Displaying items by tag: Holcim
Lafarge and Holcim notify EC over merger
28 October 2014Europe: Lafarge and Holcim have formally notified the European Commission (EC) of their proposed merger in order to obtain regulatory approval. With this notification, Holcim and Lafarge have now completed all necessary notifications with regulatory authorities worldwide.
During pre-notification discussions, which Lafarge and Holcim have had with the EC, the list of proposed assets for divestment in Europe has been slightly amended. Compared with the list of assets presented on 7 July 2014, the two companies now propose to retain Lafarge's Mannersdorf plant in Austria and to divest all of Holcim's operations in Slovakia.
In the rest of the world, the proposed list of assets remains the same, with the exception of the Philippines, as announced by the boards of directors of Lafarge Republic Inc. and of Holcim Philippines Inc.
In parallel to the regulatory process, Holcim and Lafarge are in ongoing negotiations with potential buyers of the assets that are proposed for divestment.
Cemex will not make offer to buy Holcim and Lafarge assets
27 October 2014Mexico: Cemex has announced that it will not make an offer to buy the assets being sold by Holcim and Lafarge in light of their merger. Instead, Cemex plans to focus on organic growth, generating more cash flow and reducing its leverage, according to general manager Fernando A Gonzalez Olivieri. Cemex's aims are to once again reach earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) of US$4.70bn in 2016 or 2017 and to recover its investment grade via leverage reduction.
LafargeHolcim begin asset divestments
17 October 2014India: Holcim and Lafarge have begun an internal process in India to identify the assets that must be divested to adhere to the requirements of India's competition regulator, the Competition Commission of India.
Both companies are running processes to identify the plants and operations that are not linked to their strategic global plans. The process will also look at consolidation of operations and processes, which will lead to strategic alignment of both the companies in India to create a future-ready organisation with uniform processes.
In India, Lafarge, which has around 5Mt/yr cement capacity, is dwarfed by Holcim with a capacity of 47Mt/yr through its subsidiary companies Ambuja Cement and Associated Cement Companies (ACC), cornering roughly 12% of the 350Mt/yr Indian cement market. Aditya Birla Group's UltraTech is India's largest cement maker with a 62Mt/yr capacity.
Holcim appoints three new employees at Ste. Genenvieve plant
15 October 2014US: Holcim's Ste. Genevieve plant has appointed three employees to leadership positions. Corey Green was named area leader for Maintenance and Reliability, Rodney Forester accepted the position of operations leader and Houston Meyer was named as Raw Mill area leader.
Green, in his role as Maintenance and Reliability area leader, is responsible for operations and maintenance within the plant area. Green has 15 years of experience in equipment repairs. His previous six years were as a project manager with Roland Machinery Company, where he was responsible for the oversight of the maintenance contract with Holcim.
Forester, in his role as operations leader, will supervise shift personnel and control room operations that support optimisation of processes for efficient operations. Forester joined Holcim (US) in 2008 as a cement technician in the Maintenance and Reliability department and most recently worked in the control room on a temporary operations leader assignment. Forester holds an associate's degree in welding technology from Jefferson College.
Meyer will be responsible for operations and maintenance within the Raw Mill area. He joined the Ste. Genevieve team in 2011. His most recent role was as cement technician with the Raw Mill team. Prior to joining Holcim, Houston was employed at Alberici Constructors for six years.
UltraTech linked to bid for Lafarge assets in Brazil
15 October 2014India/Brazil: UltraTech Cement, India's largest cement producer, intends to bid for assets owned by Lafarge in the south-eastern region of Brazil, according to Indian press. If the bid is successful it will be the company's largest overseas deal to date. The Aditya Birla Group company currently holds small assets in west Asia.
The Brazilian assets on sale include three integrated cement plants and two grinding stations with a total capacity of 3.6Mt/yr, as well as one ready-mix plant. The Lafarge assets are on sale as part of the divestment plant following the announcement of the LafargeHolcim merger.
UltraTech has an installed cement production capacity of 62Mt/yr. It has 12 integrated plants, one clinker plant, 16 grinding units and six bulk terminals with operations across India, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.
Lafarge and Holcim about to request EU approval to merge
10 October 2014Europe: Lafarge and Holcim are about to request approval from the European Commission (EC) for their planned merger, according to Lafarge CEO Bruno Lafont.
"We are indeed very close to EU notification," said Lafont. He added that talks with Brussels had been constructive and that the companies were 'well on track' to close the deal in the first half of 2015.
LafargeHolcim merger approved conditionally in South Africa
09 October 2014South Africa: The Competition Commission (CC) has approved the merger of Holcim and Lafarge in South Africa. Although Lafarge has a significant presence in South Africa, Holcim's only interest is in a stake it holds in Afrisam.
"The commission found that Holcim's shareholding interest in Afrisam, a cement producer in South Africa, would present anti-competitive effects post-merger," said the CC. "This is due to the fact that the shareholding creates an undesirable structural link between Holcim and Afrisam in that it provides Holcim with access to Afrisam's commercially-sensitive information."
The commission found that the shareholding by Holcim in competitors would create a platform for collusion in the cement industry post-merger. The CC said that this was compounded by the history of collusion in the South African cement industry and the high concentration levels and barriers to entry in the cement industry.
"To address the competition concerns, the commission has approved the merger on the condition that Holcim divests of the shareholding in Afrisam within a period of three years after approval of the merger," said the CC.
