Displaying items by tag: China

China: According to Reuters, Anhui Conch Cement sold its shares in Xinjiang Qingsong Building Materials and Chemicals Group and Tangshan Jidong Cement Company in the April – June 2015 period for a net profit of US$217m.

China: According to Dow Jones, West China Cement expects to report a 'significant decrease' in net profit for the six months that ended on 30 June 2015, compared with the US$25.8m net profit for the six months that ended on 30 June 2014. West China Cement said that the anticipated decline is mainly tied to the low average selling price of cement in the past 12 months. It added that it was unable to maintain 'reasonable selling prices and healthy margins' in the southern part of Shaanxi.

Brazil: Magnesita Refratários has announced an agreement with ACIS, a cement maintenance and operations service company based in China and Saudi Arabia, to extend its services offering Magnesita's refractory products supporting greenfield projects around the world. ACIS and Magnesita will target Chinese cement original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), which are building projects in countries primarily outside of China. The cooperation started on 1 July 2015 and shall continue for three years, with a possible extension.

"Partnering with ACIS which is recognised within the cement industry for its technical and service capability, is an important step for Magnesita's continued growth within the industrial market. This alliance with ACIS will help clients control costs utilising Magnesita's high-quality refractory products as new cement plants are commissioned," said Magnesita CEO, Octavio Lopes.

ACIS will create a commercial team in China tp focus on clients and the development of new projects while Magnesita's technical assistance team will work closely with ACIS to provide application and engineering support.

China: According to Reuters, Anhui Conch's board has agreed to invest US$35.4m to set up a joint venture to acquire Shengta Group's cement-related assets.

China: Germany's AViTEQ Vibrationstechnik GmbH has celebrated the opening of a joint venture in Shanghai with China's Shanghai Finde M&E Tech Co Ltd (Finde). Finde is mainly engaged in drive and control technology business in China and has been supplied with AViTEQ magnetic vibrators for about 10 years.

Increasing domestic demand resulted in the establishment of AViTEQ Industrial Technology, which will manufacture innovative vibrating and processing systems exclusively for the Asian market. The joint venture will combine Chinese steel construction skills and German state-of-the-art drive technology. The technology will be used for screening and conveying in various sectors, including the cement industry, steel production and foundries, building and non-metallic mineral industry, chemical, pharmaceutical as well as plastic applications up to food production. Sales and services will be handled by AViTEQ Industrial Technology. The company will provide a 24 hour spare part delivery service for drives and controls from a local warehouse.

"Thanks to the cooperation with our local partners, we are able to offer our systems in China and neighbouring countries at marketable prices while maintaining the highest quality standards. In the medium-term, we are expecting the new company to gain a comparable successful market position with similar size as the German parent company," said Wolfgang Finger, CEO of AViTEQ Germany.

China: According to Reuters, cement producers participating in the carbon market in China's Hubei Province have told the local government that they cannot afford the millions of Chinese Yuan required to buy permits to cover mitigation obligations for 2014 and may default. Refusal to pay would test China's ability to force companies to comply with carbon targets and undermine efforts to curb greenhouse gas emissions, in which a planned national carbon market would have a central role.

The 138 companies covered by the Hubei exchange have to hand over carbon permits in June 2015 to settle their obligations for 2014. Around a quarter are cement firms, which have complained that they were not allocated enough credits. "They are in talks with the government to gain immunity from non-compliance penalties and are asking to borrow some permits from next year's quota," said an unnamed broker.

The companies are facing high environmental compliance costs at the worst possible time, as the economy slows and the construction sector struggles. Chinese cement production fell by 4.8% in the first four months of 2015.

Huaxin Cement, the biggest local producer, is 1.15 million permits short of meeting its mitigation targets, according to a document seen by Reuters. Carbon permits in Hubei are trading at US$4.43 so it could cost the company US$5.1m to cover its shortfall.

"Hubei is generally oversupplied, but the distribution is not balanced. Most of the power sector is over-allocated, but the cement and chemical sectors are short," said another unnamed broker. "Those facing a big gap are not attempting to buy from the market. They are pushing the government for a compromise." Penalties for non-compliance could include a deduction in permits for 2015 plus a fine of up to three times the value of the obligations in default, although that is capped at US$24,176.

China: Profits made by the cement industry have fallen by 67.6% year-on-year to US$521m for the first quarter of 2015 according to statistics released by the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC). Cement output fell slightly by 3.4% year-on-year to 428Mt in the same period.

China: Anhui Conch has reported that its net profit fell by 30.7% year-on-year to US$276m for the first quarter of 2015 from US$399m for the same period in 2014. Revenue fell by 11.1% to US$1.81bn from US$2.04bn. The major Chinese cement producer attributed to the fall in profit to a drop in product prices.

India/China: China's Sinoma International Engineering Co Ltd is keen to invest in cement and wind energy projects in Andhra Pradesh. Song Shoushan, Sinoma's chairman, told the delegation that it sees India as a potential market for the cement industry and that Sinoma sees Andhra Pradesh as a potential state for their biggest manufacturing facility in India.

Russia: The government of Chelyabinsk and China's Anhui Conch Cement Company Limited are negotiating the construction of a cement plant. Anhui Conch has been provided several plots for assessment. According to general manager Wang Jianchao, a project scheme will be determined in the near future and will either consist of the modernisation of existing facilities or the construction of a new cement plant at undeveloped limestone deposits.