Displaying items by tag: Cancellation

China: The coronavirus outbreak which began in China’s Wuhan province has forced the China Cement Association to postpone its CementTech 2020 cement industry supply conference in Anhui province. The conference was due to take place on 25-27 March 2020 at the International Conference and Exhibition Centre in the province’s capital of Hefei.

Namibia: Singapore’s International Cement Group (ICG)’s intended purchase of Schwenk Namibia for US$104m has fallen through. The company stated that it will not buy the subsidiary of Germany’s Schwenk Zement, whose 1.0Mt/yr total integrated capacity consists of Ohorongo Cement’s Walvis Bay plant, over four months ahead of the deal’s long stop date of 31 January 2020. The deal’s deadline had previously been extended from 30 June 2019 following the Singapore Exchange forestalled the deal due to ICG’s inability to pay for the unprofitable company.

UAE: Failure of financing has put a stop to Ras Al Khaimah’s intended purchase of an 0.6Mt/yr integrated white cement plant in Fujairah and its associated quarry. Reuters has reported that the estimated US$123m deal will not be going ahead.

Pakistan: Bestway Cement has cancelled its acquisition of Dewan Cement's north plant. It blamed the cancellation on delays and uncertainty following related legal proceedings at the Sindh High Court.

US: Lafarge North America has scrapped plan to expand its Joppa cement plant in Illinois. One of the two kilns at the plant was shut in 2012. However, the company announced it was restarting this kiln and planning on building a third kiln in 2015, according to the Paducah Sun newspaper. The subsidiary of LafargeHolcim blamed the cancellation on poor market recovery for its products. Production is expected to continue at the cement plant using its existing two kilns. No job losses are anticipated.

China: CNBM has cancelled its acquisition of Shanshui Cement due to changes in the board composition, disputes regarding the control of Shandong Shanshui Cement Group, the financial difficulties of Shanshui Cement and the prolonged suspension of trading of the shares in Shanshui Cement. It added that the final issue ‘significantly and adversely’ affected the liquidity of the company and impaired attempts to determine the current market price of shares in Shanshui Cement. Shanshui Cement has faced financial troubles since a shareholder battle for control of the company took place in late 2015.

US: Titan America has cancelled the construction of a cement plant in Castle Hayne, North Carolina. It said it made the decision on economic reasons. Supply and demand balances in the specific regional markets did not support the cost of building a plant.

“Our decision to suspend construction on the cement plant in Castle Hayne is driven by basic project economics,” said Bill Zarkalis, Titan America’s CEO. “The pace of demand growth in the specific markets does not seem adequate to justify the addition of substantial new production capacity - more so because the costs to construct a new cement plant in the United States have risen substantially in the past few years. Finally, the overall risk profile of the project has worsened as new coastal capacity in North Carolina could be vulnerable to cement imports, considering the strong US Dollar, the global cement supply situation and low ocean freight costs.” He added that Titan is committed to long-term growth in the US and that the group is investing over US$250m between 2014 and 2016.

Titan America serves its North Carolina market from its Roanoke cement plant in Virginia, with an integrated logistics network of cement distribution terminals, warehouses and more than twenty ready-mix concrete plants. No jobs in any of Titan America’s existing operations are expected to be affected by the decision to cancel the Castle Hayne cement plant.

Saudi Arabia: The Saudi Cement Company has decided to temporarily stop producing clinker on one of its production lines and postpone replacing three cement mills due to poor market conditions and a cement export ban. The company will stop its 3500t/day clinker kiln 6 until market conditions improve. The stoppage is not expected to affect the cement producer's financial results as its inventory currently stands at 4Mt. A plan to replace three 360t/hr cement mills with two 440t/hr mills has also been delayed due to market conditions. The upgrade was expected to add 0.6Mt/yr cement grinding capacity to the plant.

Peru: Sources close to the Peruvian cement sector have reported that the shareholders of Cementos Portland (Cempor), a joint venture between Peru's Portland Investment World Cement Group, Brazil's Votorantim Cimentos and Chile's Cementos Bío Bío that was due to construct a cement plant close to the Peruvian capital Lima, did not reach an agreement on its agenda items. They are now to resolve their differences in an international commercial arbitration, which will probably take place in France. Issues came to a head at a meeting on 27 January 2014 due to a disagreement over financing.

Cambodia: Siam City Cement (SCCC) has cancelled a US$150m cement plant project in Cambodia due to political uncertainty, according to the Bangkok Post. The Thai cement producer is considering building a cement plant in Myanmar instead.

Philippe Arto, managing director of SCCC, said that the board has decided to 'put on the shelf' the plan to build a 1Mt/yr cement plant in Cambodia after finishing a feasibility study. SCCC, which is 27.5% owned by Holcim, signed a memorandum of agreement with Cambodia's Chip Mong Group for the study in late 2010. Under the previous plan, construction of the Cambodian cement plant was due to start around the end of 2013 and take two years to complete.

SCCC is looking at the possibility of pushing forward a cement project in Myanmar, where the market is sizeable and the economy is growing substantially. SCCC has placed no timeline for its Myanmar project.