Displaying items by tag: Greece

Greece: The Supreme Court of Greece has ordered the Heracles' General Cement Company, a subsidiary of Lafarge, to pay the residents of Agia Marina, Halkida Euro78,000 as compensation for pollution from its cement plant.

The court upheld the settlement's arguments that the cement plant had failed
to adhere to the environmental terms in its operating licence in order to avoid the relevant costs and refused to take measures for the proper maintenance and modernisation of its facilities. They said this resulted in all outdoor areas in the village being covered in a layer of cement dust up to 1.2cm thick, including the nearby coastline.

The village residents had originally sued for a total of Euro1.14m but the court awarded the residents a much lower sum, even though it found that the company's omissions fully justified their claim to moral damages resulting from their deprivation of environmental benefits and the threat to their health from exposure to environmental pollution.

Greece: Titan has announced that its third quarter net profit more than tripled, helped by foreign exchange gains from a weakening Euro.

Titan's net profit rose to Euro27.6m in the third quarter of 2014, compared to Euro7.2m in the same period of 2013. A weaker Euro against the Dollar and the Egyptian Pound led to foreign exchange gains of Euro21m in the quarter. In 2013, Titan had currency losses of Euro4.5m.

Sales rose by 2% year-on-year to Euro309m, with growth in the US and Greece more than offsetting a decline in Egypt, where natural gas supply shortages hurt the operation of its plants. Titan said that it was optimistic on its performance for the rest of 2014, citing a continuing recovery in the US and expectations for higher cement consumption in Greece for the first time in seven years.

Regular readers of Global Cement will have become familiar with the tales of doom and gloom coming out of Titan Cement's various markets in recent years. With significant numbers of assets in Greece (economic turmoil), Egypt (political instability) and the USA (massive drop in cement consumption), Titan was hit hard by the economic downturn.

However, reading Titan's 2014 first half report was a nice surprise this week. Titan reported improvement in every single market that it operates in. Rewind by just 12 months, it is hard to imagine this kind of turnaround. The group reported a net profit, albeit just Euro2.9m, but this is a massive improvement on the Euro21.8m loss made in the first half of 2013. It reported its ninth successive quarter of revenue improvement in the second quarter of 2014.

Away from Titan's improved fortunes there have been other good announcements from an increasingly strong-sounding global cement industry. Other troubled multinationals, France's Vicat Group and Italy's Cementir Holding, have announced improved profits and regional producers Semen Indonesia and Tabuk Cement (Malaysia) have posted revenue improvements. There have been announcements of new integrated projects in Russia, Peru, Pakistan, Zambia, and the UK (yes... the UK!). There was also news of a joint Turkish-Ivorian grinding plant project in Ivory Coast.

The exceptions that highlight this recent positive trend were results from Siam Cement and HeidelbergCement. Siam Cement is being buffeted by continued instability in its native Thailand and its net profit was down accordingly. HeidelbergCement, slightly worryingly, followed last week's poor results from Lafarge and Holcim with a lower second-quarter profit. Cement sales, however, were up.

However, it looks like the worst could be behind Titan – and if it's behind Titan, could it be behind everyone else too? As Titan America's new CEO said this week, "Our company has successfully weathered economic storms on both sides of the Atlantic." Let's hope the seas are calm for the time being.

Greece: Titan Cement Group has announced that its net profit was Euro2.9m in the first half of 2014, an improvement on the net loss of Euro21.8m that it made in the same period of 2013. Turnover totalled Euro571m, up by 4% from 2013, while earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation (EBITDA) were unchanged at Euro89m. Titan said that foreign exchange fluctuations had a negative impact on its results in the first half of 2014 and noted that in a stable foreign exchange environment, turnover and EBITDA would have risen by 7% and 4% respectively. All markets in which Titan Cement has established activities grew in the first half of 2014.

In the second quarter of 2014, turnover grew by 2% to Euro319m, the ninth successive quarter of turnover improvement. Titan Cement's EBITDA was Euro58.5m, down by 9.9% year-on-year, while second quarter profits were Euro13.9m, a year-on-year increase of 164%.

Greece: Titan has reported that its turnover in 2013 rose by 4% year-on-year to Euro1.18bn, up from Euro1.13bn in 2012. Operating earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) rose by 0.1% to Euro196m. This is the first time the construction materials group has reported improved operating results in seven years. Titan's net loss in 2013 increased to Euro36m from Euro24.5m in 2012. Titan attributed the pick-up on the recovery of the housing market in the US, resilient demand in Egypt and a general focus on exports.

By region, Titan noted that domestic cement demand in Greece continued to decline but at a slower pace than previous years, with demand now at 20% of 2006 levels. Its cement plants in Greece are dependent on exports for their viability. In the Group's Greece and Western Europe region, turnover rose by 4% to Euro250m and operating profit fell by 57% to Euro14m.

