were up by 28% to US$651m.
CEO Louis Gries said, "Our North America Fibre Cement Segment delivered solid top line growth of 10% for the quarter. Volumes increased by 5%, with our interiors business having only marginal growth and our exteriors business returning to growth above our addressable market. While we have returned to growth above our market index in our exteriors business, increased traction will be required to hit our 2019 financial year targeted range.”
“Within our Asia Pacific Fibre Cement Segment, net sales increased 15% for the quarter, primarily due to the strong growth in our Australian business,” added Gries. “Furthermore, EBIT increased 7% for the quarter, driven by the strong performance of our Australian business, partially offset by the performance of our New Zealand business.”
Australia/Bangladesh: Australian Bauxite has negotiated a letter of intent with Bangladesh’s Aziz Group. As part of the agreement it will use Aziz Group as its agent to market cement-grade bauxite in the country. The deal will also see Australian Bauxite supply chemical-grade bauxite to Aziz Group for the manufacture of polyaluminum chloride to be used in the treatment of industrial waste water.
"There is a real opportunity for our well established trading and manufacturing relationships to be of significant support in the marketing of this specialised Australian Bauxite cement-grade bauxite. We look forward to jointly developing a good market base for real supply opportunities,” said Johnny Chowdhury, the chief executive officer (CEO) of Aziz Group
Australian Bauxite operates a bauxite mine in Tasmania. It also holds mining tenements in Queensland, New South Wales and Tasmania for future development.
Boral appoints Kathryn Fagg as chairman
20 June 2018Australia: Boral has appointed Kathryn Fagg as chairman with effect from 1 July 2018. It follows the resignation of Brian Clark as chairman and a non-executive director due to health reasons. Clark has been a director of the company since 2007 and was elected chairman in late 2015.
Fagg, who joined the board in 2014, holds more than 25 years of executive and management experience across a range of industries in Australia and Asia, including steel based building products at BlueScope Steel, transport and logistics at Linfox Logistics Group, banking at ANZ and professional consulting services at McKinsey & Co.
Fagg commenced her professional career as a chemical engineer with Esso Australia, now Exxon Mobil. She holds a number of board positions, including as a non-executive director of Incitec Pivot and a non-executive director of Djerriwarrh Investments. She is the current president of Chief Executive Women and only recently completed a five year term as a director of the Reserve Bank of Australia.
Boral has also appointed Peter Alexander as its first North American-based non-executive director, with effect from 1 September 2018. Alexander has spent eight years as the chief executive officer (CEO) of Building Materials Holding Corporation and then the merged company BMC. He was president and CEO of ORCO Construction Distribution from 2005 to 2009 and was managing partner of KinderOaks Business Services from 2002 to 2005. He holds a BA from the Ohio State University and an MBA from the Pennsylvania State University.
Martin Brydon to retire from Adelaide Brighton
23 May 2018Australia: Martin Brydon plans to retire from Adelaide Brighton. No time scale has been specified but he intends to remain with the business while its finds a successor for him.
Brydon, aged 62 years, has been in post since 2014. He holds over 30 years of experience in the construction materials industry ranging from electrical engineering, operational and general management, sales and marketing and strategy and business development.
Others executive changes at the building materials producer include the appointment of Zlatko Todorcevski as chairman of the board. He succeeds Leslie Hosking, who has decided to retire. Todorcevski, aged 50 years, has been a non-executive director since March 2017 and he was named chairman elect in February 2018. A training accountant he holds 30 years experience in the oil and gas, logistics and manufacturing sectors gained in Australia and overseas with a background in finance, strategy and planning.
Graeme Pettigrew has also retired as a non-executive director of Adelaide Brighton after 14 years of service at the company. He had been a non-executive director since 2004. The former chief executive officer of CSR Building Products held experience in the building materials industry in South East Asia and the UK through former roles as the managing director of Chubb Australia and Wormald Security Australia.
Adelaide Brighton renews cement deal with BHP Billiton
20 April 2018Australia: Adelaide Brighton has signed a deal with BHP Billiton for the continuation of supply of cement and lime to BHP’s Olympic Dam mine in South Australia. The new contract maintains and extends the long-term relationship between subsidiaries of the companies. It is expected this relationship will continue for a number of years.
Australia: Adelaide Brighton has publicly dismissed media speculation about its alleged plans to purchase Barro Group. The building materials producer said that whilst it had proposed transaction plans to Barro at ‘various times’ no agreement has been reached on any such deal.
Analysts at the investment bank Citi said that Adelaide Brighton’s management were keen to buy the US$384m cement business owned by its major shareholder, the Barro Group, according to the Australian newspaper. However, the analysts said they believed the complex shareholding structure could pose problems.
FCT Combustion to launch Turbu-Flex burner in April 2018
20 March 2018Australia: FCT Combustion plans to launch its Turbu-Flex burner in April 2018. The pyro-processing engineering company says that the product will enable operators to switch between different fuels and optimise for each with the one burner. Switching between alternative and refuse derived fuels is intended to allow cement and other industrial plants to lower fuel costs and improve kiln performance. The burner also offers reduced maintenance, as it no moving parts are needed to change the air supply.
“We’ve now proven the burner’s benefits and ease of use in the field. Under testing for almost one year, and operating with over 80% fuel replacement using refuse-derived fuel (RDF), the results are very pleasing for the plant operator and FCT,” said Con Manias, the Managing Director of FCT International. He added that the company also focused on building its footprint in South East Asia.
The company says that it has projects running in six continents due to a ‘surge’ in burner orders. FCT Combustion is currently working on projects in the US, Canada, Brazil, Ecuador, Poland, France, Egypt, Belgium, Italy, China, Thailand, Malaysia, Algeria, Oman, Belgium, France, Ukraine, Turkey and Australia.
Australia: The New South Wales Environment Protection Authority (EPA) has fined Port Kembla Milling’s cement and slag grinding plant US$23,000 for allegedly storing raw materials in the open, in breach of its licence conditions. Raw materials, including gypsum and limestone, were allegedly stored in the open at the subsidiary of Cement Australia on at least five occasions since January 2016 in breach of the site’s planning approval and licence conditions. Such materials should be stored in an enclosed location to prevent dust emissions.
“The requirement to store materials in an enclosed building is a key way to ensure dust emissions from bulk materials are prevented. A measure that is very important given the residential areas near Port Kembla port,” said EPA Regional Director Metropolitan Giselle Howard.
In addition to the fines, the EPA has also required Port Kembla Milling to complete an independent raw materials handling audit to confirm appropriate storage and management systems are put in place. The company has made some initial steps to respond to this request, and the EPA will continue to work with the licensee to ensure full compliance.