Displaying items by tag: GCW360
CRH completes Trident sale to GCC
03 July 2018US: CRH has completed the sale of cement and ready-mix assets to Grupo Cementos de Chihuahua (GCC) following its acquisition of Ash Grove Cement. Ireland's biggest company sold the Trident cement plant in Montana to GCC for US$107.5m.
The move comes less than a month after CRH received regulatory approval from the US Federal Trade Commission to acquire cement manufacturer Ash Grove Cement for US$3.5bn in a deal first announced in September 2017.
As part of the transaction with GCC, CRH acquired most of the ready-mix plants and transportation assets belonging to GCC in Oklahoma and northwest Arkansas for US$118.5m. GCC will continue to own and operate four ready-mix plants in the Fort Smith, Arkansas area and own an office building in Tulsa, Oklahoma, which it will lease to CRH.
The purchase and sale amounts have been paid in full but are subject to final inventory valuation adjustments, which are expected to be completed within 90 days.
Peruvian sales up in April and May 2018
03 July 2018Peru: Domestic cement sales climbed by 8.25% in Peru in May 2018. They had grown by 8.17% in April 2018, according to figures released by the National Institute of Statistics.
Lafarge’s Czech sales increase but profit falls
03 July 2018Czech Republic: Lafarge Cement’s sales in Czechia increased by almost 7% to Euro38.2m in 2017 but its profit dropped by 25% to Euro5.9m, according to spokeswoman Milena Hucanova.
Czech construction registered only moderate growth in 2017, which was reflected in the company's sales. Operating profit was comparable with the level from 2016.
"The company's net profit was mainly as a consequence of changes in the volume and appraisal of inventories, higher consumption of carbon credits and the firming up of the Koruna / Euro (exchange) rate after the Czech National Bank’s interventions," said CFO Jan Mencl.
Investments by the company in 2018 are planned to amount to Euro3.8m. Hucanova said that half of this had already been spent on the conversion of an electrostatic precipitator to a baghouse at the company’s Čížkovice plant.
Kenya: Bamburi Cement has completed construction of a new US$40m production line at its grinding plant in Nairobi. The new unit will allow the company to start manufacturing two new high strength products that were previously only produced at its Mombasa plant, according to the Kenya Broadcasting Association. The new line increases the plant’s cement production capacity by 0.9Mt/yr to 2.4Mt/yr.
Sudanese government to support cement exports
02 July 2018Sudan: Musa Mohamed Karama, the Minister of Industry, says that government is keen to remove all obstacles facing the cement industry including a block on exports. The announcement follows a meeting with Mohamed Abdullah, the UAE-based chairman of Berber Cement Company, according to the Sudan News Agency. The country’s cement production capacity exceeds its domestic consumption.
Colombia: Édgar Ramírez Martínez, the former vice president of planning for Cemex, will be detained in prison as part of an ongoing investigation into alleged irregularities in the acquisition of land at Maceo in Antioquia for the construction of a cement plant. The prosecutor’s court has also issued a detention ticket for Camilo González Téllez, former vice president of planning for Cemex Colombia, who is currently in the US, according to Noticias Financieras. Eugenio Correa Díaz, the former representative of CI Calizas y Minerales, which sold the property to the cement producer, will also be detained.
The former employees of Cemex allegedly paid over US$13m to Correa, despite being aware of the fact that the property was in the process of being expropriated over unpaid taxes.
Colombia: Cemex Colombia, LG and the mayor of Ibague say that they have started technical economic and legal studies studies to support building a solar plant near Ibague in Tolima. The unit will supply energy to the Caracolito cement plant and lighting systems in the nearby city, according to Valora Analitik. The solar plant will be located on a 56-hecatre site owned by the Mayor’s Office on the Doima - Buenos Aires highway.
Indian Supreme Court bounces Binani Cement insolvency case to National Company Law Appellate Tribunal
02 July 2018India: The Supreme Court has ordered the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) to adjudicate upon all issues relating to the Binani Cement insolvency case, including whether Ultratech Cement’s bid for the company is eligible. The case will be heard by the appeals tribunal from mid-July 2018, according to the Mint newspaper. The NCLAT is the body that processes appeals from the National Company Law Tribunal, a legal body that adjudicates disputes between companies.
UltraTech Cement made a direct bid of US$1.12bn for the bankrupt Binani Cement following an auction in March 2018 that was originally won by Dalmia Bharat. Dalmia Bharat has disputed UltraTech Cement’s offer and the two companies have conducted legal campaigns to reinforce their respective claims.
France/Syria: Lafarge SA, a subsidiary of LafargeHolcim, has been placed under judicial investigation over its actions in Syria between 2011 and 2014. It has been accused of complicity in crimes against humanity and financing terrorism, according to the Agence France Presse.
LafargeHolcim said that would appeal against the charges. It admitted that the system of supervision of its Syrian subsidiary did not allow the company to identify wrongdoing. However, it blamed this on “…an unprecedented violation of internal regulations and compliance rules by a small group of individuals who have left the group.”
“We truly regret what has happened in the Syria subsidiary and after learning about it took immediate and firm actions. None of the individuals put under investigation is today with the company,” said the chairman of the board of LafargeHolcim, Beat Hess.
Non-government organisation (NGO) Sherpa, one of the plaintiffs in the case, said it was the first time that a parent company anywhere in the world had been charged with complicity in crimes against humanity. A panel of three judges in Paris has ordered Lafarge to pay over Euro30m as a security deposit ahead of the trial. Eight former executives, including ex-chief executive officer (CEO) Bruno Lafont, have already been charged in connection to the investigation.
India: UltraTech Cement has commissioned a 1.75Mt/yr grinding unit at its Manawar plant in Dhar District, Madhya Pradesh. The main part of the 2.5Mt/yr integrated plant was commissioned in April 2018. A 13MW waste heat recovery unit is also being built at the site.