Displaying items by tag: CRH
Republic Cement and Building Materials to roll out quality control systems across plants by 2022
20 May 2021Philippines: CRH and Aboitiz Equity Ventures subsidiary Republic Cement and Building Materials plans to roll out a quality control system to detect product quality across all of its cement plants by 2022. Business World News has reported that the company currently uses data science-based techniques at three sites. It says that it uses the method to predict the 28-day compressive strength without moulding and curing of a batch of cement.
Manufacturing vice president Lloyd Vicente said that with accurate predictions, “our operations can make it quick and precise adjustments to our recipe and other operating parameters, therefore reducing our CO2 emissions.”
UK: Tarmac has renewed its partnership with the Peak District National Park until 2026. Under the partnership, the company organises volunteering and funds an engagement conservation job role at the national park in Derbyshire. Since 2016, volunteers from Tarmac’s Tunstead quarry have built dry stone walls, restored a footbridge and helped to manage ancient hay meadows. In several areas of the park, volunteers have also replaced benches.
Tunstead quarry stone and powders director Pete Butterworth said that he was ‘delighted’ about the renewal. He added, “By sponsoring the engagement role, we also enable many people to get involved in practical projects which make a significant contribution to the maintenance and improvement of this beautiful area.”
CRH increases revenues in first quarter of 2021
28 April 2021Ireland: CRH recorded a 3% like-for-like year-on-year consolidated net sales increase in the first quarter of 2021. American regional cement volumes increased by 5% and cement prices increased by 4%. Asian cement sales increased due to stronger volumes despite lower prices. Cement volumes rose in France but fell in Ireland due to the different timelines of the Covid-19 outbreak in each country in the periods under comparison. The price of cement rose in Eastern Europe. The group said that there is currently good underlying demand and continued pricing progress across key markets.
In the first quarter of 2021, the company spent US$200m on acquisitions. It says that it continues to have a ‘strong pipeline of opportunities.’ It earned US$200m from divestment of its Brazilian business. The company continues its share buyback programme with a US$300m tranche to be completed by the end of June 2021. It expects its earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) in the first half of 2021 to be ‘well ahead’ of first-half 2020 levels.
Chief executive officer Albert Manifold said “We had a positive start to the year in a seasonally quiet period for our business. He added “While near-term uncertainties remain, as we look ahead to the second half of the year we expect further normalisation in our markets as the health situation continues to improve.”
LafargeHolcim to leave Brazil?
21 April 2021LafargeHolcim retained its ability to surprise this week with the news that it may be making preparations to leave Brazil. Local press in Minas Gerais revealed on 20 April 2021 that the company was about to try and sell its operations in the country. The building materials producer has not made a public statement yet on the matter, it may not until a deal is done and/or this could all be a great big misunderstanding. So treat the following with caution.
Firstly, LafargeHolcim deciding to sell in Brazil fits with the selective approach increasingly shown by the non-Chinese cement multinationals in recent years. It famously decided to sell up in South-East Asia from 2018 and it got as far as divesting assets in Indonesia and Malaysia. It also tried to sell in the Philippines but the local competition commission didn’t give permission for the proposed deal in the end. As Global Cement Weekly mentioned at the time this was a bold move and doing the same in Brazil seems similarly decisive now. It’s a big market to leave! CRH and HeidelbergCement have both talked openly as well about taking a value-first approach to their divestment strategies rather than trying to retain blanket coverage. However, just because a sale in Brazil by LafargeHolcim sounds right doesn’t mean it is right.
Secondly, data from the National Cement Industry Association (SNIC) shows that the Brazilian cement industry had a good year in 2020. Despite the relentlessly bad news from the coronavirus pandemic, the Brazilian government decided to keep the economy mostly open, allowing the cement industry to continue its recovery since 2018. The sector reported an 11% rise year-on-year in cement sales to 60Mt in 2020. So far in 2021 it has noted a 19% rise year-on-year to 15.3Mt in the first quarter of 2021. Yet, the association forecast slower growth in 2021 as a whole and has warned that the first quarter figures in 2021 don’t show a true picture due to a decline in sales per working day so far in 2021 despite an apparent growth in absolute figures. On the surface it’s a good time to sell cement assets in the country since the sector has been riding a recovery but the general outlook for the country is looking gloomy especially considering the ongoing scale of its coronavirus outbreak and the uncertain damage this may do to the economy as a whole.
Whether or not LafargeHolcim is actually selling up in Brazil or not it, follows the conclusion of the CRH Brazil acquisition by Buzzi Unicem’s Companhia Nacional de Cimento (CNC) joint-venture that was also announced this week after approval by the completion authority. The assets that CRH Brasil has now sold include three integrated cement plants and two grinding plants in the south-east of the country. The subsidiary sold approximately 2.8Mt of cement in 2020. If nothing else this suggests that there should be companies out there pursuing a different strategy to LafargeHolcim, CRH, HeidelbergCement and the rest who will be only too happy to build their portfolio if LafargeHolcim’s Brazilian business does go on sale.
