Displaying items by tag: Holcim
Lafarge Malaysia buys Holcim
23 November 2015Malaysia: Lafarge Malaysia Bhd has bought Holcim Sdn Bhd from PT Holcim Indonesia in a deal worth US$71.2m.
"With this merger, our installed cement capacity will rise to 14.1Mt/yr from 12.9Mt/yr through the combined strength of three integrated cement plants, two grinding stations, over 40 ready-mix concrete batching plants and six aggregate quarries," said Lafarge in a statement. Lafarge Malaysia has now become part of LafargeHolcim.
Holcim Romania to have new CEO soon
13 November 2015Romania: 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.
LyondellBasell appoints Holcim’s Thomas Aebischer as Executive Vice President and CFO
09 November 2015Netherlands: LyondellBasell, one of the world's largest plastics, chemical and refining companies, has appointed Thomas Aebischer, former CFO at Holcim, has been appointed as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer (CFO) effective from 1 January 2016.
"Thomas is a highly experienced and accomplished leader who brings a global perspective, deep knowledge of financial markets and significant experience at the executive level of large, multinational companies. Given his past experience and success in a variety of financial positions all over the world, I am very confident that he will be a tremendous asset as we continue to execute our long-term growth strategy," said Bob Patel, LyondellBasell's Chief Executive Officer.
Aebischer joins LyondellBasell after having served in a variety of positions, including CFO, over a nearly 20-year career with Holcim. In his role as Holcim's CFO, Aebischer's responsibilities included the company's information technology, accounting and administration, investor relations, risk management and procurement functions. Earlier in his career, Aebischer held positions with PricewaterhouseCoopers and the Bern cantonal tax authorities in Switzerland.
"LyondellBasell's transformation into one of the premier companies in the petrochemical industry is very impressive," said Aebischer. "It is truly an honour to join Bob and his team of leaders, who share a relentless focus on safety, operational excellence and the creation of shareholder value."
As LyondellBasell's CFO, Aebischer will be nominated to serve as a member of the company's management board and will be responsible for leading the company's treasury, information technology, tax, finance and accounting functions. Aebischer will report directly to Patel.
Lafarge Vietnam and Holcim Vietnam merge
09 November 2015Vietnam: Lafarge Vietnam Company has become a unit of Holcim Vietnam Company following the merger between their parent companies.
The merger between Lafarge Vietnam and Holcim Vietnam, which is scheduled for completion in 2015, will help LafargeHolcim optimise its production in the context of oversupply, which has put local cement producers in difficulties, a Holcim Vietnam official has said.
In Vietnam, LafargeHolcim has five cement plants and eight ready-mixed concrete batching plants, with a capacity of 5.2Mt/yr of cement and 1Mm3/yr of concrete. LafargeHolcim will retain its brands of Lafarge and Holcim's products such as Lavilla (Lafarge) and Holcim Power-S (Holcim), according to Nguyen Cong Minh Bao, Head of Holcim Vietnam's Sustainable Development.
Holcim Vietnam presently holds a 26% market share in Vietnam while Lafarge Vietnam takes a 12% share, with their main products being cement, concrete and aggregate.
Holcim more than doubles profits in the third quarter of 2015
29 October 2015Philippines: Holcim Philippines' profits more than doubled in the third quarter of 2015 due to strong sales from sustained construction activity into the rainy season. Its net income grew to US$32.5m from US$15.3m in the same period of 2014. Its net sales rose by 23.2% year-on-year to US$212m.
Holcim Philippines' profits for the first nine months of 2015 grew by 12.7% to US$96.7m. This brings the company's sales for the first nine months of 2015 to US$595m, some 9.44% higher than in same period of 2014. Cement demand was healthy nationwide and strongest in Visayas and Mindanao, with no let-up in the building activity by both the private and public sectors.
Holcim Philippines Country CEO Eduardo A Sahagun said that the company's third quarter results were made possible by the improved performance of the plants, which can now operate longer before maintenance activities. "Demand usually dips during the rainy season but this time, we experienced even stronger demand in the third quarter. Under these conditions, it is critical to sustain operations to support the market and we did so due to the steady investments for better plant performance," said Sahagun. Sahagun said that logistics operations also improved with more flexibility to supply the National Capital Region through its newly-acquired Holcim Manila Terminal.
Trickle down economics in Ecuador
14 October 2015Change draws nearer this week in the Ecuadorian cement industry with the announcement of further details on a new integrated cement plant. Union Cementera Nacional (UCEM) plans to build its third cement plant. The part-government owned group will build its new 2200t/day facility in the country's central Chimborazo province. The move will expand the group's domestic production from 1600t/day to 3800t/day, adding to its existing 650t/day of plant in Chimborazo and its 950t/day plant in Azogues. The expansion was supported by a US$230m investment agreement agreed in September 2015 between UCEM and Casaracra.
