Displaying items by tag: GCW163
Bamburi’s profit down by 28% in first half of 2014
08 August 2014Kenya: The profit of Lafarge-controlled Bamburi Cement slumped by 28% to US$26.2m in the first half of 2014, as the company outlined plans to profit from Kenya's ambitious infrastructure spending plans. It said that its profit took a hit due to the higher cost of both power and imported clinker. However, its revenue increased to US$197m from US$180m in the first half of 2013.
Bamburi is the biggest cement maker in east Africa's largest economy, where a construction boom driven by infrastructure projects and real estate has helped boost demand for cement. "We are optimistic that the business environment will progressively improve in the second half of the year," said the firm.
In June 2014 the Kenyan government raised US$2bn through a debut Eurobond and said most of the proceeds would be used to finance infrastructure projects. Bamburi said it expects Kenya's planned infrastructure projects, including roads, railways and a new Indian Ocean port in Lamu, to improve sales.
Russia: Eurocement Group and China Triumph International Engineering (part of CNBM), have announced a project to build a mechanical engineering plant in the Ulyanovsk region. Total investments are estimated at US$3bn according to regional press. The implementation of this project was decided upon at a meeting of Ulyanovsk Governor Sergey Morozov, Eurocement Group President Mikhail Skorokhodov and representatives of China Triumph International Engineering.
The facility will make equipment for the cement industry as well as equipment for automotive, railway, oil and gas, chemical, defense and nuclear industries.
Skorokhodov said that Eurocement was currently implementing an 'unprecedented' phase of building new dry-process cement plants. It aims to increase its dry cement production ratio to 100% by 2018.
Environnement SA acquires monitoring firm PCME
08 August 2014France/UK: Environnement SA, the French supplier of environmental monitoring equipment and the company PCME Ltd, the UK-based supplier of continuous particulate monitors for industrial processes, have announced the acquisition of PCME by Environnement SA.
The firms say that the acquisition allows the enlarged group to offer the most advanced and wide range of solutions worldwide so that it can match present and future challenges in respect of process or regulatory environmental monitoring requirements for industrial processes. This new alliance will shortly launch a new range of flow emission monitors and will engage in innovative joint research and development projects towards the production of new product ranges. Each entity will keep its own autonomy, with PCME retaining its current management team and employees.
François Gourdon, president and founder of Environnement SA, said, "We are very enthusiastic about the opportunities that we'll be able to provide to our worldwide industrial customers. The expertise of PCME for the monitoring of particulate in industrial processes, combined with the expertise of Environnement SA in the monitoring and detection of very low concentrations of gas and fine particulate, including PM10 or PM2.5, will definitively provide a new generation of equipment for the industrial regulatory market."
William Averdieck, managing director and founder of PCME Ltd, said, "Both management teams have known each other for many years and have respect for the success they have both achieved in similar markets with complementary product lines. This strong partnership announced today will boost our organic growth plan and strategy, allowing us to double our revenue within five years, reaching new customers, new markets and new applications worldwide, while maintaining our strength as an innovative (and passionate) manufacturer of particulate and flow instruments."
Ultratech allocates cash for expansion drive
07 August 2014India: Ultratech Cement has announced that it has earmarked US$1.14bn of capital expenditure (capex) towards expansion projects over the next three years.
"Our capex for the 2015 fiscal year is expected to be US$618m, for the 2016 fiscal year we will spend US$497m and for the 2017 fiscal year we will spend US$33.3m," said UltraTech Cement's Chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla at the company's recent Annual General Meeting. The producer currently claims a total cement capacity of 62Mt/yr. "By early 2016, we expect this to scale up to 70Mt/yr when all ongoing projects will be fully commissioned. A judicious mix of internal accruals and borrowings have been used for funding the projects," Birla said.
Speaking about recent acquisitions, Birla said, "The acquisition of the 4.8Mt/yr Gujarat Cement Units from Jaypee Cement Corporation at a cost of US$620m represents a milestone in UltraTech's growth strategy, strengthening its foothold in the growing western market and bolstering its coastal footprint."
Saudi firms collective profits down in first half of 2014
07 August 2014Saudi Arabia: The first-half net profits of Saudi Arabia's listed cement companies dropped by 6% collectively to US$910m compared with US$970m in the corresponding period of 2013, according to the Al-Riyadh daily newspaper. The companies' combined sales in the second quarter of 2014 came to US$980m.
Lafarge plant on environment watch-list
07 August 2014Slovenia: The Lafarge Trbovlje cement plant is among several industrial sites and facilities in Slovenia that have been added to the Global Atlas of Environmental Justice, an interactive online mapping platform detailing environmental conflicts around the world. Its originators seek to highlight incidences of water and land competition as well as air, water and other pollution.
"The Atlas illustrates how ecological conflicts are increasing around the world, driven by material demands fed primarily by the rich and middle class subsections of the global population," said project coordinator Joan Martinez-Alier of the Autonomous University of Barcelona.