Displaying items by tag: Italcementi
Italy/Egypt: Italcementi celebrated its 150th anniversary and 10 years of 'successful operations in Egypt' in March 2014. Director general of Italcementi, Giovanni Ferrario, said that the group's mission focused on 'product innovation, quality and opportunities for the future.' The new branding system, i.Nova, was presented at the event, a system that he said was, "The result of 15 years of research that rejuvenates the group's marketing strategy."
The company says that the i.Nova approach focuses on the client in a strategy that is no longer based on supplying a single product, but on the ability to offer solutions that can meet several different needs at the same time 'fast and efficiently.' ''Our industrial strategy centres around research, innovation and sustainability, values that are necessary for competitiveness,'' said Ferrario.
Italcementi considering Myanmar market move
12 March 2014Myanmar: Italcementi is considering entering the Myanmar market in the next few years, its chief executive has said. Carlo Pesenti said that the Italy–based international cement producer was negotiating with a local partner in Myanmar and studying the country's foreign investment law, in an interview with The Nation.
Italcementi is already active in Southeast Asia through its Jalaprathan Cement and Asia Cement subsidiaries in Thailand. In 2013 the country helped shore-up Italcementi's annual results with a rise in turnover of 18.1% year-on-year to Euro269m and earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) rose by 58.8% to Euro51.5m. Italcementi Thai cement shipments increased by 13.8% as an additional kiln was brought back on-stream.
Can the Egyptian cement industry secure its fuel supplies?
19 February 2014Suez Cement and Italcementi's first waste treatment plant in Egypt was inaugurated this week. The project uses 45,000t of household waste to produce 35,000t of alternative fuel annually. Given Egypt's on-going fuel concerns the project will be watched closely.
Italcementi has much riding on the success of the project. It has five integrated cement plants in the country. As reported in early February 2014, the cement producer suffered reduced production capacity in Egypt despite 'potential' domestic demand due to limited energy availability. Cement sales volumes in Egypt for Italcementi have continually fallen since 2011, accelerating from a 5.4% year-on-year reduction in 2011 to a 17.6% year-on-year reduction in 2013. Yet, despite this, rebounding domestic demand was reported in 2012 and 2013.
It must be extremely frustrating for Italcementi. It has the production capacity, it has demand but it doesn't have the fuel to power its lines. Any additional fuel will be welcome. At a rough and conservative rate of 200kg of fuel per tonne of cement produced, Italcementi and Suez Cement's new alternative fuel stream could help to produce 175,000t of cement or about 1.5% of the cement producer's clinker production capacity of 12Mt/yr.
Lafarge, with its mega 10.6Mt/yr cement plant outside of Cairo, hadn't suffered (publicly) as much as Italcementi from fuel shortages until the publication of its financial results for 2013. Although sales had decreased year-on-year since 2009, this has been blamed on competition. Now it has been announced that cement volumes decreased by 30% in the first half of 2013 due to shortages of gas. This was mitigated through fuel substitution to a 19% drop in the third quarter and a 7% drop in the fourth quarter.
However, Lafarge's strategy for fuel security may be threatened as the Ministry of State for Environmental Affairs ordered the producer to stop preparations to build storage units for petcoke in February 2014 citing environmental and economic reasons. What happening here is unclear given that the Egyptian government has been encouraging cement producers to move away from using natural gas.
The examples above show the reactions two multinational cement producers, Italcementi and Lafarge, have made to secure their fuel supplies. The outcomes remain uncertain.
In other news, Shijiazhuang in Hebei province in China has started the demolition of 17 (!) more cement plants. This follows 18 plants that were demolished in December 2013. In total, 18.5Mt/yr of cement production capacity has been torn down.
This is more than the cement production output of most European countries or any single US state! Where was this cement going previously? What were the effects on the price of cement in China? Who is taking the loss for the destruction of this industrial production capacity? BBC News Business Editor Robert Peston has some ideas.
Egypt’s first waste treatment plant is inaugurated
17 February 2014Egypt: Suez Cement and Italcementi inaugurated the first waste treatment plant in Egypt on 16 February 2014 with a Euro5m investment.
The project is part of the Suez Cement strategy to increase the amount of energy that it gets from fuel derived from waste. The project uses 45,000t of household waste to produce 35,000t of alternative fuel annually. "The project will use the latest equipment and technologies available in this area," said Egypt's minister of Environment, Laila Eskander.