The timing is interesting here given that cement sales have reportedly fallen year-on-year by 7% for the first seven months of 2015, according to Ecuadorian Institute of Cement and Concrete (INECYC) data. Holcim, in its financial report for the first half of 2015, attributed its lower cement volumes to effects on the local economy by lower oil prices and poor weather. This also followed a declining year for volumes in 2014 after Holcim reported a record year in 2013.
Holcim also reported continuing to export clinker to its Ecuador unit in 2014 despite the drop in volumes. To that end it completed the second phase of its own expansion project at its Guayaquil cement plant back in March 2015. It increased its clinker production capacity to 4500t/day at the site at a cost US$400m.
Also of note, but on a smaller scale, was the announcement by the North American subsidiary of Gebr. Pfeiffer in September 2015 that it was supplying a new MPS swing mill for an existing grinding station at a clinker plant run by Hormicreto. Published details are sketchy on this plant but A TEC Greco refers to supplying a burner to the company for a cement kiln in 2013. The mountainous location and ownership by a concrete producer suggest that this may be a mini-cement plant.
Following the departure of Lafarge from the market at the end of 2014, Ecuador now has three main cement producers: LafargeHolcim (inheriting the Holcim assets), UCEM and Union Andina de Cementos (UNACEM). UCEM's expansion plans will increase its share of the industry by production capacity making it the second largest producer in the country. MCPEC - INECYC estimates projected that cement demand would reach 9Mt/yr in 2018. Meanwhile Manuel Román Moreno, general manager of the Empresa Pública Cementera del Ecuador (EPCE), estimated that the country imported around 1Mt/yr of clinker in 2014.
The question then for UCEM is whether the country will want 9Mt/yr of cement in 2018 with a depressed price of crude oil. As an Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) Ecuador's economy is, no doubt, feeling the pinch from the low price of crude oil after a period of growth. In its expansion announcement UCEM reported the reliance of the new plant on bunker oil. This will be trucked in from the Amazonas (Shushufindi) refinery in Sucumbios province and purchased at a subsidised price. Cheap oil can be used to run the plants but it may be needed more to run the country's infrastructure demand for building materials such as a cement.
New Zealand: Two cement ship unloaders, a ship unloader and two conveyor belt systems purchased by Holcim are being shipped to New Zealand from the Netherlands on a heavy lift ship called the Happy Dragon.
One of the cement ship unloaders along with a ship unloader, which have a combined weight of 240t, will arrive in Timaru in early November 2015 and will be used by Holcim at its new dome at the Timaru Port. The other unloader and conveyor belts are bound for Holcim's Auckland dome.
Holcim's Capital Projects Manager Ken Cowie said that Holcim was excited to have the cargo in transit in the North Atlantic. "This signals the arrival on site of all the major equipment for the terminal and brings us closer to commissioning the operations later this year."
The cement ship unloaders were built by Van Aalst Bulk Handling in Hazerswoude. The largest of them is 33m long, 15.5m wide and 18m high. A logistics company brought the unloaders 20km east of Rotterdam, where they were placed on a pontoon by a floating crane and floated down to be loaded onto a ship.
Will cement industry growth in the Philippines reveal CRH’s plan?
23 September 2015San Miguel Corporation has upped the pace of its capacity expansion this week to a US$1bn investment towards five new 2Mt/yr cement plants in the Philippines. The announcement builds on its previous plans to build two plants for US$800m. At that time construction had already begun at subsidiary Northern Cement's plant in Pangasinan and Quezon. Plants in Bulacan, Cebu and Davao have now joined the list for completion in 2017.
The scale of this expansion is vast considering that the Philippines has 17 active cement plants with a total integrated production capacity of 24.6Mt/yr. San Miguel president and COO Ramon Ang's comments to media that if there were an oversupply of cement the market would correct itself in a couple of years may sound flippant to anyone who isn't the head of a multi-billion dollar corporation. However, if achieved it will propel the San Miguel subsidiaries from the country's fourth largest cement producer to its largest.
However each of the other major producers also have their own expansion plan in various stages of completion. Holcim Philippines announced US$40m plans in May 2015 to expand its production capacity to 10Mt/yr by the end of 2016, mainly through reviving existing projects. Cemex announced plans in May 2015 to spend US$300m towards building a new 1.5Mt/yr integrated line at its Solid Plant. Lafarge Republic had plans in April 2015 to raise its cement output through the opening of grinding plants at its Rizal and Bulacan cement plants. The former was opened in April 2015 but this is the one plant that hasn't been acquired by CRH following the sale of Lafarge Republic in the run-up to the LafargeHolcim merger. The latter was last reported due for opening in December 2015.
