Displaying items by tag: Bestway Cement

Pakistan: Lebanese investment company Pharaoh Investment Group Ltd (PIGL) is considering the possibility of selling a stake in its subsidiary Attock Cement Pakistan Ltd (ACPL) amid a revaluation of its assets in the cement sector. PIGL, which is the majority shareholder of ACPL with an 84% stake, has received proposals from investors to acquire the entire stake, subject to regulatory approval.

The list of applicants includes joint proposals from the Fauji Foundation and Kotaku Power Company, as well as from Cherat Cement and Shirazi Investments. Separate applications were sent by Alpha Cement and Bestway Cement. ACPL holds a leading position in the cement market in Southern Pakistan, with a 24% market share, thanks to its 4.3Mt/yr capacity.

Pakistan: Five companies have signalled interest in bidding for Attock Cement. These include Alpha Cement Company, Bestway Cement and Cherat Cement Company, along with military investment fund Fauji Foundation and utilities provider Kot Addu Power Company. Pakistan Today News has reported that Fauji Foundation and Kot Addu Power Company’s plans consist of a joint acquisition of 84% of Attock Cement, followed by a mandatory public offer for the free float. Alpha Cement Company, meanwhile, may seek to buy as much as 92%, through a follow-on offer.

Attock Cement commands 3Mt/yr of capacity in South Pakistan, reportedly an increasingly attractive region, amid the on-going ‘revival’ of exports from Karachi port.

Alpha Cement Company was incorporated in Karachi in November 2024.

Pakistan: Bestway Cement has appointed Muhammad Danish Khan as its Chief Financial Officer. Khan has worked for Bestway Cement since 2019 first as Head of Budgeting, Treasury and Reporting and then Acting Chief Financial Officer. Before this he worked for Three, the AA, Deloitte and Ernst & Young in the UK. He is a graduate of the Government College University in Lahore and is a chartered accountant.

Pakistan: Bestway Cement has ignited the kiln of Line 1 of its Mianwali cement plant in Punjab. The line has a capacity of 2.3Mt/yr. The Pakistan Observer newspaper has reported that it increases the producer's cement capacity by 18% to 15.3Mt/yr and brings its total number of production lines to eight. The Mianwali cement plant is equipped with a 20MW solar power plant and will run on 50% renewable energy. It also has a 9MW waste heat recovery (WHR) plant, an air cooled condenser (ACC) system and a rainwater harvesting system.

Bestway Cement CEO Lord Zameer Choudrey said "It's a great day for the company. Our new greenfield production line at Mianwali has been set up in a record time, despite various hurdles and supply chain disruptions caused by Covid-19."

Pakistan: Bestway Cement has published its first-half results for the 2023 Pakistan financial year, showing a 20% year-on-year rise in its gross turnover to US$222m from US$185m. Its cost of sales rose by 25% to US$110m, but failed to offset sales growth, resulting in 23% profit growth to US$44.5m from US$35.3m.

Pakistan: Bestway Cement has announced the successful commissioning of its Hattar cement plant's new 2.63Mt/yr Line 2. The line increases Bestway Cement's installed capacity by 21% to 15Mt/yr. It is equipped with a 9MW waste heat recovery (WHR) plant. The Nation newspaper has reported that the producer completed the project in under 15 months.

Hattar cement plant was Bestway Cement's original cement plant. It opened in 1998, with a capacity of 1Mt/yr.

Pakistan/UAE: China-based renewables supplier LONGi Green Energy Technology has awarded Bestway Cement its Carbon Neutralisation Pioneer award at a ceremony in Dubai, UAE. The award acknowledges progress in industrial sustainability during the past year. Bestway Cement is the first Pakistani recipient of the prize.

Bestway Cement operates 62MW-worth of solar power capacity at installations at its Chakwal, Farooqia, Hattar and Kallar Kahar cement plants. Managing director Irfan Sheikh said that this setup enables it to minimise CO₂ emissions and the company's reliance on the national grid. Bestway Cement was also the first Pakistani cement producer to install waste heat recovery (WHR) plants across all of its integrated cement plants.

Pakistan: Residents of Hattar have taken to the streets against outbreaks of various illnesses that they claim are due to pollution and the release of wastewater from Bestway Cement’s plant in Hattar. Protesters gathered outside the factory gates to lodge a strong protest and chanted slogans against the ‘anti-people policies’ of the factory management.

The protest was led by local councillor Sajjad Hussain Shah, Imran Ali Shah and Syed Zaheer Shah, who complained that the plant had blocked canal water, discharged chemically-contaminated water into sewage lines, illegally used union council roads and failed to act regarding quotas to employ local residents. The protesters claimed that ‘every second person’ in the area had fallen victim to asthma and that the canal blockage had brought locals the ‘gift of dengue fever,’ which spreads via flies in stagnant water.

The management of the plant said that any decision regarding the demands of the protesters could only be taken after getting approval from head office, issuing a statement that read, “We received a four-point formula from the protesters and assured them that their demands will be accepted. We will inform our head office regarding the whole situation. We hope that the issues will be settled soon.” This was countered by the protesters, who claim that several similar protests had gone unheeded in the past.

Pakistan: Bestway Cement has ignited the 7200t/day kiln at its new Mianwali integrated cement plant in Punjab Province. The plant has 20MW of dedicated solar power capacity and 9MW of waste heat recovery (WHR) power capacity.

Pakistan: Bestway Cement recorded a net turnover of US$84.1m in the first quarter of its 2023 financial year, up by 21% year-on-year from US$69.4m in the first quarter of the 2022 financial year. The producer's cost of sales also rose, by 13% year-on-year to US$55m from US$48.6m. Despite this challenge, it increased its profit for the period by 11% to US$15m from US$13.5m in the first quarter of the 2022 financial year.