Displaying items by tag: Lafarge Africa

Nigeria: Lafarge Africa has signed a US$35m contract with Chinese company Rughn Power to build a 16MW captive power plant at its Ashaka cement plant in Gombe State. The lignite burning plant should provide a reliable energy source for the plant to increase its cement production capacity to 1Mt/yr.

Nigeria: Lafarge Africa has launched an academy to train truck driver safety and fleet management. The launch event took place at the Ewekoro cement plant in Ogun state. The logistics academy is a follow-up project to a road safety project and drivers academy previously established by the cement producer to ensure sound safety culture, process efficiency and good performance among truck drivers, according to the Nigerian Guardian newspaper.

Nigeria: Seven quarry workers who were kidnapped near the operations of Macmahon in Calabar on 22 June 2016 have been released. Five of the men have been injured, two of them seriously, the mining services company said in a statement. Company chief executive Sy van Dyk commended the men for their courage and mourned the loss of local driver Matthew Odok who died in the incident.

Dyk refused to comment to local press on whether a ransom was paid for the workers’ release. However he did thank the Nigerian authorities for their assistance.

Australia-based mining company Macmahon has been contracted by LafargeHolcim to mine material for processing at Lafarge Africa's UniCem cement plant at Mfamosing, in the southeast of Nigeria.

Nigeria: Seven limestone quarry workers are in the hands of kidnappers in Nigeria after a deadly roadside attack. The men were in a group driving on the outskirts of the city of Calabar, Cross River State, when they were attacked by gunmen on 22 June 2016. The Nigerian driver of the vehicle was shot dead, while seven - three Australians, two Nigerians, one South African and one New Zealander - were kidnapped. A fourth Australian was able to escape.

The men were working for Australia-based mining company Macmahon Holdings, which mines material for processing at Lafarge Africa's UniCem cement plant at Mfamosing, in the southeast of Nigeria.

Eyewitness Akan Akpan said the kidnappers had fled with the seven men in a boat. "The kidnappers came out from the bridge, shot the driver of the vehicle and took the victims away through on river," he told Nigeria’s Punch.

The identity of the kidnappers is not known. “We are working to ensure the safe return of all the men involved and are in communication with their families," said Macmahon in a statement.

Nigeria: Lafarge Africa has appointed Michel Puchercos as its new group Managing Director and chief executive officer. He assumed his post on 1 April 2016. He replaces Peter Hoddinott.

Puchercos, a French national, started his career in 1982 at the French Ministry of Agriculture before working at other companies in the biochemistry and food industry. He joined Lafarge as Head, Strategy and Purchasing in Orsan, Lafarge Biochemistry, and in 1998 became Director of Cement Strategy and Information Systems, Lafarge Gypsum. Puchercos became the Director of Cement strategy, Lafarge Group in France in 2003 before becoming the CEO for Lafarge operations in Kenya and Uganda in 2005. He then became the CEO of Lafarge South Korea in 2009.

Puchercos is a graduate of Ecole Polytechnique, and the National School of Rural Engineering, Waterways & Forests, France.

Nigeria: The board of directors of Lafarge Africa has approved the acquisition of an additional 50% equity interest in the Untied Cement Company of Nigeria (UNICEM). The purchase was handled on the same terms of its initial acquisition of 35%. Following the acquisition Lafarge Africa will own an indirect interest of 100% in UNICEM.

The 50% share is currently held by Egyptian Cement Holdings, a company jointly owned by LafargeHolcim and Lafarge Africa. LafargeHolcim owns Egyptian Cement Holdings via Holcibel. Lafarge Africa is buying its latest purchase of shares from Holcibel.

Nigeria: AshakaCem, a subsidiary of Lafarge Africa and member of the LafargeHolcim group, has appointed Alhaji Rabiu Abdullahi Umar as its new managing director. AshakaCem said in a statement that Umar was appointed to succeed Leonard Palka, a Polish national, who has resigned from the company.

AshakaCem in Gombe State is one of the four cement companies controlled by Lafarge Africa in Nigeria. Formerly the companies were known as Lafarge Cement WAPCO Nigeria before the name was changed in 2014.

Nigeria: Lafarge Africa is marketing a US$302m bond to refinance some of the US Dollar-denominated debt held by its subsidiary United Company of Nigeria (UNICEM), which it bought in 2015. Chief finance officer Anders Kristiansson said that there was strong interest for the bond and that book-building was expected to open in the second week of May 2016.

The cement maker said it had received approval from Nigeria's Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for a US$500m bond, but will issue US$302m for five-years. "We are in the process of restructuring the UNICEM debt,” explained Kristiansson. "We want to refinance the US Dollar borrowings that we have in UNICEM."

Malawi: The government of Malawi has defended its decision to introduce licences for cement importers saying there is no ban on importing the building material. Ministry of Industry and Trade spokesperson, Wiskes Mkombezi said that the government was issuing the licences to protect consumers in a monopolised local industry and to prevent smuggling. He added that the licences were to regulate and bring ‘sanity’ to the industry according to All Africa.

Local cement producers have complained about the import licences. Directors with Cement Products Limited and Lafarge have claimed that imports of cement are threatening local jobs in the country.

Africa: Lafarge Africa Plc has reported a profit after tax of US$146m for the first nine months of 2015, compared with US$156m recorded in the corresponding of 2014.

The company said that Ashaka Cement's results were affected by unrest during the start of 2015 and that Ashaka Cement has since returned to normal operations. It added that industrial performance was strong, with stable plant operations across the board. The South African business continues to be cash generative. However, a volume slow down impacted the profit, with after tax profit from consolidated operations declining by 67% to US$17.6m in the third quarter of 2015. Lafarge Africa said that United Cement, which was included on an equity basis, brought the post tax profit to US$16.6m.

Lafarge Africa concluded the second tranche of the acquisition of Four Mills of Nigeria's 15% stake in Unicem. This brings Lafarge Africa's ownership stake in Unicem to 50%, while LafargeHolcim owns the remaining 50%. The acquisition has brought about an expansion in the Lafarge Africa scope in Nigeria.

"In spite of the challenging business environment and competitive situation, our company has delivered a good performance during the year. Our business expansion is remarkable and we are optimistic that our company will continue to deliver strong value to our shareholders," said the CEO of Lafarge Africa, Peter Hoddinott. According to him, Lafarge Africa will continue to leverage its strong brands, technological advantage and support from the global group. The expansion plans are on track, with Unicem's second line set to come on stream in 2016.