Displaying items by tag: Cemento Polpaico

Chile: Utility firm Colbun has begun construction of a 9.9MW captive solar photovoltaic plant for Cementos Polpaico’s Cerro Blanco cement plant in the Santiago Metropolitan Region. Colbun and Polpaico Soluciones hailed it as the largest solar self-consumption project in Chile.

The Cerro Blanco solar farm will occupy 12 hectares in the Tiltil commune. It will consist of 15,000 bifacial solar modules mounted on trackers for optimal power generation, with a production output estimated at approximately 21.5GWh/yr.

Colbun’s energy services unit Colbun Soluciones by Efizity will build and operate the solar farm. The companies expect the self-consumption system to commence operation during the first half of 2024. It will complement Polpaico’s existing supply of renewable power, which it has received from Colbun under a long-term agreement since 2018.

Chile: Cemento Polpaico plans to invest US$67m in expanding its operations, with a focus on its Cerro Blanco cement plant in Santiago. Work will include the construction of a solar power plant and the expansion of the plant's limestone quarry. Meanwhile, Cemento Polpaico will upgrade the plant's kiln to increase its alternative fuel (AF) substitution rate to 75% from 13%. The upgrade will increase the production line's clinker capacity by 13% and reduce its CO₂ emissions by 20,000t/yr. Additionally, the producer will build a new 3000t cement silo.

Chile: Cement Polpaico has reported the resignation of Andrés Segú Undurraga from his position as a director of the company, as well his deputy José Tomás Edwards Alcalde. Both resignations were effective from 21 April 2023.

The board of directors agreed to appoint Alejandro Gevert Detto as Segú's replacement, who will serve until the next ordinary shareholders' meeting of the company, at which time the board of directors must be completely renewed.

Chile: Cement shipments fell by 14% year-on-year during the first nine months of 2022, to 3.2Mt from 3.7Mt. The La Tercera newspaper has reported that a construction slowdown impacted on the cement sales of all three of Chile’s cement producers. Cbb’s despatches fell by 18%, Cementos Melón’s by 15% and Cemento Polpaico’s by 9.5%. At the same time, the producers’ expenses rose due to increased costs across transportation, raw materials, fuels, labour, administration and finance. Meanwhile, imported cement from Asia reportedly presents a cheaper alternative for customers.

Chile: Andrés Pérez Algarra has been appointed as the general manager of Cemento Polpaico. He succeeds Javier Moreno Hueyo who has been in the post for five years, according to the Valor newspaper. Andrés Pérez Algarra, who is currently working as the commercial manager for the company, will take up his new position in April 2022.

Chile: Cemento Polpaico has obtained a licence for the use of Canada-based CarbonCure’s CO₂ utilisation technology. The Diario Financiero newspaper has reported that the cement company plans to implement the technology in its concrete production.

Head of development and projects Matias Saenz said that Cemento Polpaico was among the first cement producers to commit to the UN’s Race to Zero decarbonisation initiative. It has also set out 20 sustainability goals to achieve before 2025. The company said that by implementing CarbonCure technology it is contributing to CarbonCure’s vision of eliminating 500Mt/yr of CO₂ emissions.

Chile: The board of directors of Grupo Hurtado Vicuña (GHV) subsidiary Cemento Polpaico, which operates the 2.3Mt/yr integrated Cerro Blanco plant in Santiago and two grinding plants, has voted in favour of a merger with fellow GHV subsidiary Cementos Bicentario (BSA), which operates three grinding plants in the country. The Diario Financiario newspaper has reported that GHV first mooted with merger with the affected parties in February 2018.

Chile: Cemento Polpaico, part of LafargeHolcim, reported a profit of US$5.93m in the first half of 2018, a 52.6% rise with respect to the US$3.9m profit it achieved in the first half of 2017. Its operating revenues from continuing activities were US$120.7m, a 32.2% year-on-year increase.

The company reported that the higher operating revenues were mainly due to an increase in sales volumes of cement and concrete, driven by the greater economic activity.

Chile: Union workers at Cemento Polpaico have gone on strike following negotiations. 162 workers, or around 15% of its employees, have taken industrial action, according to the Diario Financiero newspaper. The cement producer is unable to estimate the impact of the strike on its financial results.

Sad news this week from the Talcahuano cement plant in Chile that is to stop producing clinker. Local media reports that the Cementos Bío Bío unit has decided to import clinker from Asia instead, which will reduce its production costs. At the same time it has laid off a third of its workforce. The plant has been producing cement since 1961.

The decision carries echoes of Holcim New Zealand’s closure of its Westport cement plant in 2016, another unit in a country on the Pacific Rim. However, in that country LafargeHolcim has purposely moved towards becoming a distribution company by opening import terminals and depots. Plus the local subsidiary benefits from the cement-trading arm of a multinational company. By contrast, local producer Cementos Bío Bío still retains two integrated plants and a grinding plant in Chile. Following the closure its production share from integrated plants will drop to 2.4Mt/yr (39%) from 3.2Mt/yr (45%). The country will retain a total production capacity of 6.2Mt/yr from its clinker producing plants.

The timing of Cementos Bío Bío’s decision is also interesting given that the Chilean competition authority (TDLC) approved Hurtado Vicuña Group to buy a controlling stake in Cemento Polpaico from LafargeHolcim in early July 2017. The deal was originally announced in October 2016 to sell LafargeHolcim’s 54.3% stake in Cemento Polpaico for US$225m. The sale includes one integrated plant with a cement production capacity of 2.3Mt/yr and two grinding plants. Hurtado Vicuña has not been required by the regulator to sell any of its cement units but it has been asked to sell parts of its concrete business and to abide to a ban on repurchasing the assets within 10 years. Hurtado Vicuña owns Cementos BSA, a subsidiary that runs the El Bosque cement grinding plant in Santiago and it has just started-up production at a new 0.95Mt/yr grinding plant at Quilicura, also near the capital.

In its 2016 annual report LafargeHolcim reported that cement sales volumes of cement fell in Chile due to a fall in the residential construction market in the second half of the year. However it did manage to raise its operating earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBTIDA) off the back of higher prices and lower production costs compared to the previous year. Cementos Bío Bío concurred with this assessment of the market in its 2016 report, lamenting the country’s poor economic growth since 2015 and declines in the mining and construction sectors. Despite this its cement despatches rose very slightly to 1.56Mt in 2016. The big drop in its sales occurred in 2014 when its sales fell by 10% year-on-year to 1.51Mt. More recently, Bío Bío noted a 37% decrease in its operating profit for its cement, concrete and lime division for the first quarter of 2017 due to falling sales volumes and margins in cement and lime. However, it did benefit from falling costs for energy and petcoke inputs. The group also announced plans to sell a minority stake in itself in February 2017.

These stories show another country that is realigning its cement industry to a clinker-rich world market. Chile appears to retain a ‘big three’ group of local clinker producers that has shifted with the rise of Cementos BSA and the departure of LafargeHolcim. However, the market share in the cement grinding business has changed significantly as Cementos BSA has gained both an integrated plant and a more national profile, away from the capital, with its grinding plants. Once the local market picks up it will be interesting to see whether this trend towards clinker import and local grinding continues.