Egypt's Ministry of Environmental Affairs opposes the import of coal due to its negative effects on the environment and public health. Coal is not among the alternatives for solving the energy crisis in Egypt, according to Eskander. "Suez Cement has been suffering from an energy crisis, yet it decided to respect the Egyptian laws and to contribute to solving the problem of waste as well," said Eskander.
European cement production in 2013 – Problems head east
12 February 2014Recovery in the European cement markets arrived slowly in 2013. Balance sheets at HeidelbergCement, Cemex, Italcementi, Vicat and Buzzi Unicem appear to have stalled into something less than the recovery that everybody wants. The picture is more stable in Western Europe but declining revenues have headed east.
The European Commission's Autumn 2013 Economic Forecast has summed it up well, predicting that the European Union's (EU) gross domestic product (GDP) would remain static in 2013. On the strength of the results seen so far that feels about right. The cement industry in Europe hasn't continued to decline but the 'recovery' is slow. Yet a recovery is happening on the strength of these financial results so far. Compared to some of the sales declines seen in 2012 this is good news.
With results from the big European-based cement producers Lafarge and Holcim due later in February 2014, here is a summary of the European situation.
HeidelbergCement's revenue has remained flat in 2013 at Euro13.9bn although its cement, clinker and ground-granulated blast-furnace slag (GGBS) sales volumes have risen by 2.6% to 91.3Mt. Compare this with the 8.7% bounce in revenue from 2011 to 2012. By region, the problem areas have now shifted from losses in Western and Northern Europe to losses in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. Market pickup in the UK has driven this turnaround, despite diminished sales volumes in Germany.
Similarly, Cemex's sales have also remained flat at US$15.2bn. Both of its European areas have improved their sales, with sales losses only reported for the Northern Europe region. Again, sales in the UK drove overall business with France starting to improve too.
Italcementi had it tougher in 2013 with its sixth consecutive drop in revenue since 2008. Just like HeidelbergCement, the problem regions for Italcementi have shifted east in 2013 from Western Europe to the group's Emerging Europe, North Africa and Middle East area. However Italcementi is losing revenue in Western Europe faster than HeidelbergCement, mainly due to the poor Italian market.
Elsewhere, Vicat reported that its consolidated cement sales fell by 4% to Euro1.11bn. Sales decline lessened in France and the rest of Europe even saw sales rise by 4% to Euro427m. Buzzi Unicem saw its cement sales volumes remain static in 2013 at 27.4Mt.
Overall it may not feel great but it's better than the cement industry news for Europe we've been used to in recent years. With the European Commission Economic Forecast suggesting a 1.4% rise in GDP in 2014, the next 12 months look more promising.
Ciments Français revenue down 3.6% to Euro3.59bn in 2013
12 February 2014France: Ciments Français has reported that its total revenue fell by 3.6% year-on-year to Euro3.59bn in 2013 from Euro3.73bn in 2012. Like its parent company Italcementi, It blamed the drop on continued disruption in demand for building materials in Western Europe, with problems in Egypt and an uneven recovery in North America.
Overall sales volumes for cement and clinker fell by 3.8% to 37.9Mt. Sales revenue for cement and clinker fell by 4.8% to Euro2.39bn. By region, Western Europe and Emerging Europe, North Africa and the Middle East saw sales volumes decrease in 2013 and North America and Asia saw sales volumes increase. However sales revenues fell in all regions except Asia in 2013. In particular Ciments Français' revenue report mentioned Egypt's role in reducing sales volumes in 2013 in the Emerging Europe, North Africa & Middle East region due to fuel shortages.
Italcementi revenue down 5.4% to Euro4.24bn in 2013
12 February 2014Italy: Italcementi has reported that its revenue fell by 5.4% year-on-year to Euro4.24bn in 2013 from Euro4.48bn in 2012. It blamed the drop on a continued fall in demand for building materials in Europe, a patchy recovery in North America and limited energy availability in Egypt that has decreased cement production capacity.
Sales volumes of cement and clinker fell by 6% year-on-year to 43.1Mt in 2013. Revenue for the company's cement and clinker segment fell by 6.4% to Euro2.72bn from Euro2.91bn. By region sales volumes fell by 9.3% to 14.5Mt in Central Western Europe and by 11.7% to 13.2Mt in Emerging Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. Its North America and Asia regions remained buoyant in terms of sales volumes in 2013 but North America saw its revenue fall by 2.5% to Euro429m.