CRH originally bought its plants in Brazil as part of a package deal when Lafarge and Holcim merged in 2015 and any potential sales by LafargeHolcim also link back to this. LafargeHolcim has spent much of the last six years working out what kind of company it wants to be. Certainly, since the current chief executive officer Jan Jenisch took charge it has had the air of a company with a mission. The Firestone Building Products acquisition earlier in 2021 is an example of this, propelling the group away from the triad of cement, concrete and aggregates as the carbon risks of heavy building materials heat up. There is something fitting perhaps that at the company’s next annual general meeting its shareholders will be asked whether they want to change the company’s name to Holcim at the group level. It’s a small thing, all market brands will remain as they are, but it may bookend the post-merger era as much as asset divestments in Indonesia and... potentially Brazil.
Companhia Nacional de Cimento acquires CRH Brasil
20 April 2021Brazil: Companhia Nacional de Cimento (CNC), part of Italy-based Buzzi Unicem’s 50% subsidiary BCPAR, has acquired CRH Brasil following approval by the Brazilian antitrust authority (CADE). The deal was originally agreed for US$218m although changes in the financial positions of the acquired companies changed this. Buzzi Unicem supplied CNC with US$242m to support the deal.
CRH Brasil’s assets included three integrated cement plants and two grinding plants in the south-east of the country. The company sold approximately 2.8Mt of cement in 2020.
Cemex to buy aggregate assets in France
13 April 2021France: Mexico-based Cemex has signed an agreement to buy assets in Paris metropolitan area. The new acquisitions consist of two aggregates quarries and a rail platform. The assets previously belonged to Ireland-based CRH subsidiary Equiom Granulats. The purchase is expected to be completed during the second quarter of 2021.
Europe, Middle East, Africa and Asiaregional president Sergio Menendez said, "This acquisition will allow us to better serve our customers by integrating and complementing our portfolio to provide a comprehensive and sustainable offering, directly aimed at the rapidly growing needs of the North Paris Metropolitan Area." He added "This is a clear example of the efforts that we are doing to foster earning before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation growth by investing in key high-growth urban centres worldwide."
Opterra starts public consultation on new quarry for Wössingen cement plant in Germany
07 April 2021Germany: Opterra has started a public consultation process about expanding the limestone quarry for its integrated Wössingen cement plant near Walzbachtal in Baden Württemberg. The move follows the plant’s quarry at Lugenberg reaching its approved perimeter to the east. The subsidiary of Ireland-based CRH plans to find a location for a new quarry to open from around 2030. The company also wants to conduct exploratory drilling in the region for additional limestone deposits.
UK: Tarmac, part of Ireland-based CRH, has relocated reptiles to purpose-built bespoke habitats at its Bellhouse, Essex, quarry. The reptiles lived in an area of planned quarry expansion. Work began in 2016 on the new habitat for grass snakes, common lizards and slow worms, consisting of acid grassland, tussocks and ponds. The company plans to expand the reserve under its site restoration process. It says that this will enable reptile populations to grow.
Restoration manager Enrique Moran Montero said, “The restoration phase of a quarry provides so many opportunities to promote local fauna and flora, and we pride ourselves in making the most of this land. From nature reserves to parks and wildlife learning zones for schools to use, we always strive to provide benefits for local wildlife as well as the communities we work in.”
Republic Cement wins Quarry Operations award at Presidential Mineral Industry Environmental Awards
26 March 2021Philippines: Republic Cement, a subsidiary of Ireland’s CRH, has won the Quarry Operations award at the 2021 Presidential Mineral Industry Environmental Awards in Quezon City for its work sustainably supplying limestone to its Bulacan and Batangas cement plants. The Batangas quarry also won the Safest Quarry award, while the Bulacan quarry won the Best Mining Forest Programme in the Non-metallic category. The company’s Iligan quarry won the Platinum Achievement for Quarry Operations award. President Lloyd Vicente received the prizes.
Jim Mintern appointed as group finance director for CRH
24 March 2021Ireland: CRH has appointed Jim Mintern as group finance director with effect from 1 June 2021. He will also join the company’s board of directors at the same time. He succeeds Senan Murphy who is retiring.
Mintern, aged 54 years, is a chartered accountant and holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree from University College Dublin. He has over 30 years of experience in the building materials industry, nearly 20 years of which have been with CRH.
He joined CRH in Ireland as finance director for Roadstone in 2002 and since then has held several senior positions across the group, including country manager for Ireland and managing director of each of the Western and Eastern regions of our Europe Materials business. Mintern is an executive vice president of CRH and a member of the group’s Global Leadership Team. In his most recent role as chief of staff to the chief executive officer he worked with divisional and operational leadership, having oversight of group performance programmes and leading the planning and execution of some of the group’s recent large acquisitions including Ash Grove in North America in 2018.