The big change in the Philippine cement industry in 2015 has been the merger of Lafarge and Holcim to form LafargeHolcim. Given that Lafarge Republic and Holcim Philippines held over 55% of the country's production capacity before the merger, it was inevitable that they would be forced to sell off assets. In the end CRH picked up most of Lafarge Republic's cement assets bar the Teresa Plant in Rizal, which stayed with Holcim. The merger has skewed the market towards one clear leader, LafargeHolcim (9.5Mt/yr), followed by Cemex (4.73Mt/yr) and CRH (4.19Mt/yr) with similarly sized cement production bases. These producers are then chased by San Miguel (2.15Mt/yr) and the other smaller firms. If San Miguel succeeds in its expansion strategy then the market will change once again.
Cement sales rose by 11.1% to 11.9Mt in the first half of 2015 according to the Cement Manufacturers Association of the Philippines (CeMAP). They attributed this growth to strong construction activity helped by increases in government infrastructure spending. Alongside this, gross domestic product (GDP) is predicted to rise by 6% in 2015 and 6.3% in 2016 by the Asian Development Bank. Another promising sign for development came from a study by Antoinette Rosete of the University of Santo Tomas which forecast that cement demand would meet 27Mt/yr. Capacity utilisation rates rose to 85% from 68% in 2014 according to Department of Trade and Industry data.
With this kind of encouragement, no wonder San Miguel is betting on such a large expansion project. If Rosete's forecast and capacity utilisation rates hold then the Philippines might need a capacity base of around 36Mt/yr. San Miguel's growth will fill that gap.
Of course other players might have their own ideas about giving away market share. LafargeHolcim and Cemex are likely to be saddled with debt or existing projects. CRH meanwhile is the wildcard as its expansion strategy is opaque. In recent years it has seemed to focus on acquisitions over building its own projects. The Euro5.2bn the company has spent on buying Lafarge and Holcim assets this year seems likely to slow down investment on any internal development plans. However CRH is bringing in local partner Aboitiz in the Philipines to help with a US$400m loan.
The Philippines is clearly an exciting market for the cement industry at the moment. One consequence of the current situation is that it may signal what CRH's global intentions are following the LafargeHolcim merger. If it decides or is able to start building new capacity then it may reveal the start of a new phase for the Ireland-based multinational.
Holcim's Westport job cuts near as cement import facilities open sooner
23 September 2015New Zealand: Holcim, part of LafargeHolcim, is making faster than expected progress on an operational restructure that will lead to 120 job losses on the west coast.
The New Zealand operation has revealed plans to close its manufacturing plant at Cape Foulwind, Westport, with cement instead to be imported from the Mitsubishi Kanda plant in Fukuoka, Japan, via the Timaru and Auckland ports. Holcim will now close its Westport cement plant in the middle of 2016, with 120 job losses expected. The company said that some employees have switched to other roles.
Holcim is building a 30,000t cement silo at Timaru Port and is spending a similar amount at the Port of Auckland. The company had previously said that the silo and importing facilities would be finished in the second half of 2016. However, Holcim New Zealand country manager Glenda Harvey said that the Timaru facility could be operational in January or February 2016 and that the Auckland facility should be completed in May 2016 rather than June 2016. The Westport cement plant will remain operational until the Auckland import site is fully commissioned, then it will be closed.
When the Timaru and Auckland terminals are completed, there will be about 30 staff employed in sales, operations and technical laboratory roles. Westport cement plant staff have been able to apply for positions at Holcim's Timaru and Auckland operations and also overseas, with a small number having taken up roles in other parts of the business. Workers have redundancy provisions in their contracts. The company has about 40 staff within its Christchurch head office operation and 360 in the country across the cement and aggregates businesses.
Some Westport residents have said that the Westport cement plant site and buildings could be used as an industrial park, for electricity generation or as an eco park. Harvey said there has been no update on the site, or if alternative uses could be found. The cement plant has been operating for 57 years.
President inaugurates fourth Holcim Village in Akmeemana
22 September 2015Sri Lanka: The Holcim Village in Akmeemana, Galle, which was constructed by Holcim under its Sustainable Development Project and following its pledge for Livable Communities, has been inaugurated by president Maitripala Sirisena.
The president unveiled a plaque to mark the opening of the Holcim Village and distributed deeds to recipients. The village consists of 14 households and is the fourth of its kind. The Galle project was constructed after Holcim's similar projects in Medirigiriya, Eluwankulama and Puttalam and was designed to cater to the needs of the community surrounding the Ruhunu Cement plant.
The CEO of Holcim Lanka, Philippe Richart, said that the newly-established village was proof of the company's commitment to serve surrounding communities and support their needs.