Displaying items by tag: Brazil

Cementos Artigas inaugurated an upgrade to its integrated Minas plant this week. The joint-venture between Spain-based Cementos Molins and Brazil-based Votorantim Cimentos has been working on the US$40m project since mid-2020. The main plan is to combine the functions of the integrated Minas plant in Lavalleja and the company’s cement grinding plant at Sayago in Montevideo at one site. Key parts of the upgrade included the installation of a new vertical grinding mill, a cellular silo and a bulk cement despatching centre. The Uruguayan president Luis Lacalle turned up for the opening ceremony.

The cement sector in the country is modest compared to those in its much larger neighbours, Argentina and Brazil. It only has four integrated plants with a total production capacity of around 1.4Mt/yr compared to, say, Brazil’s 70-odd plants with a capacity in excess of 85Mt/yr. However, a few things have been happening recently that are worth noting. Firstly, a new integrated plant operated by a new entrant opened in mid-2021. Cielo Azul Cementos y Calizas was set up by investors in Brazil with links to Uruguay. It started in ready-mixed concrete (RMX) in the early 2010s before it contracted FLSmidth in 2017 to build it a 0.6Mt/yr integrated cement plant at La Pacífica in Treinta y Tres. It has also opened an RMX plant in neighbouring Paraguay.

Votorantim Cimentos may have been irked by the opening of a new competitor in Uruguay as it blamed it for a drop in its third quarter revenue in 2022 in its Latin American region outside of Brazil. It described the dynamic in the country as ‘challenging.’ Its local business partner, Cementos Molins, was a bit more balanced in its assessment for 2021, reporting that earnings had falling slightly due to global input cost rises and that sales had fallen due to increased competition from new capacity. Whatever else happens, now that the Minas upgrade project has finished, it seems likely that Cementos Artigas’ costs have the potential to decrease.

The country’s third cement producer, Cementos del Plata, was also busy in 2022. The subsidiary of state-owned Administración Nacional de Combustibles, Alcohol y Portland (ANCAP) announced in September 2022 that is was going to seek a business partner in its business. Its reasoning was that it wants to restore competitiveness to the local cement market and reverse the ‘deficit’ economic situation of the last 20 years. By November 2022, 11 companies had been selected for the next stage of the process. Notable entrants include InterCement-subsidiary Loma Negra, Empresa Publica Productiva Cementos de Bolivia (ECEBOL), Cementos Artigas, Cielo Azul Cementos y Calizas and the Turkish Cement Manufacturers' Association (TürkÇimento). That last name is particularly interesting as it is the only organisation with an obvious link to the cement sector from outside of South America. Two China-based engineering companies are also among the contenders.

Prior to the current initiative to gain inward investment into Cementos del Plata, ANCAP has been noteworthy for union activity at its plants such as strikes in recent years. A reported attempt to privatise the Paysandú plant in 2020 was blocked by the unions, according to local press. In separate news, ANCAP concluded from an investigation in June 2022 that persons unknown had attempted to intentionally damage the kiln of its Minas plant through the introduction of foreign materials. There is no reason to connect the two stories but it does suggest that any investor into the business might want to consider a wide variety of stakeholders as part of any due diligence process.

Uruguay’s cement sector is changing as we have seen above. Cementos Artigas has completed an upgrade to one of its plants, Cielo Azul Cementos y Calizas built a new integrated plant in 2021 and Cementos del Plata is actively hunting for a partner. Just who that new investor might be has implications for the local sector. The Government of Uruguay announced in 2021 that it wanted to set up free trade agreements with China and Türkiye. Unsurprisingly, both Turkish and Chinese organisations are amongst the ones that have made it to the current selection stage.

Bolivia: Itacamba Cementos has appointed Marcelo Morales as its general manager.

Morales previously worked as the chief financial officer and head of procurement for the cement producer since 2015. Before this he held a variety of roles in Brazil for Votorantim Cimentos including finance, strategy and marketing roles. He was also the head of the company’s lime business for a period. Morales holds a qualification in business administration and a master’s degree in business administration.

Brazil: Votorantim Cimentos has appointed Marcos Electo Figueiredo Garcia as its General Manager of Logistics Efficiency.

Figueiredo Garcia has worked for Votorantim Cimentos since 2013 in a variety of supply chain and logistic roles. Most recently he held the post of Supply Chain Manager since 2019. He holds an engineering degree from the Universidade Federal da Bahia.

Brazil: Data from the Brazilian National Cement Industry Association (SNIC) shows that sales of cement fell by 3% year-on-year to 63.1Mt in 2022 from 64.4Mt in 2021. Sales fell in the Nordeste, Sudeste and Sui regions but grew elsewhere. Exports declined by 14% to 0.40Mt from 0.47Mt. SNIC has blamed the falling sales on a declining real estate sector, high inflation rates and a poor response from a new house-building campaign. It also attributed the Football World Cup in late 2022 as having a detrimental effect on national cement sales! SNIC forecasts sales growth of 1% in 2023 despite considerable market uncertainty.

