Displaying items by tag: Germany

Germany: The German multinational cement giant HeidelbergCement has announced preliminary financial results for the fourth quarter of 2012 and for the full year. In the fourth quarter it saw its revenue rise by 6.5% year-on-year to Euro3.5bn, its operating income before depreciation increased by 8.2% to Euro691m.

Over the whole of 2012 the group saw its revenue increase by 8.7% relative to 2011, rising to Euro14bn. Its operating income rose by 9.5% to Euro1.61bn. HeidelbergCement reported that it owed improvements in its cement margins to its cash-saving 'FOX 2013' programme, which saved outgoings of Euro384m.

The improvements reflect the continuing positive development in HeidelbergCement's growth markets and the ongoing recovery in North America. Sales volumes and result declined in Europe, mainly as a result of government budget constraints in some countries, which led to significant reductions in infrastructure spending.

"We are pleased that we achieved our goal of increasing revenue and operating income despite the negative impact of the Euro crisis on many countries in Europe," said Dr Bernd Scheifele, CEO of HeidelbergCement. "Once again we could reap the benefit from our advantageous geographical positioning in growth markets and the successful continuation of our programmes for efficiency and margin improvement. The margins in the core businesses cement and aggregates continued to increase. The strong development in our markets in Asia, Africa and North America contributed to the positive margin development."

In western and northern Europe the business development was not supported by mild weather at the beginning and the end of the year, which had been the case in 2011. Nevertheless, demand for construction materials remained stable in HeidelbergCement's native Germany and northern Europe, driven by positive economic development. In contrast, construction activity in the UK and the Netherlands weakened noticeably, mainly as a result of lower infrastructure spending in the UK due to budget consolidation and the decline in residential construction in the Netherlands following the end of housing subsidy programmes. Revenues here were Euro4.2bn, a decrease of 2.7% over 2011. Cement, clinker and ground granulated blast-furnace slag (GGBFS) sales came to 21.3Mt, a 3.9% decrease compared to 2011.

The development in the group's Eastern Europe-Central Asia region was divided. While cement sales volumes and prices developed positively in Russia and Central Asia, the demand for construction materials declined significantly in Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic as a result of budget consolidation measures in these countries and the completion of construction projects related to the 2012 European Football Championship in Poland and Ukraine. Overall, cement, clinker and GGBFS sales volumes increased slightly to 17.2Mt, a 1% year-on-year increase. Revenues across all business activities in this region came to Euro1.44bn.

In North America demand for cement and ready-mixed concrete continued its recovery in 2012, driven especially by an increase in residential construction. Cement, clinker and GGBFS sales volumes recorded growth of 11.7%, rising to 11.7Mt. However, the group's result in the fourth quarter of 2012 was affected by Hurricane Sandy and an early winter start in Canada. In this region its revenue came to Euro3.44bn, a 13.4% increase year-on-year.

In the group's Asia-Pacific region, Demand for all of its products remained very strong due to construction activities that were supported by economic growth across the region. As a consequence, revenue showed growth of 17.6% for the full year and 12.8% for the fourth quarter. This rose to Euro3.48bn for the whole of 2012. Meanwhile, cement, clinker and GGBFS sales rose by 3.9% to 30.0Mt.

In HeidelbergCement's Africa-Mediterranean Basin region, cement, clinker and GGBFS sales were up by 0.9% to 9.2Mt. Revenues increased by 11% year-on-year to Euro1.135bn. The group noted particular improvements in its key markets of Ghana and Tanzania.

With regards to its progress in 2013 HeidelbergCement cited the IMF's expectations for slightly improved global economic growth, presumably linking this directly to demand for building materials. It cautioned that this growth was dependent on the continued focus of North America and Europe on their respective debt crises. There are still risks for the global economy from armed conflicts in the Middle East.

In North America, the company expects a continuing economic recovery and consequently a further increased demand for building materials, especially from residential construction and the raw materials industry. In Europe and Central Asia, HeidelbergCement anticipates divided development. While markets in Germany, Northern Europe, Russia and Central Asia should remain stable or continue to grow, weak economic development and low demand for building materials is expected in all other regions. In Asia and Africa the company expects sustained demand.

