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People matter in cement companies. Just ask Bruno Lafont, the originally proposed CEO of LafargeHolcim before the merger plans between Lafarge and Holcim changed in mid-2015. Another example is Zhang Bin, the chairman of Shanshui Cement. Some of the shareholders at Shanshui Cement are working hard to remove him. The next attempt has been scheduled for 1 December 2015.

Shanshui Cement, one of the biggest Chinese cement producers, called for the liquidators this week possibly in response. It decided to apply for provisional liquidation after determining that it would default on onshore debt payments due on 12 November 2015. Earlier in the month it had announced doubt whether it could pay its debts.

The scale of this liquidation is monumental for the cement industry. It is broadly similar to a producer at least the size of Dangote going bust. Shanshui Cement is one of China's top ten cement producers. It defaulted on a US$314m onshore debt payment on 12 November 2015.

Based on Global Cement Directory 2015 data, Shanshui Cement is the seventh largest cement producer in the country with 15 cement plants and a cement production capacity of 30.5Mt/yr. Shanshui Cement itself reports that it has a production capacity of 102.6Mt/yr making it the country's fourth largest cement producer. In its 2014 annual results Shanshui Cement reported sales revenue of over US$2.4bn. Its net profit was over US$48m. Sales and profits were down year-on-year in 2014 compared to 2013 and its interim report for 2015 reported the same downward trend. Sales revenue fell by a third to US$793m year-on-year for the first half of 2015. In 2014 its total debt was reported to be US$2.5bn with a gearing ratio of 56.9%, a relatively high figure leaving it vulnerable to decreasing profits.

As the Wall Street Journal and others have reported, the situation has as much to do with corporate politics as it does with over-borrowing. Hot on the heels of Shanshui's liquidation announcement came an offer of help to pay the debts from local rival Tianrui Group if its attempts to change the board of Shanshui were finally successful. Tianrui became the largest shareholder of Shanshui in April 2015 when it increased its stake to 28%. In the process it beat China National Building Material Company and Asia Cement Corporation, who hold 16.7% and 20.9% stakes in Shanshui respectively.

The heart of the Shanshui debacle is the 'key man' clause as reported by Reuters. Borrowing to the company is dependent on current chairman Zhang Bin retaining his position. As soon as he leaves it triggers the repayment of offshore bonds worth US$500m. Normally not due for payment until 2020, the bonds contain a clause that forces the company to sell them within 30 days should Zhang Bin depart.

Shanshui seems likely to be able to pay its debts judging from its sales revenue, assets and the strength of its main shareholders. However, it has chosen to default for the moment. The question for analysts watching this from outside China is whether it masks deeper problems in the Chinese economy as growth continues to slow and industrial overcapacity lingers. Shanshui is the sixth mainland Chinese company known to have defaulted on a bond this year, according to Bloomberg. It's also likely to be operating at a cement production utilisation rate of around 50%.

If the Shanshui Cement situation is more to do with markets than personalities, then it may represent an alarming acceleration of the slowdown of the Chinese economy for the cement industry. If personalities matter more, then the situation is a battle comparable to the politics on the television show 'Game of Thrones.'

Romania: Holcim Romania will announce its new Chief Executive Officer shortly, as its current CEO, French Francois Petry, was put in charge of Agreggates Industries, LafargeHolcim's operations in the UK, from 1 December 2015.

Petry has run Holcim Romania for almost two years. He took the helm of the company on 1 February 2014, after having run France's Aggregates division since 2008. Holcim Romania runs two cement plants, one grinding plant, 14 concrete stations, three aggregates stations, two special binders stations and one cement terminal. It employs around 800 people.

UK: Breedon Aggregates plans to acquire Hope Construction Materials for Euro480m. In a statement, Breedon said that the transaction would create 'the UK's leading independent producer of cement, concrete and aggregates.'

Hope has 160 operational sites, including a cement works in Derbyshire, five quarries and 152 concrete plants. In the first six months of 2015, Hope sold 1.6Mt of cement, 4.7Mt of aggregate and 2.3Mm3 of concrete, generating revenue of Euro407m and underlying earnings before interest depreciation and amortisation of Euro52.8m.

The acquisition is conditional upon UK competition authority approval and is expected to be completed in the second quarter of 2016. "This acquisition is well-timed, with UK construction output forecast to expand by around 15% over the next four years and volumes of all our major products expected to grow strongly," said Peter Tom, Breedon Executive Chairman. "We are confident that we will be able to continue delivering significant value for our shareholders in the coming years, with an even stronger platform for growth."

