Displaying items by tag: Egypt

Egypt: South Valley Cement says it is in a dispute with China’s Sinoma CDI over an upgrade to its Beni Suef plant. The cement producer alleges that Sinoma has not met its contractual obligations on the project to build new mills. South Valley Cement says that Sinoma has liquidated letters of guarantee worth nearly US$2m, left the construction site and started arbitration proceedings. South Valley Cement is now considering its legal options. The status of the upgrade project remains unknown.

Egypt: Germany’s Gebr. Pfeiffer is expanding its Gebr. Pfeiffer Egypt subsidiary. The local company was founded in 2015 after a sustained presence in the country. The engineering company has now decided to enlarge its subsidiary to meet current and anticipated customer demand. It intends to turn Gebr. Pfeiffer Egypt into a regional hub for Gebr. Pfeiffer customers from across the Middle East and African (MEA) area.

The local company is led by managing director Ahmed Essam. The services offered by the office team will now include sales, production and delivery, project management, supervision and aftersales and additional customer services.

Egypt: The Egyptian Chemical Industries Company (Kima) plans to sell the land belonging to National Cement within the next year. Chief executive officer (CEO) Emad el-Din Mostafa said that the bankrupt cement producer owns over 300 hectares of land, according to Arab Finance. Selling the assets is part of the Ministry of Public Business Sector’s strategy to pay the former cement producer’s debts including worker salaries. The sale is expected to generate up to US$39m.

Egypt: Noha Bakr has been appointed as the executive director of the Cement Division at the Federation of Egyptian Industries (FEI). Bakr, who holds a PhD in International Relations and International Organisations, was educated at the American University in Cairo and at Cairo University, according to Arab Finance. He has held several government posts, including working as the Assistant to the Minister of International Cooperation, in charge of International Economic Cooperation with Canada and the Americas.

The cement division of the FEI was established in 2013 to develop cement production in Egypt. The division is a subsidiary of the Chamber of Building Materials at the Federation of Egyptian Industries.

France: Vicat’s cement sales rose by 1.8% year-on-year to Euro948m in the first nine months of 2018 from Euro932m in the same period in 2017. At constant scope and exchange rates it rose by 10.2%. Overall sales grew by 1.4% to Euro1.95bn from Euro1.92bn. The group’s sales volumes of cement rose by 3.1% to 17.4Mt from 16.9Mt.

“The group achieved healthy increases over the period in all our territories, except Switzerland and Egypt,” said the group’s chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) Guy Sidos. “In the third quarter, business trends held up well, despite a downturn in the economic and industry environment in Turkey, which was hit by the sharp depreciation in its currency. The acquisition of Ciplan in Brazil, a country with tremendous potential, reinforces Vicat’s strategy of sustainable growth, leveraging its high-quality assets and strong regional positions to generate cash flow.”

Egypt: The shareholders of Helwan Cement have approved the sale of its white cement plant in Minya Governorate to Emmar Industries. Helwan Cement, a 99.5% subsidiary owned by HeidelbergCement and Suez Cement, previously said that the sale was part of its plan to restructure the business and improve its financial position.

Egypt: Medhat Istvanos, head of the cement division of the Chamber of Building Materials, affiliated to the Federation of Egyptian Industries, says that exports from the country are being made uncompetitive due to the government’s decision to raise energy prices in June 2018. He said that the local exchange rate had aided exports but that “the government’s bureaucracy has eliminated export hopes,” according to the Daily News Egypt newspaper. The local industry exported cement worth US$57m during the first half of 2018.

Istvanos said that the industry has a production capacity utilization rate of 60% with a production capacity of 84Mt/yr but consumption of only 54Mt/yr. He added that the decision to build the new 12Mt/yr Beni Suef cement plant was “not based on precise information” and that it had harmed local production.

Egypt: The UK’s Vortex Global Limited has appointed Alriad International Agencies & Trading as its new agent in Egypt. Alriad operates in the pharmaceutical, cosmetics, chemical, commodities, fast-moving consumer goods and textile industries.

Alriad’s existing product portfolio includes a wide range of goods including: fine mesh separation technology, vibratory sieves, separators, ultrasonic mesh deblending systems and liquid filters from Russell Finex; packaging equipment from Webb Automation (GWA); industrial milling and crushing equipment. Grinding plants, industrial mills, pre-grinding plants, crushers, homogenisers and separators (compact- and industrial-scale); and metal detectors, metal separators, x-ray inspection systems from Mesutronic. With the addition of Vortex Global product portfolio, Alriad will offer slide gates, diverter valves, loading solutions, and engineered solutions for the dry solids handling industries.

Egypt: Helwan Cement has agreed to sell its white cement plant in Minya Governorate to Emmar Industries. The transaction is planned to take place following the de-merger of the white cement unit from the rest of the company. The subsidiary of HeidelbergCement and Suez Cement said that the sale was part of its plan to restructure the business and improve its financial position. The company previously said it had received bid for the white cement plant in June 2018.

Egypt: The Ministry of Public Business Sector has shut down the National Company for Cement due to mounting losses. Hisham Tawfik, the Minister of Public Business, said that the plant’s losses had reached Euro43m in the last year, according to Egypt Today magazine. Its creditors include the Gas Company and the Egyptian Electricity Company.

The company’s registration with the local stock exchange was closed in August 2018. The government is now intending to sell its stocks in the Suez Cement Company and Al-Nahda Company. The company’s assets will then be sold. The minister said that workers aged 50 years or more will receive redundancy and that younger workers will be moved to other cement companies.

The cement producer reported mounting losses in recent years due to higher production costs. Reportedly, the cost of producing one ton of cement was 60% higher than the average comparable cost of its competitors. In addition the company was paying its workers twice the average wage than other state-owned businesses.