"Due to the continuing strong economic growth in the emerging markets and the recovery in the USA we are cautiously confident for the future," said Bernd Scheifele. "Macroeconomic risks have recently eased but still remain significant. The need for countries to deleverage will likely dampen volume growth in mature markets for the foreseeable future. In addition, we still have not recovered the margin loss from massively increasing energy costs over the past years. Therefore, we will unabatedly continue our efforts to reduce costs and improve efficiency and will continue to right-size capacities where necessary."

Germany: The Dyckerhoff Group has reported that its sales in 2012 met its 'expectations'. Preliminary sales were Euro1.6bn in 2012, the same as in 2011.

Cement and concrete volumes decreased by a total of 2% and 7%, respectively. Cement prices were higher than the previous year in Germany, Ukraine, Russia, and the USA, fairly stable in the Czech Republic and on a downward trend in Luxembourg and Poland. The sales proportion generated outside of Germany, 63%, exceeded the 2011 by 1%.

"As expected, Dyckerhoff Group's earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) for the fiscal year 2012 will be at a similar level as in the previous year. Earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) as well as results before and after taxes will be below the previous year's level. Here, an impairment of around Euro26m against the carrying amount of fixed assets already acquired for the planned plant in Akbulak in Russia has an effect," said Wolfgang Bauer, CEO of Dyckerhoff.

Bauer added that the result after income taxes was affected by a write-down of deferred tax assets of around Euro13m.

Germany: German cement industry supplier Loesche GmbH has acquired the majority of stakes in the aixprocess and aixergee engineering companies based in Aachen, Germany.

aixprocess GmbH develops models and tools for the simulation of complex process and flow-relevant processes and has been providing solutions successfully to customers from the power plant and process engineering sectors for more than 10 years. It has earned its reputation internationally by providing modelling and computation technologies, especially in the area of reactive multi-phase flows.

aixergee GmbH is specialised in the optimisation of production processes in the cement industry and established internationally in the areas of alternative fuel firing, performance improvement, emissions reduction and stabilisation of plant operation. It combines industry-specific knowledge with numerical computation methods customised to meet the requirements of the cement industry in its optimisation concepts.

"Through the incorporation into Loesche Group, a globally well-positioned organisation, we can even better ensure the successful support of our international clientèle," explains Matthias Mersmann who, as Corporate Manager of Technology of Loesche Group, will continue to act as Managing Director of aixergee GmbH.

"We do not intend to act as a single source supplier for every project; however, we would like to offer the best solutions for the challenging tasks of our customers. We are therefore extremely pleased to have been able to ncorporate aixprocess and aixergee, two sector leading companies, into our group. In this way we continue to strengthen our position as a competent partner for the cement, power plant, and natural resource industries," said Dr Thomas Loesche, Managing Partner of Loesche GmbH.

Italy/Germany: German cement maker Dyckerhoff has announced that its parent company, Italy's Buzzi Unicem, has agreed to buy additional ordinary and preferred shares in it, raising its total share capital in the firm by 3.6% to 96.6%.

The German company did not reveal the value of the transaction but specified that during the current year and including the most recent agreement Buzzi Unicem had bought shares in it for some Euro71.7m.

As a shareholder of at least 95% of Dyckerhoff, Buzzi Unicem is entitled, under the German law, to start a 'squeeze-out' procedure for the remaining shares that it does not already own. However, it has not yet made any final decision on such a move, according to Dyckerhoff.

Germany: Italcementi has awarded KHD a contract to upgrade and redevelop its Brescia Rezzato plant in Italy. The upgraded plant, situated in the environmentally sensitive Lake Garda region, will have to adhere to strict environmental requirements.

Italcementi has selected KHD's Clean Technology for the upgrade. It includes a KHD COMFLEX^® SC 18 – 3250 system for raw material grinding, a Two-Pier PYRORAPID^® Kiln 3000t/day 4.4m x 52m, a PFC PYRFLOOR^® clinker cooler 635 AW and a Low NO_X 5 stage Preheater 7950 PR.

