Displaying items by tag: Australia

Australia: James Hardie’s consolidated net sales increased by 12% year-on-year in the 2021 financial year to US$2.91bn from US$2.61bn in the 2020 financial year. Its adjusted earnings before interest, depreciation and taxation (EBIT) rose by 29% US$629m from US$487m. The producer recorded increased fibre cement sales in North America, by 12% to US$2.04bn from US$1.82bn, and in Asia Pacific, by 3% to US$496m from US$479m. The group’s Europe building products division’s sales rose by 5% to US$273m from US$261m.

Chief executive Jack Truong said, “I am proud of our globally integrated team’s ability to close out the fiscal year with a fourth quarter of exceptionally strong results. We have now delivered eight consecutive quarters of consistent profitable growth, including record financial results each of the past three quarters. Our performance in fiscal year 2021 marked a significant step change across multiple facets of our global company that allowed us to deliver this consistent profitable growth on an expanding global scale. Over the past 12 months, we were able to accelerate our strategy: firstly to unlock capacity and increase efficiency in our global manufacturing network through LEAN initiatives, and secondly to better integrate our supply chain with our customers, which collectively drove consistent market share gains in all three regions.”

Australia: Adbri says that it expects growth in domestic cement demand to continue beyond a present residential construction boom. The Australian Financial Review newspaper has reported that Adbri chief executive Nick Miller believes that house building has undergone a nationwide ‘pull-forward’ in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak. The producer says that the government’s planned US$116bn infrastructure spend would insure a medium-term increase in cement demand. It gave as an example the Western Sydney Aerotropolis, which will require 500,000m³ of concrete. The company currently derives 45% of sales from non-residential construction.

Australia: FCT Combustion has appointed Andy Bailes as its new chief executive officer for Asia-Pacific.

Bailes joins FCT after working for almost 30 years at Metso in Australia, having spent 10 years as General Manager – Engineered Product Services, where he was responsible for managing a large team covering proposals, sales, technical, commercial and contractual obligation of the EP Products (Grinding, Pyro, Process & BMH) Group within the Australia and New Zealand region. He is a previous winner of the NEI International Combustion Scholarship for Chemical Engineering and holds additional qualifications in Business Administration and Management.

US: Australia-based Boral Limited says that as part of the review of its North American Fly Ash business, it is considering options such as a potential joint venture, a strategic alliance, divestment to a third-party or continued ownership. Boral has appointed advisors to support an assessment and intends to release an update by August 2021 or earlier if appropriate.

“We have conducted a detailed study of the US fly ash industry and remain confident in the long term demand dynamics for the industry, including significant incremental demand growth potential from the US Government’s proposed new infrastructure program,” said Boral’s chief executive officer and managing director Zlatko Todorcevski. “New opportunities for supply exist from harvesting landfills, imports and natural pozzolans, which we expect will more than offset the decline in fresh fly ash supply as the US transitions away from coal fired power generation.”

A great question was asked at yesterday’s Virtual Global CemTrans Seminar: what impact did the recent blockage of the Suez Canal cause to the cement industry? Luckily, Rahul Sharan from Drewry was on hand discussing freight costs following the start of the coronavirus pandemic.

As most readers will know, the Suez Canal was blocked in late March 2021 when the 200,000dwt Ever Given ran aground, at around six nautical miles from the southern entry of the canal. The ultra large container vessel was subsequently refloated and towed away just under a week later. While this was happening the fate of the ship became a global news story with business analysts totting up the cost of the obstruction. 40 bulk carriers were reported as waiting to transit the waterway the day after the blockage started and some of these were carrying cement. Reporting by the BBC noted that 369 ships were stuck waiting on either side of the blockage on the day before the ship was finally freed. The Suez Canal Authority (SCA) estimated their loss of revenue from the incident at US$14 – 15m/day. Analysts like Allianz placed the cost to the global economy at US$6 - 10bn/day.

In Sharan’s view the blockage of the Suez Canal happened at a potentially risky moment for cement and clinker shipping because there was already congestion in shipping lanes built up on the east coast of South America and around Australia. However, a delay of a week around the canal, followed by the resulting congestion dispersing quickly over the following days, does not seem to have had any major impact so far.

Sharan’s presentation at Global CemTrans also included a summary of cement shipping. The key takeaways were that clinker shipping overtook cement shipping in 2019 with a connected increase in fleets investing in handymax-sized vessels. He also pointed out the key cement and clinker importing countries in 2019, before the coronavirus pandemic started causing market disruption. For cement: the US, the Philippines and Singapore. For clinker: China, Bangladesh and the Philippines. Turkey and Vietnam were the biggest exporters for both in that year.

The Ever Given incident has highlighted the continued importance of the Suez Canal for global trade for commodities. Goods still need to be physically moved around, however much stuff we digitise. It also contrasts with the issues that the Egyptian cement sector has faced in recent years such as production overcapacity. While domestic cement plants have struggled to maintain their profits, plenty of cement carriers have been transiting through the Isthmus of Suez. Local producers may well have gazed at them and wondered where they were going.