Grand Theft Carbon
08 October 2014It's been an expensive few weeks for Holcim. First, the Venuezuelan state-run outfit Corporación Socialista Del Cemento failed to pay its last instalment of US$97.5m in compensation for its forced nationalisation in 2008. Then the European Court of Justice dismissed Holcim's lawsuit against the European Commission over the theft of 1.6 million emissions allowances in 2010. Here we concentrate on the second story.
Holcim Romania's CO2 accounts held within the Romanian National Registry for Greenhouse Gases were illegally accessed by hackers in November 2010. 1,000,000 CO2 allowances were transferred to an account in Liechtenstein. Another 600,000 CO2 allowances were transferred to a company in Italy, which had account registries in Italy and the UK. Parts were then transferred to accounts in the Czech Republic, the UK and France before being sold on to emissions exchanges in Paris and Amsterdam.
Holcim then tried to sue the Commission, which administers the bloc's electronic emissions trading network, in 2012 for failing to freeze the accounts containing the stolen units, for not returning them and for allowing other companies to turn them in for compliance under the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS). The multinational building materials producer tried to force the commission to pay it Euro17.6m for damages associated with the theft. The amount was equivalent to the 905,000 allowances that remain unaccounted for at a spot price of Euro14.6/unit and an interest rate of 8%.
Other registries were also targeted in early 2011. As much as Euro30m in carbon allowances were stolen at the time, leading to exchanges having to stop trading temporarily.
Although this is a relatively small amount for a multinational company that reported net sales of over Euro16bn in 2013, it feels harsh. If a personal investor had assets stolen from a bank or investment scheme they would expect some sort of compensation.
It should be noted though that it is unclear how the hackers gained entry to Holcim's account details. Successful 'phishing' for account logins via fake emails and the like might suggest lax security on Holcim's side. Or a more conventional hack on the registry server might suggest loose security on the registry's side. Add to this the fact that the price of carbon allowances has fallen since 2010. Reuters estimated that the outstanding allowances would be worth Euro5.1m today.
Hopefully the thefts in late 2010 and early 2011 can be marked down as teething problems. Yet the European Union Emission Trading Scheme is compulsory for 11,000 power stations and manufacturing plants. Any European company that may be less keen on the scheme is unlikely to have its fears settled by high profile cases of carbon credit thefts or the current low price of trading.
Meanwhile, companies and investors involved with China's Guangdong Province carbon emission trading scheme, the world's second biggest such scheme after Europe, may well be watching what happens in Europe closely.
Romania: Holcim is mulling its options after the European Union's (EU) top court dismissed its lawsuit against the European Commission (EC) over the theft of 1.6 million emissions allowances in 2010.
The European Court of Justice (ECJ) on 18 Sept 2014 rejected Holcim's arguments that the EC should compensate it for Euro17.6m for damages suffered when the online carbon trading account of its Romanian subsidiary was hacked. In its judgment, the court ruled that Holcim must bear the losses resulting from the thefts and pay the EC's legal costs in the case, which were not disclosed.
"Holcim has taken note of the General Court's judgement," said a Holcim sposewoman. "We are currently analysing the decision in more detail and cannot comment any further."
In November 2010 cyber criminals hacked into Holcim's account at the Romanian emissions trading registry - previously one of around 30 online trading hubs in the EU carbon market - and transferred 1.6 million s-called EU allowances to two accounts at the Italian and Liechtenstein registries. According to EU records, the allowances then passed through registry accounts in the UK, France, the Netherlands and the Czech Republic within hours, before eventually being sold on emissions exchanges in Paris and Amsterdam.
Around 695,000 allowances were later returned to Holcim by various European authorities, but the company's spokeswoman said that the remaining units have still not been recovered.
Holcim sued the EC, which administers the bloc's electronic emissions trading network, in 2012 for failing to freeze the accounts containing the stolen units, for not returning them and for allowing other companies to turn them in for compliance under the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS). The EC refused to reveal the location of the allowances, saying that under EU law the details were confidential and could only be passed to European authorities.
Several European companies including International Power and ScottishPower have since surrendered some of the units to comply with the ETS, but claimed that they bought them in good faith, without knowing that they had been reported stolen.
Holcim had claimed that the EU should pay it the value of any allowances still missing, based on the market price on 16 November 2010 (the day of the theft) plus annual interest of 8%. That amounts to more than Euro17.6m, based on a spot allowance price of Euro14.60/unit.
Holcim has also sued Romania's National Environmental Protection Agency (NEPA) over similar claims.
"The court case against NEPA has been suspended by the civil court until the Romanian law enforcement agency (DIICOT) finalises the criminal investigation, but as of now we have no indication as to when this might happen," said Holcim.
Holcim cement plant to take toxic Ha Long oil
07 October 2014Vietnam: Authorities in the northern province of Quang Ninh will remove 7000L of toxic oil from the edge of the Ha Long Bay in October 2014 and dispose of it at Holcim's cement plant in Mekong Delta. According to local media, the plant is the only facility in the country with the required technology.
The oil is contaminated with PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls), a chemical group that associated with endocrine disruption and neurotoxicity and an illegal substance in Vietnam. PCBs are also carcinogenic.
The oil was imported by the state-owned Cuu Long Company in old transformers that were purchased in South Korea in November 2007. Quang Ninh officials fined Cuu Long for importing the machines in 2008 and ordered the company to return the transformers, which were intended for use in the construction of a thermal power plant. However, the exporter refused to take them back. The oil idled in the rusting devices, which sat covered in canvas at Cai Lan Port on the edge of the UNESCO world heritage site until the transformers began to leak.