KHD will also supply additional environmental equipment including selective catalytic reduction systems, a gas conditioning tower, selective non catalytic reduction systems, as well as special filter systems to reduce SO_X. KHD will install much of the equipment whilst the existing kiln continues to operate.

The Rezzato plant, built in 1964, was designed by former Italcementi chairman Giampiero Pesenti, father of current Italcementi CEO Carlo Pesenti, during his tenure as an engineer. The project is scheduled to be finished in 2014, in time for Italcementi's 150th anniversary.

Germany: HeidelbergCement has reported that its revenue for the first nine months of 2012 rose by 9.4% to Euro10.5bn from Euro9.62bn in 2011. The German construction materials group reported that earnings before interest and income taxes (EBIT) stayed flat at Euro1.07bn in 2012 compared to Euro1.08bn in 2011. Profit before tax fell by 5% to Euro601m from Euro635m.

Results for the third quarter of 2012 showed a different trend, with increasing EBIT and profit. Revenue rose by 9% to Euro3.94bn from Euro3.62bn compared with the same quarter of 2011. EBIT rose by 11% to Euro608m from Euro548m. Profit before tax rose by 6% to Euro427 from Euro403m. At the end of September 2012 the group's net debt stood at Euro7.76bn, a reduction of Euro740m compared to September 2011.

Cement and clinker sales rose by 2.5% for the first nine months of 2012, to 67Mt from 65.4Mt in 2011. By quarter, its sales remained flat, hitting 24.3Mt in the third quarter of 2012. The group attributed the increase for the nine-month period to a continued recovery of residential construction in North America and a persistently strong demand in Asia. The group blamed declining infrastructure expenditure in some European markets for its losses. The largest contribution to sales volumes was made by the 'Asia-Pacific' group area, followed by North America. The sales volumes of the 'Eastern Europe-Central Asia' and 'Africa-Mediterranean Basin' group areas remained at the previous year's level.

Germany: Dyckerhoff Group has released financial results for the first nine months of 2012 showing cement volume increases in Russia, Ukraine and the US, which have been balanced by volume declines in Germany and western Europe.

Cement sales volumes remained flat in the first nine months of 2012 at Euro1.24bn, compared to 1.22bn in 2011. By region, sales in Germany and western Europe fell by 7% to Euro588m from Euro633m. Sales in eastern Europe rose by 7% to Euro487m from Euro456m. Sales in the US rose by 24% to Euro160m from Euro129m. Group earnings before earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) were Euro232m in 2012, compared to Euro231m in 2011.

"For 2012 as a whole, we continue to expect the level of group sales and results to remain stable compared to 2011," said CEO of Dyckerhoff AG, Wolfgang Bauer.

Germany: Gebr. Pfeiffer Inc., a subsidiary of Gebr. Pfeiffer SE, has been awarded a contract to supply an MPS 140 BK Coal Mill at Cementos Tequendama in Suesca, Cundinamarca. The contract follows other recent Pfeiffer projects in Colombia, including Cementos Tequendama, Cementos San Marcos and other cement plants. Cementos Tequendama became operational in 2008 after an investment of US$150m. The plant has a cement capacity of 300,000t/yr.

Germany: Indian filter manufacturer Himenviro has invested in Intensiv-Filter & Co KG. On 1 October 2012 Himenviro acquired around 60 employees at Intensiv-Filter's Velbert-Langenberg site. The German industrial dust specialist declared insolvency in May 2012.

"The competence and experience of the Intensiv-Filter team combined with the technical know-how of the investor has set the course for a long-term successful filter technology company," said temporary insolvency trustee Dr Marc d'Avoine. Part of the agreement between the insolvency administrator and the Himenviro was to maintain the employment of Intensiv-Filter's experienced workforce.

Germany: Dr Daniel Strohmeyer has become the new head of process technology at Loesche GmbH. Strohmeyer returns to Loesche in Duesseldorf where he worked previously as a sales manager.

The 40-year old will initiate and lead projects to further develop Loesche technology and find new applications for it in various industries. Strohmeyer will also lead his team in optimising mills and plant components, with a focus on the quality of the products produced with vertical roller mills, and on overall plant performance.