
Displaying items by tag: Cimtogo
Togolese government denies cement price rise
26 September 2023Togo: The Ministry of Commerce has denied that it has authorised a change in the price of cement. In a press release it confirmed that the ex-factory prices it set in late October 2021 remained in force, according to 24heureinfo. It reminded cement traders of this and provided a 24-hour telephone number for consumers to report any abnormal trading practices.
The ministry was responding to reports on social media channels about an increase to the price of cement. CimTogo said recently that it had adjusted its price structure in mid-September 2023 but not breached the price limits set by the government.
Ebenezer Somuah appointed as head of CimTogo
31 May 2023Togo: CimTogo has appointed Ebenezer Somuah as its chief executive officer. He succeeds Eric Goulignac in the post, according to Lomé Actu. Somuah previously worked as CimTogo’s Finance Director. Prior to this he held finance positions at Ghacem in Ghana. Somuah holds a master’s in business administration from Ghana-based Central University College.
Energy costs mounting for the cement sector
20 October 2021UltraTech Cement, Taiheiyo Cement, Cimtogo and the Chinese Cement Association (CCA) have all been talking about the same thing recently: energy prices.
India-based UtraTech Cement reported this week that coal and petcoke prices nearly doubled in the second quarter of its current financial year, leading to a 17% rise year-on-year in energy costs. Japan-based Taiheiyo Cement released a statement earlier in October 2021 saying that due to mounting coal prices it was planning to raise the price of its cement from the start of 2022. It principally blamed this on increased demand in China and a stagnant export market. It added that it was ‘inevitable’ that prices would rise further in the future. Meanwhile in West Africa, Eric Goulignac, the chief executive officer of Cimtogo, complained to the local press that the reason the company’s cement prices were going up was due to a 250% increase in the cost of fuels for the Scantogo plant and an increase in the price of sea freight of over US$35/t for transporting gypsum and coal.
Other places where the cost of energy has been biting cement producers include Turkey and Serbia. In the former, Türk Çimento, the Turkish Cement Manufacturers' Association, warned in June 2021 that the price of petcoke had nearly tripled over the previous year. Whether it was connected or not, the Turkish Building Contractors Confederation (IMKON) organised a strike in September 2021 due to high costs. The confederation claimed that the price of cement had tripled over the last year. In Serbia electricity prices have risen sharply in recent months in common with much of Europe. Local press reported comments last month from President Aleksandar Vučić saying that an unnamed cement producer had warned of a 25% rise in the price of cement if electricity prices remained high. In the UK the Energy Intensive Users Group (EIUG), a network of lobbying groups for heavy industry including cement, has been holding talks with the government on how to cope with growing energy costs. Finally, in the US, Lhoist warned in September 2021 that is was going to increase the cost of all of its lime products from the start of November 2021 due to increasing gas prices. These are just some of the reactions by cement and lime producers to the current global energy market. No doubt there are many more.
The current global energy crunch has widely been attributed to the waking up of economies following coronavirus-related dormancy in 2020 with supply failing to meet demand. Gas prices have risen to record highs and this has promoted electricity producers to switch to coal in the US, Europe and Asia. This in turn has put pressure on industrial users as both electricity and coal prices have grown and governments have taken action in some cases to protect domestic users. In Europe price pressure has lead to reductions in ammonia and fertiliser production. Power cuts have been reported in China and India.
In China a variety of factors have converged to create a crisis. These include shutting down coal mines on environmental and safety grounds, anti-corruption measures and even promoting mine closures to facilitate clean skies for national events such as the Communist party’s 100th anniversary. Disruption to import sources such as a ban on Australian coal on political grounds, flooding in Indonesia and a renewed coronavirus outbreak in Mongolia can’t have helped either. Thermal coal futures traded on the Zhengzhou Commodity Exchange hit a high of US$263/t on 15 October 2021 marking a 34% rise through the week and the largest weekly growth since trading started in 2013. The International Energy Agency estimates that coal demand in China grew by over 10% year-on-year in the first half of 2021 but coal production increased by just over 5%.
Industrial users have suffered as energy supplies have been rationed and producers asked to cut output. In September 2021 cement output fell by 12% year-on-year to 205Mt from 233Mt in September 2020. This is the lowest monthly figure for September since 2011. It’s also not the usual direction of double-digit rate of change that the Chinese cement sector is used to. The CCA attributed this mainly to energy controls, power shortages and high coal prices in Jiangsu, Hunan, Zhejiang, Guangdong, Guangxi, Yunnan, Shandong and elsewhere. Cement output for the first nine months of 2021 is still ahead of 2020 at 1.77Bnt compared to 1.67Bnt but it’s been slipping noticeably since July 2021.
This will leave energy users, including cement producers, watching the weather forecasts rather closely this winter. Should the Northern Hemisphere suffer a cold one then energy prices such as coal will reflect it. Industrial users may also become subject to energy rationing in many places. The knock-on effect of this then will be higher cement prices. However bad the winter does turn out to be though we can expect more cement companies trying to explain bashfully why their prices are going up. On the plus side any producer that can diversify its energy mix through solar, alternative fuels or whatever else is likely to be doing so soon if they are not already.
Cimtogo increase prices due to fuel and transport costs
20 October 2021Togo: Cimtogo has blamed price rises for its cement on mounting fuel and transport costs. Eric Goulignac, the chief executive officer of the subsidiary of HeidelbergCement, said that the company had seen a 250% increase in fuels for the integrated Scantogo plant in Tablogbo and a rise in sea freight costs of over US$35/t to import coal and gypsum, according to local press.
Togo: HeidelbergCement has announced plans to bring the capacity of its subsidiary Cimtogo’s grinding plant in Lomé up to 1.6Mt/yr from 0.6Mt/yr at an investment of Euro27.0m. Agencé Ecofin has reported that this will bring the German group’s total investment in Cimtogo to Euro225m since its acquisition in 2012.
HeidelbergCement confirms faith in Togolese market
11 July 2019Togo: Eric Goulignac, a regional director of HeidelbergCement based in West Africa, says that the company believes in the local market despite competition. He expressed confidence due to the quality of its products, according to Télégramme228. The building materials producer is currently finalising a call for tenders for a Euro25m upgrade to its operations, including a new mill, at Cimtogo’s cement grinding plant in Lomé and a photovoltaic (PV) solar energy plant.