The Chief Executive of Aggregate Industries, part of LafargeHolcim, Pat Ward, will take over as Breedon Chief Executive early in 2016.

South Africa: PPC has reported a 3% fall in cement revenue to US$526m in the first nine months of 2015, although group revenue grew by 2% year-on-year to US$645m. The decline in the cement business was blamed on increased competition.

"The Mpumalanga area was the hardest hit, with double-digit volume declines. The north-west region, although also under pressure, showed some resilience," said PPC in a statement.

Company CEO Darryll Castle said that improved performance from the company's operations in Zimbabwe and Botswana had offset the declines experienced in the core South African cement business. He said that projects in Africa would ensure that shareholders had a 'diversified portfolio of businesses in different geographies.'

Russia: LafargeHolcim's plant in Kolomna, Moscow has begun production of a new cement base for mortars under the Kelma brand. It is characterised by high strength, fine adhesion to surfaces and a long retention of mobility that provides for the mortar's plasticity necessary for construction works without adding extra water. The product is being sold in 50kg bags.

Vietnam: Thailand's Siam Cement Group (SCG) is considered partnering with Hanoi-based Viglacera Corporation to expand its operations in Vietnam. The two companies plan to jointly carry out a project to produce medium- and high-end construction materials for domestic sales and export.

Angola: Sinoma International has ordered Loesche's complete grinding series for the Nova Cimangola SA cement plant in Luanda, Angola. These will be the first Loesche vertical roller mills in the country.

The order includes one cement raw material mill of the type LM 48.4 with a capacity of 400t/hr and two cement mills of the type LM 46.2+2 C/S which are designed to have a capacity of 150t/hr each. Loesche's coal mill of the type LM 24.20 DC completes the order. Further equipment like rotary star feeders, metal detectors, the engineering for the cyclones, classifier motors and the control system are also in Loesche's scope of supply, as well as a two-year operation spare parts contract.

The coal mill and the cement raw material mill are scheduled to start operation in the middle of 2016. The cement mills will follow with a production start by the end of 2016.

Turkey: FLSmidth Airtech - Air Pollution Control, opened its new office in Istanbul on 13 November 2015. Customers, partners and suppliers from the industry participated in the reception. The office is regional and will service the Turkish market and neighboring countries such as the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), the Middle East and North Africa. FLS Airtech has served the Turkish cement and steel industry with more than 200 reference state-of-the-art solutions in air pollution control.

China: The ETA Cooler, the concept for cooling clinker in the cement making process announced by Claudius Peters Projects GmbH in 2004, has reached a new capacity milestone with a more than 13,000t/day model going into production earlier in 2015 in China.

The ETA Cooler principle was introduced in 2004 with a 2000t/day installation at a Holcim cement plant in Switzerland. Over the last decade, Claudius Peters Projects has progressively offered the market increasingly higher capacity models. It has now reached 13,000t/day, currently the world's highest capacity cement line production. The company has said that even higher capacity is feasible.

Due to its design, no dust removal system is required with ETA Cooler and the relatively long stroke action means a low grate speed, which in turn means less wear and maintenance. As there are no obstructions to the clinker flow in this moving floor technology, high transport efficiency is also achieved, with uniform cooling, thus improving the quality of the clinker and in turn the quality of cement produced, according to Claudius Peters Projects. The ETA Cooler has a very low construction profile and modular design, allowing it to be retrofit to existing cement plants.

China: China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) has unveiled a document to ask cement companies in north China to carry out peak-shifting production on a trial basis in the winter. The peak-shifting production will not only ease the 'haze weather,' but also enhance the cement market and reduce producers' costs, according to industry insiders.

Due to fierce market competition, cement enterprises in north China produce cement at full capacity in the winter to seize the opportunity when the energy supplies end and building operations start. However, in the summer, many enterprises are forced to produce at half of their installed capacity due to the glut of cement on the market. As the cement industry is a high energy-consumption industry, the overlap of cement production and energy supply in winter increases coal consumption and leads to haze weather in north China. If peak production were carried out in winter for four months, about 4.36Mt of coal and 177bnm3 of flue gas emissions would be cut in the whole northern area, which could help improve the local environment. The peak-shifting production could also help ease overcapacity.

After the peak-shifting, cement enterprises in north and northeast China will suspend production for four to five months in winter and the overcapacity rate in the domestic cement industry will fall to 16 – 21% from the current 51%, which would help enhance the industrial climate.