Displaying items by tag: Dispute

India: The Madras High Court has pulled up Chettinad Cement Corportation (Chettinad) for encroaching upon public land to construct railway track to its factory at Ariyalur. It has ordered a probe by an IAS officer. Justice SM Subramaniam also ordered a probe into the role of government officials, who may have colluded with the factory management to squat on government land without permission.

"Such industries cannot encroach upon the government land, which is not only a water body, but also used as a pathway by the villagers and the people of that locality,” said Justice Subramaniam.

The court passed the order while dismissing a plea moved by Chettiand against the action of the sub-collector against the encroachment. The court further directed the district administration to evict all such encroachments made by the company on the land and water bodies within two weeks.

Colombia: Cemex Latam Holdings, the subsidiary of Mexican cement company Cemex in Central and South America and Caribbean region, has confirmed that is ‘solving’ the legal issues that prevent the opening of its new plant in Maceo, Antioquia, Colombia. The inauguration of the facility was postponed in May 2017 after authorities stated that the plant had not obtained all the permits to start operations. Jaime Muguiro, president of Cemex Latam, expressed that the company was still awaiting authorisation for the expansion of the plant's installed capacity, which is currently artificially limited to 0.25Mt/yr. The plant has a design capacity of 1.3Mt/yr and has so far cost Cemex US$420m.

Ireland: On 29 August 2017 an oral hearing began to hear submissions regarding plans by Irish Cement to use alternative fuels for energy in its plant in Limerick. The company is seeking to move away from using fossil fuels as a main source of material in its cement kiln in Mungret and to use recovered waste and tyres instead.

A number of local residents and members from action group Limerick Against Pollution (LAP) held a protest outside the hearing. LAP spokesperson Tim Hourigan said that residents were concerned about the possible release of toxins from the proposed process and that they were opposed to it going ahead. The hearing was also attended by local businessman and racehorse owner JP McManus, who said he was ‘concerned’ about the plans.

Representatives from Irish Cement told the hearing that the proposal would improve the long-term viability of the plant as well as help to reduce CO2 emissions and the plant’s reliance on imported fossil fuels. The hearing is expected to last until Friday 1 September 2017.

South Africa: Negotiations between PPC and AfriSam, two of South Africa's biggest cement producers, about a potential merger have reached a make-or-break stage, according to local press, after AfriSam cancelled the heads of terms it had entered into with PPC back in February 2017.

Despite the cancellation of the heads of terms, AfriSam acting chief executive Rob Wessels said the company remained committed to pursuing a transaction and intended to submit a new proposal regarding a possible merger to PPC.

"AfriSam remains firm that a transaction between AfriSam and PPC will greatly benefit the stakeholders of both companies. For this reason, we continue discussions with PPC and will explore other alternatives available to us,” said Wessels. "It remains our belief that a transaction between the two companies offers the local cement industry an opportunity to develop a champion with the required scale, operational efficiency and balance sheet to enable further investment opportunities in South Africa and the rest of the continent."

However, PPC chairperson Peter Nelson said they had been involved in the negotiations for six months and there came a time when it was necessary to halt them. Nelson added that the negotiations would only continue beyond 1 September 2017 if the new proposal tabled by AfriSam was ‘of sufficient interest and attraction and fair to shareholders and warranted extending’ the negotiations. "We can't carry on forever,” said Nelson. “A lot of shareholders are frightened about the prospect.”

Myanmar: A controversial 0.5Mt/yr cement plant in Mon State's Kyaikmayaw Township has apparently not sought permission from the Ministry of Electricity and Energy in order to generate power, according to the ministry itself. This has rekindled demands from local residents that the plant cease production. The US$400m plant, run by Mawlamyine Cement Limited (MCL), is a joint venture between Thailand’s Siam Cement and Pacific Link Cement Industries. It is powered by a 49MW coal-fired power plant.

The committee for the assessment of financial, planning and economic matters in the Mon State Parliament asked the Ministry of Electricity and Energy in a letter on 7 August 2017 about the coal-fired power facilities at the cement factory. The ministry replied on 14 August 2017 that MCL had not sought permission to run the power plant.

"From the ministry's reply, we can confirm that MCL didn't follow the electricity law. It did discuss with the ministry the installation of two 20MW but it didn't get any permission," said U Aung Kyaw Thu, speaking to local press. This was contradicted by MCL’s U Zaw Lwin Oo, who said, “The industry ministry gave its approval for the production of 20MW on 19 March 2017.” He said that MCL has two 20MW turbines and a 9MW spare turbine, but the industry ministry has only given approval for 20MW. There may be ambiguity as to whether the plant uses more than its permitted 20MW at any one time. According to the 2008 Constitution, heavy-scale electricity production-classified as 30MW and above-needs the approval of the government.

Dr Aung Naing Oo, deputy speaker of the Mon State Parliament, said that he welcomed the MCL's investment in the state, but that its procedures are less transparent than he would like them to be. "We should welcome investment but, at the same time, we need to see if those investments are legal and serve the stated purposes. In any case, if there is no permission under the electricity law, the factory should not operate," he told The Irrawaddy newspaper.

The factory started commercial operations in April 2017 despite local opposition. On 18 February, around 7000 locals from seven villages near the factory staged a protest against the coal-fired power plant. In April 2016, locals sent a petition with 3780 signatures to the President's Office, demanding the termination of the project.