One of them, Al-Arish Cement Company, took action in this direction this week with its first export shipment of clinker. The Clipper Isadora ship disembarked East Port Said port for Ivory Coast. Future shipments are planned for West Africa, Canada, the US and Europe. Ship tracking reveals that the Clipper Isadora has not taken the Suez Canal on this occasion.

The proceedings pack for the Virtual CemTrans Seminar 2 2021 is available to buy now

Indonesia: Semen Indonesia has detailed its plans for future exports of cement to North America. The Investor Daily newspaper has reported that the producer and subsidiary Solusi Bangun Indonesia will target 0.5 – 1Mt of cement exports to North America in 2021, according to president director Hendi Santoso. The export plans will be carried out in partnership with Japan-based Taiheiyo Cement, which already has a US market presence and owns a 15% stake in Solusi Bangun Indonesia. Hendi said that the move aims to ‘cushion’ the decline in domestic cement sales, down by 28% bulk and 13% bagged year-on-year in 2020. The company successfully exported cement to Australia, Bangladesh, China, Fiji and Sri Lanka in 2020.

President commissioner Rudi Antara said, "The Covid-19 outbreak still colours our lives. There is no other choice but to increase business efficiency and the top line outside of our main markets."

Australia: Calix has reported the completion of a pre-front-end engineering and design (FEED) study of its Leilac-2 carbon capture and storage (CCS) study. Germany-based HeidelbergCement, Mexico-based Cemex and Portugal-based Cimpor assessed the study. The milestone clears the technology for industrial scale implementation at HeidelbergCement’s Hannover integrated cement plant in Germany. The installation aims to capture 100,000t/yr of CO₂ at an installation cost of Euro23m (+/-30%). The final investment decision will follow after the completion of FEED in early 2022.

Switzerland: LafargeHolcim’s consolidated net sales in 2020 were Euro21.1bn, down by 5.6% year-on-year on a like-for-like basis from Euro24.4bn in 2019. The group recorded recurring earnings before interest and taxation (EBIT) of Euro3.35bn, down by 2% from Euro3.74bn. Its cement sales fell to 190Mt, down by 7% from 208Mt. It noted an increase in bagged cement sales in emerging markets.

By region the group reported like-for-like growth in sales and earnings in Asia-Pacific driven by recovery in India and China despite weaknesses in the Philippines and Australia. Earnings rose despite falling sales in Europe, Latin America and North America with a resilient market noted in Central Europe and an ‘outstanding’ year reported in Latin America. Middle East Africa reported falling cement demand and adverse market affects from the coronavirus pandemic, although Nigeria remained buoyant.

Chief executive officer Jan Jenisch said, “2020 was an unprecedented year for everyone, challenging us to be more resilient, while stepping up to take care of those around us.” He added, “This crisis has really proven the resilience of our strategy and business model. By the fourth quarter of 2020 we were back to growth, with a 1.5% increase in net sales and over-proportional recurring EBIT of 14%.” The group completed eight ‘bolt-on’ acquisitions in 2020 and signed an agreement to acquire Firestone Building Products, a producer of flat-roofing systems in the US. It also claimed that, “Every tonne of cement we produced in 2020 was more carbon-efficient and contained more recycled material than the year before.”

Australia: Adbri’s revenue fell by 4% year-on-year to US$1.15bn in 2020 from US$1.20bn in 2019. Underlying earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) decreased by 3% to US$216m from US$222m. Despite construction growth in Western Australia, cement volumes were reported as being down by 7.1%. The company said that clinker volumes dropped by 23% due to lower offtake by its Sunstake Cement joint venture partner Boral. It added that the impact of the coronavirus pandemic had been ‘well managed’ and that all sites remained operational.

“In the context of the challenging operating environment, the financial outcomes we delivered for the 2020 financial year are better than we had expected and reflect the successes of our cost-out and business improvement programs. Adbri also benefitted from improving demand in the Western Australian market during the period which offset slowing demand in east coast markets, particularly in New South Wales,” said Nick Miller, Adbri’s chief executive officer.

Australia: James Hardie recorded net sales of US$2.10bn in the first nine months of its 2021 financial year, up by 9% year-on-year from US$1.93bn in the first nine months of its 2020 financial year. Adjusted earnings before interest and taxation rose by 25% to US$456m from US$366m. Sales and earnings increased in all three regions in which the company operates. In Australia and New Zealand, it reduced costs by consolidating fibre cement production at its two Australian plants.

Chief executive officer Jack Truong said, “I am pleased with these record results, underpinned by excellent execution of our business transformation that we began in 2019, combined with increasing demand for our premium-quality James Hardie brand products and solutions. The transformation we undertook to unlock capacity and increase efficiency in our global manufacturing network through lean initiatives and to better integrate our supply chain with our customers continues to deliver consistent market share gains and the ability to serve our customers seamlessly around the world. We are firmly on track with our investments in growth to broaden our portfolio with industry-leading innovations that enhance aesthetic value for homeowners. Our transformation initiatives will enable us to expand our market opportunity and allow us to continue to deliver strong performance.”