Displaying items by tag: Dominican Republic
Cemex inaugurates restarted kiln at cement plant in Dominican Republic
08 September 2022Dominican Republic: The President of the Dominican Republic, Luis Abinader, has inaugurated the kiln of a restarted production line at the San Pedro de Macorís cement plant. The US$34m upgrade project was started in 2021. The line has a clinker production capacity of 0.5Mt/yr and it has been restarted to support the local market. The announcement follows the start of a project to use hydrogen at the unit that began in late August 2022. The plant also plans to increase its use of alternative fuels, move to using more CO2-free materials and increase its use of additives over the next five years.
Dominican Republic: Cemex says it is planning to start using hydrogen technology at its integrated San Pedro De Macoris cement plant. It inaugurated the project during a visit by chief executive officer Fernando A Gonzalez. It is part of the company's Future in Action program that seeks to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050.
The group currently uses the technology by injecting hydrogen into cement plant kilns to optimise the combustion process and to increase the use of alternative fuels. It ran a trial at its Alicante cement plant in Spain using hydrogen in 2019 and says it rolled the process out to all of its European cement plants in 2021. Other hydrogen-based projects the cement producer is working on include a partnership with Hiiroc, a gas-to-hydrogen plant producer, and the creation of a renewable hydrogen industrial plant in Spain in collaboration with Acciona and Enagas.
Algeria: Groupe des Ciments d'Algérie (GICA) has obtained a certificate of conformity with European standards (CE) for three types of cement. The certification should allow the company to export more products to Europe, according to the Expression newspaper. It applies to its Gica Moudhad and Gica Béton products. The move follows similar certification of products with the Association Française de Normalisation (AFNOR) from the company’s Aïn El Kebira plant in July 2021. At the same time the Minister of Industry said it was helping the group with its export strategy.
In 2021 GICA exported 2.25Mt of cement to countries including the Ivory Coast, Gambia, Ghana, Mauritania, Senegal , Cameroon, Benin, Guinea, Brazil, Peru, the Dominican Republic, Haiti and a number of European countries.
Dominican Republic: First-quarter domestic cement consumption in the Dominican Republic rose by 2.9% year-on-year in 2022. The Dominican Association of Portland Cement Producers (ADOCEM) said that producers’ costs rose year-on-year, particularly in the area of fuels, which accounts for 60% of costs. Electricity prices also rose during the quarter.
Association president Felix Gonzalez said "Without a doubt, energy management is a key point in the economic sphere of a cement plant since it makes this industry very susceptible to deficiencies and high tariffs in the electricity sector, as well as to the continuously increasing costs of oil and its derivatives.”
In 2021, ADOCEM members produced 6.5Mt of cement, up by 27% year-on-year from 5.1Mt in 2020. Full-year consumption was 5.5Mt.
Domicem awards upgrade of limestone reclaiming system at San Cristobal plant to Bedeschi
04 May 2022Dominican Republic: Colacem Group subsidiary Domicem has awarded the contract to upgrade the limestone reclaiming system at its integrated Sabana Grande de Palenque cement plant in San Cristóbal province to Italy-based Bedeschi. The original stacking and reclaiming equipment, installed by Bedeschi in 2004, allows clay and limestone handling at the plant. The upgraded machine will improve the limestone reclaiming system, increasing its capacity from 200t/hr to 360t/hr, the capacity needed in order to feed a new production line that is being installed at the plant.
Dominican Republic: Mexico-based Cemex has reopened the second production line at its integrated San Pedro Macoris plant. The decision will add 0.5Mt/yr to the plant’s production capacity bringing its total to 2.5Mt/yr. The decision has been made to support customers in the Caribbean market. Other recent investment in the country by Cemex include new packaging machines, palletisers, hydro combustion, new trucks and tanks.
Jesús González, the president of Cemex South, Central America and the Caribbean said “The reactivation of the production line is a clear example of our commitment to the sustainable development of the Dominican Republic. This investment contributes to the revitalisation of the national economy, promotes exports, reduces the need for imports and supports employment and a more sustainable environment in the country."
Domicem orders new production line from Sinoma Construction
06 October 2021Dominican Republic: Domicem has signed an engineering, procurement and construction contract with China-based Sinoma Construction for a 3500t/day clinker production line at its Palenque plant. The scope of the project includes a production line, from raw material feeding to the clinker warehouse and the transformation of the cement mill workshop, according to Digital Cement. The Chinese engineering company previously built the first production line at the site. Domicem’s parent company Colacem said in March 2021 that it was preparing to invest US120m towards doubling the production capacity of the Palenque plant.
Félix González appointed as president of ADOCEM
07 July 2021Dominican Republic: The Dominican Association of Portland Cement Producers (ADOCEM) has appointed Félix González as the president of its board of directors. He succeeds Adriano Brunetti in the post and will serve a term until 2023, according to CDN. González, a Colombian-Venezuelan national, holds over 45 years of experience in the cement sector. He has been the general manager of Cementos Santo Domingo since 2010.