Brazil: Votorantim Cimentos has revised its Scope 1 CO₂ emissions reduction goal down to 475kg/t of cementitious product by 2030, from 520kg/t previously. The new target is 8.7% lower than the previous one, which it set in November 2020. Votorantim Cimentos previously reduced its emissions per tonne by 20% between 1990 and 2021. The group's targeted reduction from a 2018 base year now equates to 25%. The Science-Based Targets Initiative (SBTi) validated the ambitious target on 1 December 2022.

Votorantim Cimentos expects to achieve its aim through increased alternative fuel (AF) co-processing, substitution of supplementary cementitious materials, improved efficiency and use of renewable power and the development of new technologies, including carbon capture.

The group's global sustainability, institutional relations, product development and engineering director Álvaro Lorenz said “The fight against the negative effects of climate change is at the heart of our strategy and reflects our focus on competitiveness and on creating a positive legacy. The most competitive businesses will be those with the lowest greenhouse gas emissions. After all, the environmental crisis is also an economic and social crisis. The validation of our new target by SBTi reinforces our commitment and continuous efforts toward the net-zero agenda.”

Brazil: Votorantim Cimentos’ net revenue grew by 18% year-on-year to US$3.60bn in the first nine months of 2022 from US$3.04bn in the same period in 2021. Its cement sales volumes rose slightly to 27.8Mt. However, its adjusted earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) fell by 16% to US$659m from US$780m.

Domestically the group said that its revenue grew because price rises counteracted falling sales volumes of cement. Outside of Brazil it reported growing revenue, apart from in its Latin American business. Here it blamed the fall on a new competitor entering the Uruguayan market and market issues in Bolivia. Earnings were noted to have decreased in every region mainly due to mounting fuel, raw material and energy costs.

Votorantim launched a new logo in October 2022 and completed its acquisition of Heidelberg Materials' Southern Spanish businesses in November 2022. The purchase included an integrated cement plant located in Málaga, three aggregates quarries and 11 ready-mix concrete plants in the Andalusia region.

Switzerland: Holcim increased its consolidated sales by 14% year-on-year during the first nine months of 2022 on a like-for-like basis, to US$22.8bn from US$19.9bn. Its recurring earnings before interest and taxation (EBIT) rose by 6.5% to US$3.74bn from US$3.53m. The group’s cement segment’s sales volumes were 139Mt, down by 1%. The segment contributed US$13bn in sales, up by 14%. Concrete sales volumes were 36.6Mm2, up by 4.1%. During the reporting period the group completed its divestment of its operations in India and Brazil and derived cash proceeds of US$7.3bn. Overall net sales grew in all five of the group’s business regions on a like-for-like basis with particular growth noted in the Americas. Cement sales volumes fell in Asia Pacific, Europe and Middle East Africa.

Brazil: Germany-based INFORM has established a joint venture with its partner Portia LAC in São Paulo. The new company called INFORM PORTIA will take over sales, consulting and support for INFORM software products in Brazil.

Andreas Meyer, the chief executive officer of INFORM, said “With this joint venture, we are expanding our presence in South America to meet the growing demand for software solutions to optimise business processes.” He added, “This joint venture is an important building block in our global network. We strive to maintain a relationship with our customers based on partnership and trust. However, this is much more successful if you also have a local presence.” In addition to its headquarters in Aachen in Germany and new joint venture in Brazil, INFORM is represented by five other INFORM related companies in the US, Chile, Australia, Singapore, and Portugal respectively.

Brazil: Haver & Boecker Niagara has upgraded its plant in Pedro Leopoldo. The expansion allows the company to increase its screen media and parts production capacity by 15%. It can now move its rubber production in-house, allowing for an increased production capacity of its Ty-Dura screen media and premium rubber liners by 60% and improved quality control. The upgrade has also enabled the company to expand its research and development laboratory and testing centre. The company produces products for screening and pelletising for the cement, aggregate and mining sectors.

Brazil: Cement producers sold 47.7Mt of cement in the first nine months of 2022, down by 3% year-on-year from the same period in 2021. The Brazilian National Cement Industry Association (SNIC) has forecast a 2% year-on-year decline in full-year cement sales to 63.7Mt in 2022. The association foresees global finance-related challenges and high energy and raw materials costs during the fourth quarter of 2022. Annual cement sales previously grew by 23% to 65Mt in 2021 from 53Mt in 2019.

SNIC president Paulo Camillo Penna said “Our expectation for 2022 was to maintain the gains of this three-year period, but, unfortunately, due to high interest rates, indebtedness and cost pressure, we were not able to.”