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ARM Cement’s declining fortunes this week may signal the end of the current growth cycle in the Kenyan cement industry. The cement producer posted a 20% year-on-year drop in its sales revenue to US$52m for the first half of 2017. Its financial returns have been turbulent since 2015. However, inward investment from the UK’s CDC Group in 2016 had appeared to help the company enabling it to pay of debts and even consider an upgrade project to the grinding capacity at its Athi River plant.

Graph 1: Cement production in Kenya for first half of year, 2013 - 2017. Source: Kenya National Bureau of Statistics.

Graph 2: Cement consumption in Kenya for first five months of year, 2013 - 2017. Source: Kenya National Bureau of Statistics.

Unfortunately it now appears that the Kenyan cement market may have peaked in 2016. As can be seen from Kenya National Bureau of Statistics figures in Graph 1 and 2, production hit a high of 3.31Mt in the first half of 2016 and it has fallen to 3.18Mt for the same period in 2017. Consumption too has fallen, to 2.5Mt for the first five months of 2017. At the same time the value of building plans approved by the Nairobi City Council dropped by 12% to US$1.02bn for the first five months of 2017 with falls in both residential and non-residential applications although the decline in residential was more pronounced. One of the country’s larger infrastructure projects, the Standard Gauge Railway from Mombasa to Nairobi entered its final stage of construction towards the end of 2016 with the completion of track laying.

Bamburi Cement has also reported falling revenue and profit so far in 2017. Its turnover fell by 8% to US$170 and its profit decreased by 36% to US$18m for the half year. Bamburi blamed it on a contracting market, low private sector investment leading to residential sector issues, delays in some infrastructure projects and droughts. The drought also hit the company’s operating profit via higher energy costs. On the plus side though Bamburi’s subsidiary in neighbouring Uganda did record a good performance.

It’s likely that the general election in Kenya in early August 2017 has slowed down the construction industry through uncertainty about infrastructure investment and general fears about political unrest. Thankfully these latter concerns have appeared unfounded so far but the memory of the disorder following the poll in 2007, where over 1000 people died, remains acute. And of course the 2017 election is not over yet following the intervention of the Supreme Court to nullify the result of the first ballot and call for a second. A longer election period with the impending rerun will further add to the pressure on the construction and cement industries.

An industry report on East Africa in February 2017 by the Dyer & Blair Investment Bank fleshes out much of the situation in the region. One particular point it makes though is that, as it stands at present, building materials may be too expensive to grow the market fully. Dyer & Blair suggest that lower construction costs and more affordable home ownership methods might be the key to driving low end housing demands and in turn this might grow cement consumption.

With lots of new production capacity coming online both locally and in neighbouring countries such as Uganda and Ethiopia, the Kenyan cement market faces the dilemma of trying to balance the medium to long-term demographics with the picture on the ground. Low per capita cement consumption suggests growing markets but if the demand isn’t present in the short term then the impetus for cement producers to expand shrivels especially with aggressive imports, rising energy costs and growing local competition. Once the election period finishes the picture will be clearer but the boom times may have abated for now.

Vietnam: The Vietnam Cement Industry Corporation (Vicem) has appointed Bui Hong Minh as its general director. He was previously the deputy general director of the company, according to the Viet Nam News newspaper. He replaces Tran Viet Thang who has been relieved from the role following allegations of business malpractice.

Minh, aged 46 years, has held the position of deputy general director at Vicem since 2013. Prior to that, he worked at the But Son and Ha Tien cement companies.

Guatemala: The Inter-American Cement Federation (FICEM) has appointed Alejandro Ramírez Cantú, the chief executive of Cemex in the Dominican Republic, as its new president for the period 2017 – 2020 at its technical congress. He succeeds Gabriel Restrepo, manager of Institutional Affairs at Cementos Argos, in the role, according to the 7 Dias newspaper.

