Displaying items by tag: Chile

Chile: Cementos Polpaico has submitted an environmental impact study for a US$60m upgrade of its Cerro Blanco cement plant in Tiltil, near Santiago. Business News America has reported that the proposed work consists of the installation of a new precalciner, an expansion to its four limestone quarries and the establishment of a new filtered tailings deposit and 3000t cement silo.

The producer hopes to launch the project in January 2023 in order to commission the upgraded plant before 2026.

Chile: Unacem has completed its acquisition of Spain-based Cementos La Unión’s Chilean cement business. The value of the asset, including assumed debts, was US$23m. The business consists of the 0.3t/yr San Antonio grinding plant and two ready-mix concrete plants with a total capacity of 336,000m2/yr.

Bolivia: Fábrica Nacional de Cemento (FANCESA) has received an order for 8000t of clinker from Chile. The Correo del Sur newspaper has reported that the company previously delivered 1000t of clinker to Chile-based Cbb’s grinding operations in the country. The producer says that it is in the process of securing a supply contract for 80,000t/yr of clinker with its Chilean customer.

Peru: Chile-based CBB, formerly Cementos Bío Bío, has reduced the budget for its planned Matarani cement grinding plant near Arequipa by 79% to US$8.95m from US$42.5m. According to the Gestión newspaper, the producer had previously secured and environmental permit for the unit.

Chile: Inform has set up a joint venture with its Chilean partner, Workforce Solutions. Previously, Workforce Solutions previously acted as a local partner for the German-based software development and business process optimisation supplier. Inform says it will invest ‘significantly’ in the new joint venture and acquire shares, while the remaining stock will be held by former shareholders and executives of Workforce Solutions. The new company has officially been operating as Inform Software since mid-April 2021. It has its headquarters in Santiago de Chile.

“We see the Latin American countries as a strategically important growth market in which we are happy to invest,” said Andreas Meyer, chief executive officer of Inform. “As we move forward with this joint venture, we will expand personnel resources for sales, project delivery and customer support. It will enable us to enhance our service to our customers in Latin America and further expand our market position.”

The joint venture is intended to allow Inform to expand its presence in Latin America across all of its business areas including logistics, transportation, workforce management, airline and airport operations and fraud prevention. In addition, the company will continue to work with its two longstanding partners Portia LAC in Brazil and Quantomm Tech in Colombia, which will continue to assist in serving Inform’s customers. Inform’s artificial intelligence software products are already used in Latin America by companies including Volkswagen México, LATAM Airlines, Zurich Insurance Mexico, Zurich Insurance Argentina, Brazilian retail company Via Varejo and Chilean Mercedes-Benz importer Kaufmann.

Two fairly serious investments in Peru made the industry headlines this week. The first was Yura’s plans to upgrade its Arequipa cement plant at a cost of US$200m. The project will involve increasing the plant’s clinker production capacity as well as installing a new mill and a 4.3km conveyor. The second was the latest instalment in Cementos Interoceanicos’ long held ambition to build a plant. It has struck a deal with France-based Satarem to build a 1Mt/yr plant near Puno. The deal also includes Satarem buying a 30% stake in Cementos Interoceanicos and plans to construct two lime units as well.

Graph 1: Local cement sales in Peru, January 2020 to February 2021 compared to January 2019 to February 2020. Source: ASOCEM.

These projects follow a squeeze for the local industry due to coronavirus-related containment measures. Data from the Association of Cement Producers (ASOCEM) shows that cement sales collapsed during the lockdown to just 11,000t in April 2020 before recovering in the autumn. Total annual local sales fell by 17% year-on-year to 9.7Mt from 11.6Mt. Sales have also remained high in January and February 2021.

The experience from the larger cement producers mirror the data from ASOCEM. Cementos Pacasmayo’s sales revenue fell by 7% year-on-year to US$354m in 2020 and its earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) fell by 21% to US$86.3m. Unión Andina de Cementos’ (UNACEM) income fell by 14% year-on-year to US$467m in 2020. Despite this, UNACEM managed to sign a deal to buy Cementos La Unión Chile for US$23m in December 2020. The purchase consists of a 0.3Mt/yr cement grinding plant and a 0.34Mm³/yr ready-mix concrete business with multiple concrete plants and trucks. UNACEM described Chile as its main clinker export destination and it holds concrete and precast subsidiaries in the country.

Yura’s general manager Ramón Pizá reportedly called his company’s plans a “vote of faith in Peru.” This is not an understatement considering the market shocks caused by coronavirus in 2020. The country implemented public health measures relatively early during the pandemic but still ended up with one of the worst death rates per capita in Latin America so far. As the British Medical Journal (BMJ) pointed out earlier this month, the timing was right but tragically the application of public health measures has been found wanting. Yet, the fundamentals for the Peruvian cement market are strong. Annual sales mounted from 2017 to 2019, and were showing signs of continuing this in early 2020 before the lockdown shut the market down. This growth pattern has continued so far in 2021.

Philippines: The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) has issued an order amending its previous order on cement safeguards. The Manila Bulletin newspaper has reported that the amendment extends safeguard measures to 13 new countries which now exceed the necessary 3% import volume share. These are Chile, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Israel, Indonesia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovenia, Slovakia and South Korea. Imported cement from these countries will now face a safeguard duty of US$0.2/bag. An official source quoted by the newspaper called the surge in importation from these countries "trade diversion" tactics by importers since these countries were previously exempt from the safeguard duty.

Chile: Melón’s new 0.25Mt/yr grinding plant that it is building at Punta Arenas is scheduled to start operation by the end of the first half of 2021. The unit is forecast to produce around 80,000t of cement in its 12 months, according to the La Prensa Austral newspaper. It has had an investment of US$30m and will create around 50 jobs. Spain-based Cemengal was previously reported as the supplier of the mill. It is intended to supply the Magallanes Region including Tierra del Fuego. The cement producer is also considering doubling the production capacity of the grinding plant to 0.5Mt/yr if the market supports it.

Chile: Melón has signed an electricity supply contract with Enel Generación. The contract covers the supply for its La Calera, Puerto Montt and Ventanas cement plants, and its San Bernardo aggregates quarry, until 2043, according to the La Tercera newspaper. All energy supplied under the contract will come from renewable sources. There is also the possibility of expanding the scope of the contract.

General Manager Iván Marinado said, “Our commitment to the sustainability of our operations is permanent. We have state-of-the-art technologies, we work together with our carriers in programmes to reduce logistical impact and energy efficiency, and we have a solid co-processing strategy for the use of alternative fuels (AF) and raw materials. Today we are happy to take a new step and start the use of renewable energies, as a concrete and effective example of our concern to contribute to the environmental improvement of the localities where we operate.”

Chile: The protest organisation Frente de Defensa de Islay has launched a challenge against the legality of Cbb’s planned 200,000Mt/yr Arequipa grinding plant in the Port of Matarani. The La República newspaper has reported that the organisation says that the plans would violate Islay district’s urban zoning law due to the risk of contamination.

The producer plans to complete the US$20m plant in mid-2021. It acquired the project from Inversiones Primax in 2019.