Displaying items by tag: China

China: China is expected to introduce rules to boost the use of waste treatment as an alternative fuel in cement kilns, a China Securities Journal report has said.

Xu Yongmo, vice chairman of the China Building Materials Federation, said at a forum that the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), together with other six ministries, were mulling over policies to boost co-processing in cement industry. The waste used in the cement kilns covers municipal sludge, household garbage and industrial solid waste.

China: Demand for cement in China will increase amid tightening supply in 2013, according to the vice-president of China Resources Cement. Yu Zhongliang, the vice-chairman of China Resources Cement, said that mainland China would not suffer from overcapacity because obsolete production capacity will be eliminated, in an article in the South China Morning Post.

An estimated 150Mt of new production capacity of cement will be added in 2013, but 100Mt of obsolete capacity will be eliminated, leaving a net increase in production capacity of 50Mt. Yu predicts that production will rise by 8% at most, but demand will grow by 8% to 10%.

"Over the past year, lots of metro railway and airport projects were approved in China. This will drive cement demand," said Pan Yonghong, the chief executive of China Resources Cement.

Government-led investment in infrastructure and urbanisation will support growth of 5% to 8% annually until 2015, according to a Macquarie Group report. Macquarie expects cement prices to jump 13% by 2015 due to tighter supply and increased demand, giving the sector a surge of 60% to 80% in earnings.

In January 2013, the central government stipulated that the country's ten largest cement producers should increase their national market share to 35% by 2015 from 30% currently. "We are in the top five by production capacity. We hope to rise in rank by 2015," Yu said. Beijing aims to create three or four mega-sized cement companies each with a production capacity exceeding 100Mt/yr by 2015.

China: China Resources Cement has announced a turnover of US$3.27bn for the calendar year 2012, 9.1% higher than its 2011 turnover of US$3.00bn. However, its profit attributable to the owners of the company was down by 44.4% year-on-year to US$299.7m from US$538.8m in 2011. In terms of volumes, the company sold 26.5% more cement and 36.0% more clinker than in 2011, selling 55.9Mt and 8.7Mt respectively.

Zhou Longshan, Chairman and Executive Director of China Resources Cement, said, "In 2012, the global economy was still in a downturn and China's economic growth continued to slow down. However, under the 'Steady Growth' economic policies implemented by the Chinese government, the national economy had shown a stable trend (to recovery)."

"During the year under review, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued a list of companies with obsolete capacities. The continuous and effective implementation of obsolete capacity elimination has played an important role in the improvement of demand and supply dynamics of the cement industry. The group managed to achieve the target total sales volume of about 65Mt of cement and clinker, which resulted from the release of new capacities completed and acquired since 2011, reinforcing its leading market position in Southern China."

In addition, China Resources Cement secured a US$64.5m bank loan. It announced the funding on 5 March 2013.

China: The cement sector on China's A-share market fell on 4 March 2013 following the announcement of new property control policies. China's central government announced on 1 March 2013 a set of measures to reduce rising domestic housing prices. The new measures included higher transaction duties, increased down payments and mortgage interest rates as well as strict purchase qualifications.

Cement demand in China is mainly driven by the property market and infrastructure construction. The market information supplier Chem99.com analyst Lu Ning said that the property market provided about 30% of the cement demand. Data from the China Cement Association showed that profits for the domestic cement industry fell by 32.8% year-on-year in 2012 to US$10.6bn.

China: German cement industry supplier Loesche GmbH has signed a contract to provide five mills to Shanxi Biological Cement Co. in China. The Shanghai division of Loesche has taken an order for two raw material mills and three clinker mills with complete mill key parts, housings and frames. The components are scheduled for delivery in 2013 with commissioning planned for mid-2013.

Shanxi Biological Cement is the daughter company of Shanxi Coal and Chemical Industry Group Co. It has merged two local cement companies with just under 1Mt/yr cement production capacity. It is building two 4500t/day clinker production lines in FuPing and a 1.8Mt/yr ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBFS) production line in Gaoling. Another 1Mt/yr clinker grinding station plant in HuangLing is being planned. Following all of this production, Shanxi Biological Cement Co intends to become the top cement producer in Western China with a capacity of 10Mt/yr.