Ramírez Cantú is an industrial and systems engineer trained at the Tecnológico de Monterrey in Mexico and he holds a Master's Degree in business administration from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He joined Cemex in 2000 and he has directed operations in Thailand, Puerto Rico, Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic.

Colombia: Organizacion Corona has announced that its President Carlos Enrique Moreno will be replaced by Jaime Alberto Angel from October 2017 as head of the Corona Industrial division. Angel will oversee the construction of a US$400m cement plant in the Sonson Municipality of Antioquia, which the group is building as a joint venture project with Spain’s Cementos Molins. The 1.35Mt/yr plant is expected to come online in early 2019.

Moreno said that the decision to split the company’s management was due to the construction of the cement plant. Angel will also look after Corona’s bathrooms and kitchens, materials and paints, energy and industrial supplies and tableware divisions.

Germany: RKW Group has appointed Reinhold Franke as the head of its packaging division and to its executive board. He succeeds Matthias Kaufmann. Franke's areas of responsibility also include group marketing and communications, as well as research and development, sustainability and new business development

Franke, aged 57 years, started his career in 1985 and has worked in the sales and marketing of plastic films and flexible packaging. He began his career with Haendler & Natermann and later worked internationally for Nordenia as Head of Sales in the Netherlands and the US. In 2012, as president and chief operating officer (COO), he assumed overall responsibility for Nordenia USA Jackson. Following the acquisition of Nordenia by the Mondi Group, Franke moved to the Verpa Group, where he was responsible for setting up its US business.

Senegal: Youga Sow, the director general of SOCOCIM Industries, says that his company is aiming for a market share of above 56%. He made the comments at a local festival, according to local press. Sow added that the country produced 3.2Mt of cement in 2016 despite having a production capacity of 8Mt/yr. The other major cement producers include Ciments du Sahel and Dangote Cement.

Italy: Buzzi Unicem has announced that it purchased a 50% stake in Ecotrade in early 2017. Ecotrade supplies industrial byproducts, such as fly ash and blast furnace slags, from power plants and steel mills to the cement industry with deliveries of over 2Mt/yr at its peak. The company is a member of the Italian Register of Environmental Operators and it has a national distribution network in Italy. Buzzi Unicem intends to use Ecotrade’s expertise to expand its operations internally.

South Africa: Canada’s Fairfax Financial Holdings has made an offer of US$154m to buy a stake in PPC on condition that the cement producer agrees to a merger with AfriSam. Fairfax will also invest a further US$309m to pay off AfriSam debts to aid the deal, according to the Cape Times newspaper. The proposed merger ratio is based on 58% PPC and 42% AfriSam.

PPC said to its shareholders that it had received two other offers from trade buyers about a ‘pan-African combination’ with PPC. It added that although it had yet to ‘fully consider’ the Fairfax proposal, the offer was ‘fundamentally’ undervalued.

Kenya: ARM Cement’s revenue fell by 20% year-on-year to US$52m in the first half of 2017 from US$65m in the same period in 2016. Its loss for the period grew to US$14m from US$2.6m. Cement production dropped by 3.93% to 3.18Mt in the half year of 2017 according to data from the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics reported by the Kenyan Star newspaper. Cement consumption also fell during the first five months of the year, by 2.34% to 2.5Mt.

Germany: Fuchs Petrolub and DMG Mori have signed a contract for a technology partnership. The goal of the partnership is to jointly develop new lubricant solutions and services for machine tool applications. The plan also includes further progress in digitisation of production processes and condition monitoring of machines and plants.

"Use of the correct lubricant is decisive for optimal productivity when machine tools are used for intensive processing of components. In Fuchs, we are pleased to have acquired a globally-based technology partner, and together we want to continue expanding our technology- and service-excellence," said Christian Thönes, chairman of the executive board of DMG Mori.

DMG Mori manufactures machine tools with sales revenue of over Euro3.5bn. Fuchs develops, produces and distributes lubricants and related specialties.