Kazakhstan to launch new cement plants to reduce imports
17 January 2014Kazakhstan: The Ministry of Innovation and New Technology of Kazakhstan has announced that in 2014 the Mangistau region in the southwest and Akmola region in the north of Kazakhstan will be able to completely halt cement imports, as new cement production facilities will be launched in these regions.
"The launch of new production facilities, Caspiycement in the Mangistau region, which will have a capacity of 1Mt/yr and Kokshecement in the Akmola region, which will have a 2Mt/yr capacity, will allow the regions to halt cement imports, increase cement exports and curb seasonal price increases in the west and north of Kazakhstan," the ministry said.
According to the ministry, in the first 10 months of 2013 Kazakhstan produced 6.2Mt and imported 1.6Mt of cement. During this period, the supply of cement produced in Kazakhstan exceeded 80% of the country's demand. Kazakhstan now has 10 cement plants with a total production capacity of 10.7Mt/yr.
In December 2013 Italy's Italcementi held a ground-breaking ceremony for a new kiln line at its ShymkentCement plant in southern Kazakhstan. The plant's managing director, Gabriel Morin, said that the production capacity of the new dry cement line will be 1.2Mt/yr and will take 20 months to complete.
"The new cement making technology line is expected to produce first clinker in the middle of 2015," said Morin, adding that after the launch of the new line the old kiln will be shut down. Modernisation of the 1.28Mt/yr plant has cost US$80m.
Italcementi spends US$80m on Shymkentcement plant upgrade
10 December 2013Kazakhstan: Italcementi Group has invested US$80m in the modernisation of its Shymkentcement JSC plant in southern Kazakhstan. The new dry-process cement line will have a cement capacity of 1.2Mt/yr and is expected to be commissioned in 20 months.
"The new cement line is expected to produce clinker in mid-2015. After the launch of the new line, the old furnace will be shut down," said the general director of the Shymkentcement plant.
Third quarter cement producers roundup
13 November 2013The third quarter results are in and signs of a recovery in the construction industry are present. Generally for the European producers, volumes of cement sold in the third quarter of 2013 have improved year-on-year compared to the figures for the first nine months of 2013. Although many of these third quarter sales changes are still negative it seems like the industry has turned a corner.
Lafarge reported that cement sales fell by 4% year-on-year to 102Mt for the first nine months in 2013. In the third quarter of 2013 sales remained stable year–on-year at 36.7Mt. Holcim saw its nine month sales fall by 3% to 104Mt while its third quarter sales remained stable at 36Mt. HeidelbergCement saw its nine month sales rise by 1% to 67.7Mt while its third quarter sales rose by 4% to 25.3Mt. Italcementi saw its nine month sales fall by 6% to 32.6Mt while its third quarter sales fell by 2% to 10.8Mt.
By region some of the differences between the European-based multinational cement producers have been telling. Lafarge, for example, is still down year-on-year on cement volumes sold in North America, denting the perceived wisdom of a strong North American recovery. However, profit indicators such as earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) have risen in that region, increasingly in the third quarter. Cemex and Holcim have done better in this region.
Notably, the unstable political situation in Egypt has also impacted the balance sheets for Lafarge and Italcementi. Lafarge reported that cement sales volumes fell by 27% for the first nine months of 2013, principally due to gas shortages, and 19% for the third quarter as the company started to substitute other fuels. Similarly, Italcementi saw overall cement and clinker sales drop by 11.2% in the nine months and 14% in the third quarter.
Meanwhile in China, Anhui Conch produced 86.2Mt for the nine months, a year-on-year increase of 12.1%. Overall revenues in China seem to have risen after decreases in 2012. Anhui Conch reported that its operating revenue rose by 15% to US$6.08bn for the first nine months and US$2.20bn for the third quarter of 2013. Analysts have pinned the return to profit to building in the country's eastern and southern provinces and the effects of government-led industry consolidation. Bucking this trend though, China National Building Materials (CNBM) saw its revenue rise by 37% to US$13.5bn for the first nine months of 2013 but its profit fell by 8.1% to US$542m.
Anhui Conch, Lafarge, Holcim, CNBM, Italcementi and HeidelbergCement all feature at the top of Global Cement's list of the 'Top 75 global cement companies' to be published in the December 2013 issue of Global Cement Magazine. Ahead of final publication we want to know whether readers agree with the rankings. Download our list (registration required) and let us know your comments by 1 December 2013.