Displaying items by tag: Kenya

Kenya: The annual general meeting of the East African Portland Cement company has been cancelled following the non-attendance of the company’s auditors. The meeting requires the presence of the office of the Auditor-General or its appointee Deloitte East Africa to proceed, according to the Business Daily newspaper. The management was unaware that the procedure had changed a company director said. The meeting has been rescheduled for 3 February 2017. The cement producer has a poor corporate governance record following the accusation of its chief executive of sexual harassment and reports of theft of stock in late November 2016, among other incidents.

Kenya: Mombasa Cement is preparing to build a 36MW wind farm by its plant in Vipingo. Power from the unit will be used for the company’s cement plant and sold to Kenya Power, according to the Daily Nation newspaper. The project will consist of 12 3MW turbines and it is estimated to cost US$2.5m. The cement plant is also planning upgrades at a cost of US$72m.

Kenya: Data from the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics report that cement exports dropped in value to US$7.6m in 2016 from US$25.6m in 2015. Cement producers have blamed declining volumes on cheap imports, according to the East African newspaper. The opening of a cement plant by Dangote Cement in Tanzania has also contributed to the decline, forcing companies to cut their prices.

Kenya: Growth in consumption of cement has slowed to 5.3% in the third quarter of 2016 from 11% in the same period of 2015. The slowdown in growth mirrors a fall in growth in the construction sector, which grew by 9.3% in the third quarter of 2016 compared to 15.6% in the same period of 2015, according to data from the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics. It attributed the fall in growth in part to a ‘considerable’ reduction in civil work on the Standard Gauge Railway from Mombasa to Nairobi as it nears completion.

Kenya/Uganda: CBMI Construction has signed two contracts with LafargeHolcim in Kampala for cement grinding plant projects in Uganda and Kenya. Bamburi Cement, LafargeHolcim’s subsidiary in Kenya, has ordered a 1Mt/yr grinding plant from CBMI. The plant will be located in Nairobi. Hima Cement, a joint venture LafargeHolcim is part of in Uganda, has ordered a 0.8Mt/yr grinding plant. It will be located in Tororo in the east of the country.

The scope of the projects covers clinker feeding to cement packing and shipping. These contracts will come into force after being signed, receiving of guarantees and CBMI’s receiving advance payments. Contract periods are 17.5 months after contracts coming into force to complete industrial tests, and 19 months to commissioning.

Attendees of the signing ceremony included the CEO of Bamburi Cement Bruno Pescheux, the CEO of Hima Cement Daniel Pettersson and the Regional Manager of CBMI Li Ming.

Kenya: Simon Peter Ole Nkeri, the chief executive officer of East African Portland Cement Company (EAPCC), has been accused of sexual harassment in a legal case by a manager at the company. Lucy Rimanto Molonket, the head of Sales and Marketing, alleges that Nkeri harassed her on 31 August 2016, according to the Business Daily newspaper. She then alleges that he texted her to apologise for his behaviour. Subsequently she says that she was transferred to a low profile job in September 2016. EAPCC chairman Bill Lay has defended Nkeri, saying that the company has transferred 11 of its managers to different positions following financial problems.

Kenya: Savannah Cement has released further details on its plans to upgrade its Athi River grinding plant. It intends to increase the capacity at the site by 1.2Mt/yr to 2.4Mt/yr with the installation of a vertical roller mill. Additionally, new belt conveyors, a packing plant and dust filters will be added. It plans to have the upgrade commissioned by mid-2018, according to the Business Daily newspaper. It will be built from December 2016 to March 2018.

"We are hoping to issue the tender for the project in early 2017, possibly January or February. Being a second production line, construction work should take anything between 14 and 18 months, therefore we would have the plant up and running by mid-2018. Once we get the approvals we will immediately look to finalise the financing aspect of the project," said Savannah Cement managing director Ronald Ndegwa. The cement producer is adding production capacity to expand its range of cement, with a focus on its hydraulic road binder blend that is used in road construction.

Kenya: East African Portland Cement (EAPC) plans to lay-off over 1000 workers as part of plans to improve its efficiency. The company’s board has described the organisation as ‘severely over staffed’ and unable to compete with its rivals, according to Citizen Digital. At present it has around 2000 personnel and studies suggest that it only needs 500 of these workers to remain competitive.

Chairman Bill Lay said that high staff costs have contributed to the government-owned company’s financial problems. The management team is developing a voluntary early retirement program that will reduce staff levels. The company intends to spend US$19.6m towards the downsizing programme.

Kenya: East African Portland Cement (EAPC) has hired Ernst & Young to conduct a forensic audit of its business following reports that the company is technically bankrupt and may have lost around US$7.1m worth of stock from its warehouses since 2014. Cement stock valued at US$4m went missing in Kenya and US$3.1m disappeared in Uganda, according to the Business Daily newspaper. Ernst & Young started work for the state-owned cement producer in early November 2016.

Kenya: East African Portland Cement’s (EAPCC) profit has fallen by 42% to US$41m in the first half of 2016 from US$70.7m in the same period of 2015. It has blamed the drop on a fall in the revaluation gain of its assets, according to the Daily Nation newspaper. Its revenue rose by 5.4% to US$87m but this was adversely affected by rising cost of sales. The cement producer asked for regulatory approval to publish its financial results after a 31 October 2016 deadline.