Update on Cemex, June 2021
30 June 2021Fernando A González and Cemex took to the virtual airways this week with Cemex Day 2021. The investors’ update comprised the usual greatest hits package explaining how well everything is going: earnings growth and leverage levels about to hit desired targets, selective investments and divestments on the way, new production capacity round the corner and punchy sustainability goals turning up earlier than expected. Or at least that’s the way that chief executive officer González and the team told it.
To be fair to Cemex, it seems to be in a good place right now. It weathered 2020 well and now its first quarter results in 2021 compared to the same period in 2019, before coronavirus hit, are looking rosy with cement sales volumes growth of 9%. How much of that is attributable to pent up demand from 2020 remains to be seen though. Its strategy of focusing on markets in North America and Europe appears to have paid off in recent years with its competitors copying it as they have retreated from riskier climes and concentrated on core territories. Its obsession with righting the ratio between its debts and earnings is closer than ever to being realised, with a 4.07x net leverage ratio in 2020 and a target of 3x or lower planned for 2023. That last target is crucial both materially and psychologically for the company as it starts to put it back in the same financial field as its Western multinational competitors and opens up new investment opportunities.
From a production angle, the big news from the event was a 10Mt/yr cement production expansion project between now and 2023. This wasn’t quite as promising as it sounded, as just under half of this was attributed to legacy projects in Mexico, Colombia and the Philippines and some of the new projects had already been announced, but it does bookmark a move from divesting plants to upgrading and building new ones.
The new projects comprise an additional 5.7Mt/yr capacity from on-going debottlenecking, new integrated plants, new grinding plants and reopening idle or mothballed plants. During the event José Antonio González, the Executive Vice President of Strategic Planning & Business Development broke it down into 3.5Mt in Mexico, consisting of 1.5Mt additional grinding capacity at the integrated Tepeaca plant, a 0.5Mt/yr expansion at the integrated Huichapan plant and 1.5Mt/yr from bringing both idled lines back into production at the CPN Hermosilla plant in Senora to support the US market. That last one notably was partly announced in February 2021. In Europe and the US the group plans to add 1.2Mt/yr including expanding grinding capacity at two plants in Europe with details to be announced later. Finally, the company plans to add 1Mt/yr of additional capacity in South American including restarting an idled 0.5Mt/yr kiln at a plant in the Dominican Republic and building a new 0.5Mt/yr grinding mill in Guatemala.
Cemex has also stepped up its target reduction in CO2 emissions to below 475kg CO2/t of cementitious material, an approximately 40% reduction in CO2 emissions compared to 1990 levels, by 2030. The previous target for 2030 of 520 kg CO2 has been brought forward to 2025. This compares to LafargeHolcim’s similar target of 475kg CO2/t by 2030, HeidelbergCement’s target of 500kg CO2/t by 2030 and CRH’s target of 530kg CO2/t by 2030. The group is planning to spend US$60m/yr on its decarbonisation projects. This compares to a spend of around US$140m/yr on its 10Mt/yr cement production capacity expansion drive over the next three years. Or to put it another way, the group is spending more on growing than sustainability.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t all good public relations for Cemex this week with the news in the Colombian press that one of its former executives is set to be investigated by the authorities over his alleged involvement in the ongoing Maceo cement plant corruption case. The background to this one is that in 2016 Cemex fired several senior staff members, and the local subsidiary’s chief executive resigned, in relation to the building of a new integrated plant at Maceo. This followed an internal audit and investigation into payments worth around US$20m made to a non-governmental third party in connection with the acquisition of the land, mining rights and benefits of the tax free zone for the project. Legal proceedings followed in Colombia and the US. Many large companies have legacy problems to deal with. Just take LafargeHolcim’s continued connection to Lafarge Syria’s conduct in the early 2010s. At the time of writing the Maceo plant is still yet to start operation and is likely to be one of the ongoing projects mentioned above.
Cemex’s second quarter results are due to arrive towards the end of July 2021 but the group is presenting an upbeat image. Sales are up, debts are down, divestments are out and expansions are in. Confidence is important for a multinational trying to convince the rating agencies to give it back its investment grade, so whether this is strictly true or not it certainly knows how to talk the talk. One question going forward at least is how strictly Cemex will want to stick to its core markets if the good times really have returned?
Colombia: The Colombian prosecution service intends to summon former Cemex Colombia chief executive officer (CEO) Carlos Jacks to face charges in relation to the Maceo cement plant corruption case. Jacks was CEO of the company for 24 years and previously headed Cemex operations in Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico, according to the Noticias Caracol television channel. A statement made by Camilo González Téllez, the former Legal Vice President, has been used by the prosecutor’s office to press charges against Jacks. So far González is the only senior Cemex executive to have received a custodial sentence in relation to the affair.
In 2016 Cemex fired several senior staff members in relation to the Maceo project and its subsidiary’s chief executive resigned. This followed an internal audit and investigation into payments worth around US$20m made to a non-governmental third party in connection with the acquisition of the land, mining rights and benefits of the tax free zone for the project. Legal proceedings followed in Colombia and the US.