Jordan: The Labour Ministry has helped to resolve a dispute between workers and management at Lafarge Jordan. Following several days of work stoppages the employees have agreed to sign a collective work contract and resume work as normal, according to the Jordan Times. In return workers at the Rashadia cement plant will receive a bonus payment at Eid Al Fitr and then pay increases based on performance. The parties have also agreed to let the ministry lead future talks on early retirement and workers’ association bans on employees.

Dominican Republic: Cementos Andino Dominicanos (CAD) has denied that it is planning to suspend work at its Pedernales factory after what the firm called 'a malicious media campaign.' Local reports claimed that CAD would stop production, hindering the construction of government-led tourism projects in one of Dominican Republic's most impoverished regions.

In response CAD underlined its commitment to help develop the area, where it invested US$150m to build the plant in 2002. The firm added that the facility had generated US$46.8m in cement exports and US$44m in exported added-value products since its opening.

Switzerland: Holcim's chairman Wolfgang Reitzle has said that Holcim is open to giving Russia's Eurocement a seat on the board after its merger with French peer Lafarge goes through, chairman Wolfgang Reitzle said yesterday.

On 29 March 2015 Russian businessman Filaret Galchev, who owns a 10.8% stake in Holcim via Eurocement Holding, rejected the renegotiated merger terms that Holcim had reached with Lafarge in mid-March.

"It would be beneficial to have him in the board as he would bring in lots of expertise from the cement sector," said Reitzle of Galchev. He added that the future chief executive of the combined company would be named within the next two weeks.

Reitzle excluded re-opening the negotiations with Lafarge on the share-exchange ratio or paying a special dividend to Holcim shareholders to win them over to the deal.

Holcim shareholders, some of whom remain sceptical of the cement industry mega-merger, vote on whether or not to ratify the deal at a shareholder meeting on Friday 8 May 2015.

In the UK there is an expression, coined by former Prime Minister Harold Wilson, that a 'week is a long time in politics.' While the week he was referring to has long since been forgotten, this refrain has since been repeated to the point of cliché by the mainstream media and is often used in the context of rapidly-changing political news stories. Regardless of its origin, this expression could well be used to accurately describe the current situation in France and Switzerland, where the past week has seen a number of serious and unpredictable developments in the preparation of the anticipated LafargeHolcim mega-merger.

Disgruntlement from 'those close to the deal' first surfaced as a 'wild rumour' a few weeks back but, in the past seven days, several of Holcim's shareholders, including the influential Thomas Schmidheiny, have questioned the contribution that can now be made by Lafarge. Holcim shareholders claim that the group has out-performed Lafarge in the 12 months since the deal was announced and they feel that this should be recognised financially. The abandonment of the Euro1.20 cap on the Swiss Franc by the Swiss National Bank (SNB) on 15 January 2015 has loaded the dice even further in Holcim's favour.

This is how the situation has deteriorated in the past seven days. Late last week, we had confirmation that Holcim was seeking to renegotiate the terms of the merger. On Monday we heard what at least part of those terms were, including an assertion that each Lafarge share was now worth just 0.875 of a Holcim share. Lafarge's main shareholders, accepting that their position was compromised to an extent, suggested that each Lafarge share was worth 0.93 of a Holcim share. Since then, it has become apparent that Bruno Lafont, the proposed leader of LafargeHolcim, has also put Holcim in a spin, as he is perceived to have presided over Lafarge's poorer performance.

Then, just yesterday, it was announced that the two current group boards had met separately in an attempt to arrive at new conditions with which to re-start negotiations. Commentators think that Holcim is holding all of the Aces but Lafarge has made it clear that it cannot accept a lower valuation and a CEO from Holcim. Discussions that take place 'in the dark' like this will do little to build confidence between the merging parties and infers that communication has become strained. There are twinges of antagonism in the releases that are not going to be solved by the boards sitting in separate rooms and whipping themselves into a frenzy.

Also caught up in this, like the child of a divorcing couple, is CRH. It only announced its purchase of Holcim and Lafarge divestments in February 2015. It stands to gain a joint Euro158m from Lafarge and Holcim if they fail to merge, but this will not make up for the loss of the many high-quality cement assets it otherwise stands to gain.

What will happen in the coming weeks? You have to be brave to predict how this will turn out, but our LinkedIn Group is a great place to discuss this rapidly-changing story. One thing we can be sure of is that there will be a lot to write about in another seven days. After all, a week is a long time in the cement industry!

Venezuela/Switzerland: Holcim Ltd has said that it will continue to pursue a final payment of roughly US$100m from Venezuela after the country's government failed to complete compensation payments related to the nationalisation of the Swiss cement company's operations in the country.

Holcim has already received US$552.5m out of a total of US$650m compensation that it expected following the nationalisation of Holcim Venezuela in 2008.

However, Corporación Socialista Del Cemento, SA, the state-owned company that now operates the former Holcim plants, hasn't transferred a final installment of US$97.5m, according to Holcim. The payment was been due on 10 September 2014.

"Holcim is in contact with the relevant parties in Venezuela to address this situation and, if necessary, will pursue all legal steps to collect the amounts due," said a Holcim statement.