Displaying items by tag: Cementos Yura

Peru: Three new cement grinding plants are planned to start production in Peru in 2019. Cemento Inka plans to invest US$25m towards opening a 0.6Mt/yr cement grinding plant at Ica near Pisco in late 2019, according to the Gestión newspaper. It also plans to update the kilns at its unit in Cajamarquilla. Mixercon plans to invest US$20m towards building two new cement plants in northern Lima. These new plants should open during the second half of 2019. Mixercon also intends to open at least one more distribution centre in Lima. Cementos Pacasmayo and Cemento Yura also have upgrades planned to their plants in 2019.

Peru: Cementos Yura’s income has risen by 10% year-on-year to US$141m in the first half of 2016 from US$127m in the same period of 2015. Its net income rose by 21% to US$29m from US$24m.

The Peruvian cement producer’s sales volumes grew by 11% to 608,923t of cement in the second quarter of 2016 mainly due to a rise in local demand. Clinker sales volumes remained stable. Yura increased its market share to 22.4% in the quarter from 20.4% in the same period in 2015. Peru's total domestic cement sales remained table at 2.33Mt.

Peru: UNACEM has boosted its first half net income by 23% on higher prices and lower costs, according to Business News Americas.

UNACEM posted a US$47.8m profit and its sales rose by 6% year-on-year to US$896m in the first half of 2015. The company cut its operating costs by 8% in the first half of 2015 and its sales costs by 2.1%. Cement production fell by 1.6% to 2.71Mt in the first half of 2015, while clinker production fell by 6.3% to 2.58Mt. Exports jumped by 36.6% to 590,863t during the period.

UNACEM, which competes in Peru with companies including Cementos Pacasmayo and Gloria Group's Cementos Yura, said that it increased its domestic market share to 51.2% in the first half of 2015 from 49.9%. UNACEM expects to benefit from a growing contribution from its US$553m acquisition in 2014 from Lafarge Ecuador.

UNACEM has 7.6Mt/yr of installed cement capacity. Peru's cement production rose by 1.4% to 10.7Mt in 2014, according to cement producers' association Asocem. Exports from Peru rose by 37.4% to 306,277t in the same period.

Ecuador: Cementera Nacional (33.5%) has formalised a strategic partnership with Cementos Yura (63.5%) to expand its installed production capacity for cement and clinker at the Riobamba cement plant. The US$230m investment project will extend over the next 40 months. Ecuador presently imports more than 1Mt/yr of clinker. The expanded Riobamba plant will have a 2400t/day of clinker production capacity, allowing foreign exchange savings of US$75m.

If you ever visit Lima be sure to try the wonton soup! One of the surprises of the Peruvian capital is the large number of Chinese restaurants. Peru has one of the largest proportions of inhabitants of Chinese-descent in Latin America. This adds a spoonful of historical context to this week's news of China's Jidong Development Group's intentions to buy Cementos Interoceanicos. It is one of a few stories affirming Peru's growth in recent years, although this trend may be changing.

The major Chinese producer is acquiring a cement plant with mineral rights that was first proposed in 2008. Originally the 1.6Mt/yr plant was budgeted at US$250m with construction set to start in 2009 and production intended to start in early 2011. At the time company executive director Armando Belfiore told local press that reserves of 700Mt of limestone and 390Mt of pozzolan exist in the Macusani, Ajoyani and Potoni districts in the Carabaya province of Puno. Subsequent plans were to develop lime and calcium carbide also. However, at present the project still appears to be in the development phase. No doubt Chinese money will be very welcome.

Meanwhile Peru's local producers have steadily been making their own progress towards becoming regional players in their own right. In December 2014 Union Andina de Cementos (Unacem) completed its purchase of Lafarge's cement assets in Ecuador. The US$517m deal included a 1.4Mt/yr cement plant in Otavalo. This followed Holding Cementero del Peru, a subsidiary of Gloria which operates Cementos Yura, paying US$300m to buy up to 98.4% in Sociedad Boliviana de Cemento (Soboce), Bolivia's largest cement producer. Media analysts have predicted that Cementos Pacasmayo is also likely to expand internationally once it has finished its local projects.

Internally, each of the major Peruvian cement producers has its own projects. Unacem is investing US$374m on its Atocongo and Condorcocha plants between 2014 and 2018, with a focus on the cement mill, the development of the Carpapata III hydroelectricity project and the construction of bagging facilities in Condorcocha. Cementos Yura targeted US$50m towards machinery and equipment at its Yura plant near Arequipa. Cementos Pacasmayo's new US$385m cement plant at Piura is due to start operation in the second half of 2015. The new plant in northwest Peru will have a production capacity of 1.6Mt/yr of cement and 1Mt/yr of clinker.

Cement production in Peru has slowed since 2012 when the country saw production rise by 16% year-on-year to 9.85Mt. 2013 saw production rise by 6% to 10.5Mt. Currently released figures from the association of cement manufacturers in Peru (Asocem) to November 2014 suggest that this growth has continued to fall to 1.5% year-on-year.

Cementos Pacasmayo reported in its third quarter report for 2014 that the Peruvian economy had experienced a slowdown during the first nine months of the year although it was expected to recover in the final quarter and beyond due to impending infrastructure projects and spending. Given Peru's continued growth in gross domestic product (GDP), Jidong, Pacasmayo and Peru's other cement producers could do worse than order a nice bowl of wonton soup while they wait and see what happens.

Peru: Cementos Yura, a Gloria Group subsidiary, has invested US$50.0m in machinery and equipment for a new cement plant. The company is building capacity to meet the demand of large construction projects in Southern Peru. In the first half of 2014, Yura reported US$39.2m in profit, down from US$39.9m in the same period of 2013. Yura's domestic market share fell from 22% in the first half of 2013 to 21.7% during the same period of 2014.