China: Cement output in China increased by 7.4% year-on-year in 2012 to 2.18Bt, according to data released by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. Clinker output rose by 1% to 1.28Bt. Obsolete cement production capacity of 220Mt/yr was eliminated.

In other news the China Building Material Federation has released production information for regions in north-western China. Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region produced 41Mt of cement in 2012, a year-on-year increase of 32.8%. Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region saw cement output increase by 10% to 16.1Mt. Shaanxi Province saw cement output increase by 16.3% to 76Mt. Gansu Province saw cement output increase by 32% to 36.7Mt.

China: China National Building Material Group (CNBM) has reported that its operations revenue in 2012 grew by 14% year-on-year to US$35.5bn. The Chinese state-owned building materials manufacturer saw its profit reach US$1.81bn, while its net profit for the year hit US$1.38bn. As the end of 2012, CMBM had US$46bn in total assets, 38% more than at the end of 2011.

Production in 2012: China built 124 new dry-process cement production lines and added 160Mt of cement clinker production capacity in 2012, according to the China Cement association. China had 1637 dry-process cement production lines with a production capacity of 1.6Bnt/yr of clinker by the end of 2012.

Sichuan Province in south-western China has seen its cement output climb by 2.02% year-on-year to 130Mt in 2012, according to the local Statistics Bureau. In 2012, Sichuan's cement industry recorded US$7.68bn in total output value, a year-on-year increase of 1.87%. Meanwhile, the industry's profit rose by 0.81% year-on-year to US$0.44bn.

North China's Hebei Province's cement output reached 128.1Mt in 2012. The province's building materials industry recorded US$1.7bn in profit in 2012, a year-on-year decrease of 21.8%.

East China's Jiangxi Province saw its cement output increase by 10.2% to 76.4Mt in 2012, according to the local branch of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

Sinoma: Sinoma International Engineering has announced that the company plans to invest US$25.2m to set up a subsidiary in Hong Kong. The Hong Kong unit will acquire a 68% stake in the India-based cement firm, LNV Technology. Sinoma International said that the acquisition will increase its competitiveness in India's cement engineering market.

Separately, Sinoma estimated that the company's net profit for 2012 will decrease by 50% year-on-year in 2012, compared with a profit of US$247m in 2011.

Company news: Shanghai-listed cement and clinker producer, Xishui Strong Year Co Ltd Inner Mongolia, has estimated that the company's net profit will surge by 590% on-year in 2012, compared with a profit of US$1.51m in 2011.

Fujian Cement Inc expects to earn US$4.17m to US$4.98m in net profit in 2012, a year-on-year decrease of 79.2% to 75.27%.

Henan Tongli Cement Co Ltd, a Shenzhen-listed cement producer, has estimated that its net profit for 2012 will be between US$23.9m and US$28.6m, a year-on-year decrease of 26.1% to 38.1%. Tongli Cement earned US$38.7m in net profit in 2011.

Kyrgyzstan: During the visit of Kyrgyz Deputy Prime Minister for Economy and Investment Tayirbek Sarpashev's to China, an agreement has been reached with Chinese investors to build a cement plant in Kemin.

The plant's capacity will be 1.8Mt/yr or 2500t/day. The construction period of the plant should take from one year to 18 months. Investments are expected of more than US$50m. It is planned that construction will begin in April 2012.

"It covers our volume and will lead to lower prices in the market and will substantially reduce the cost of construction in the north of Kyrgyzstan," said Sarpashev.

China: Huaxin Cement, a Shanghai-listed cement manufacturer, has plans to acquire a 70% stake in two separate cement companies located in Hubei Province at a combined price of US$83m, according to sources reported by China Business Newswire. Huaxin Cement said that the acquisition will increase its competitiveness in the local cement market.