Displaying items by tag: Capacity utilisation

Venezuela: Venezuelan Chamber of Construction (CVC) president Mauricio Brin has estimated a capacity utilisation of 12.5% - corresponding to a production of 1.5Mt of cement from an installed capacity of 12Mt/yr. Noticias Financieras has reported that, according to Brin, production, which was hampered by power shortages, was sufficient to meet the construction sector’s demand. “Public construction has stalled and private investment is restricted to limited office developments in state capitals,” said Brin. He estimated a contraction of 95% year-on-year in construction compared to 2018.

Turkmenistan: Lebap Cement plant produced nearly 0.74Mt of cement in the first half of 2019, exporting around 0.24Mt (32.5%). The plant has a capacity of 1.5Mt/yr but only made 0.94Mt in 2018, giving it a capacity utilisation rate of 63%. However, if Lebap continues to produce cement at the rate seen in the first half of 2019, it will have operated at nearly 100% of its capacity across the calendar year.

Jordan: 21.8% state-owned Jordan Cement, 50.3% subsidiary of LafargeHolcim, has laid off 200 of its 550 employees after incurring losses of US$87m in the nine months to 30 September 2019. Reuters has reported that the company, whose 2018 losses were US$48.9m, up by 4.0% year-on-year from US$47.0m in 2017, made the sackings ‘to ensure its continuity,’ according to Jordan Cement CEO Samaan Samaan. The company has operated a single line at its 2.0Mt/yr integrated Rashadiyah cement plant since the closure of its 2.0Mt/yr Fuhais plant in 2013. The country’s 9Mt/yr-capacity cement sector serves a domestic demand of 4Mt/yr.

India: Piyush Goyal, the Minister of Commerce and Industry, says that the cement industry has a capacity utilisation rate of 67%. In a written reply to the Indian Parliament, he said that the country had an installed production capacity for cement of around 510Mt/yr and that 337Mt was produced in the 2018 – 2019 financial year.

India: UltraTech Cement’s net sales rose by 20% year-on-year to US$5.24bn in its 2019 financial year from US$4.35bn in the 2018 reporting period. Its profit after tax grew by 10% to US$347m from US$317m. Its power and fuel costs increased by 33% to US$1.20bn from US$903m.

The cement producer said that production stabilised at its integrated plant in Manavar, Madhya Pradesh, reaching a clinker production capacity utilisation rate of 100% in the quarter that ended on 31 March 2019. It worked on the plants of its UltraTech Nathdwara Cement subsidiary to reach a production utilisation rate of 72% in March 2019. Both plants were acquired from Binani Cement in late 2018.

The plants it acquired from Jaypee Associates in 2017 are running at a capacity utilisation rate of 82%. A planned shutdown was undertaken at its Bela plant in Madhya Pradesh plant for cost improvements. The company intends to install waste heat recovery (WHR) units at these plants. Work on the 4Mt/yr Bara grinding unit is on track and the first phase of the expansion is expected to be commissioned during the first quarter of its 2020 financial year.

India: N Srinivasan, the vice-chairman and managing director of India Cements, predicts that cement demand is improving in the south of the country. At the company’s annual general meeting in Chennai he said that demand for cement is expected to improve the 70% capacity utilisation rate recorded in the 2017 – 2018 financial year, according to the Financial Express newspaper. The region had a cement production capacity of 160Mt/yr but demand was only up to 80Mt.

He added that India Cements reported a utilisation rate of 71% in the previous financial year and that this had improved to 80% in the first quarter of the current year. He also expected that the second quarter would be better despite floods in Kerala and a transporters' strike.

Bangladesh: The local cement industry has a cement production utilisation rate of 54%. Cement consumption was 27.1Mt in 2017, according to the Daily Star newspaper. However, the country had a production capacity of 50.2Mt/yr in 2017 from around 45 companies of various sizes. Production capacity is expected to grow to 80Mt/yr by 2019.

Masud Khan, the chief executive officer of Crown Cement Group, forecasts that cement consumption will grow by 8 – 10% by 2022. He blamed the local oversupply on an overpopulated market. Other issues the local industry faces include a recent rise in the price of raw materials, port congestion which causes delay in unloading raw materials, a lack of smaller ships, local currency depreciation, low retail price and low load limits on local roads.

India: Grasim Industries plans to invest up to US$870m in its cement business by the end of 2021. The subsidiary of Aditya Birla that also operates UltraTech Cement, wants to modernise its existing cement plants, carry out environmental upgrades and increase the production capacity of the units it acquired from Jaiprakash Associates, according to the Mint newspaper.

Aditya Birla Group’s chief financial officer Sushil Agarwal said that the company wants to increase the capacity utilisation rate of the former Jaiprakash Associates cement plants to over 85%, the standard level for the other UltraTech Cement plants. He added that on average cement plants in India have a capacity utilisation rate of 75%.

Pakistan: The All Pakistan Cement Manufacturers Association (APCMA) says that the capacity utilisation of the local cement industry reached 94% in the nine months of the local financial year to March 2018. Demand for cement has been bolstered by local demand and growing exports so far in 2018, according to the Business Recorder newspaper. Cement despatches grew by 14.7% year-on-year to 34.8Mt in the first nine months of the 2017 – 2018 year from 30.3Mt in the same period in the previous period. Despatches grew faster in the north of the country than the south.

Venezuela: A cement plant at Valencia in Carabobo is only using 25% of its production capacity due to a lack of government investments. The plant was nationalised in 2017, according to the El Carabobeno newspaper. Reportedly it is the only plant out of four in the local area that is still operating.