In North America, Titan's turnover rose by 11% to Euro411m and its operating profit rose to Euro32m. In its Southeastern Europe region, turnover fell by 4% to Euro215m and operating profit fell slightly by 2% to Euro63m. In its Eastern Mediterranean region, turnover rose by 1% to Euro300m and operating profit fell by 7% to Euro87m.

In its outlook for 2014, Titan anticipated cement demand in Greece to increase for the first time since 2006 due to infrastructure spending. Cement consumption in the USA is expected to grow, particularly in the south-east of the country where the majority of Titan's US operations are situated. Political and economic risks make Titan cautious in its outlook for Turkey and Egypt, particularly due to fuel shortages in the latter country.

Greece: Titan Cement has increased its sales year-on-year in the second quarter of 2013 by 2% to Euro329m from Euro323m. The Greek-based multinational cement producer said that recovery in the US and 'resilient' demand in Egypt had compensated for continued decline in the Greek market.

Despite the increase in sales net profit fell by 81% to Euro5.3m from Euro27.8m. Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) fell by 12.6% to Euro67.9m from Euro77.7m. Overall for the half-year to 30 June 2013, sales rose by 4.4% to Euro572m and EBITDA fell by 17.8% to Euro92.2m.

In Greece demand for cement continued to decline with domestic cement sales at around just a sixth of Titan's cement production capacity. In the US, the rebound of the housing market, particularly in Florida, has had a positive effect on demand for building materials. In south-eastern Europe demand for building materials remained low and profit margins 'shrank' due to competition. In Egypt, despite political instability and problems with production, demand remained stable and Titan was able to increase sales by importing clinker. In Turkey, construction activity grew, both in the private and public sectors, as did exports.

In its outlook Titan reflected upon the mixed fortunes of its major production territories, with continued growth expected for the US, instability in Egypt and continued gloom in Europe.

Greece: The Labour Inspectors' Corps has fined AGET Heracles cement industry, a subsidiary of Lafarge Group, Euro7500 for violating mass lay-offs legislation after ruling in favour of former employees recently laid off from its cement plant in Halkida and essentially shutting down the plant.

By closing the unit and laying-off 236 employees, the industry was found in violation of article 4 of Presidential Decree 240/2006 according to which, employees have to be notified and consulted in advance. The cement industry had said that it proceeded with the shutdown of its unit in Halkida due to financial reasons and as a result of the plunge in domestic construction activity and after failing to distribute its surplus production to international markets.

Greece: Titan Cement has reported a net loss of Euro27.1m for the first three months of 2013, an increase from a net loss of Euro19.4m year-on-year. The Greek cement producer pointed out in a statement that Greece's 'unparalleled' slump in building activity had continued and that there were weak economies in many other countries where it operates.

Titan's earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) fell by 29.4% to Euro24.3m from Euro34.4m. Turnover fell to Euro243m from Euro225m.

In its outlook for the remainder of 2013, Titan anticipated that demand would continue to decline in Greece for the first half of 2013. Markets in southeast Europe will continue to be affected by the Euro-zone crisis with demand for building materials not expected to recover substantially in 2013. In Egypt, political and economic woes appear to be escalating and uncertainty is high. The severe and extended winter period in 2013 across the Balkans, Turkey and Greece significantly affected building activity. Titan said that building activity in the US has entered the recovery phase, particularly as a result of the strong momentum of the housing market, and demand for building materials is growing substantially.

Greece: Greek authorities have blocked a request made by Heracles Cement to lay-off 229 workers from its plant in Halkis. The move would have shut down the plant. The Supreme Labour Council of the Employment, Social Insurance and Welfare ministry, voted to reject the plan made by the Lafarge subsidiary and recommended to Labour Minister Yiannis Vroutsis not to approve the demand.

Heracles Cement announced in late March 2013 that it had stopped operations at its plant in Halkida, as part of a restructuring program of its production structure. The restructuring programme was aimed at helping the Lafarge subsidiary cope with Greece's recession in its construction sector.

Greece: Heracles Cement has terminated operations at its plant in Halkida, as part of a restructuring program of its production structure. The production unit at Halkida has been idle since July 2011.

The plant at Halkida was hit by a plunge in construction activity in Attica, with sales falling by 80% between 2008 and 2013. The company said it would seek every possible solution to minimise the effect of its decision to close down the unit on its 236 workers. Heracles Cement said the decision will burden its 2013 results by Euro57m but it expects a positive impact of Euro18m/yr in subsequent years.

The restructuring programme is aimed to help the Lafarge subsidiary cope with Greece's recession in its construction sector. Under the new structure, Heracles Cement will continue cement production from its two units in Volos and Evia, exploiting their comparative advantages, mainly their port facilities, to support the group's activities in Greece and in the wider Mediterranean region.