Displaying items by tag: Lafarge

Canada: Tony Levstik returned to Lafarge to pull the plug on the oldest piece of equipment at the Lafarge cement plant in Exshaw, Alberta, Canada. He was the first operator of the kiln when it was installed in 1975. He said that shutting it down was a lot easier than starting it up.

Kiln 6 is replacing kiln 4 as part of Lafarge's plant expansion project. The new technology will help to control dust and has fewer emissions. It will be approximately 30% cleaner with sulphur dioxide emissions, 75% cleaner with nitrous oxide emissions and have 25% less greenhouse gas emissions caused by combustion. The new kiln will also have better filter technology to help improve dust control. Kiln 4 used the gravel bed filter technology, which was prevalent in the 1980s and 1990s, but kiln 6 will have a state of the art bag house to collect dust.

"You can't make cement without using a lot of energy and these kilns that we're putting in are a lot more energy efficient, so we won't use as much fossil fuel, as much power to run the new plant," said Lafarge Plant Manager Jim Bachmann. "For a lot of reasons this is an exciting day." Kiln 6 will be operational in 2016.

Philippines: Republic Cement Services Inc (RCSI) is considering building production facilities in Visayas and Mindanao following a government drive to improve the country's infrastructure.

According to RCSI president Don Lee, the move is in response to announcements made by the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) that more projects were needed in the regions. "At this point, DPWH is more aggressive in visions, projects and allocations of the budget in Visayas and Mindanao," said Lee. The Public Works department, he said, needs to ensure that the local industry has enough capacity to serve the country's development needs. "It is sending us a reminder to be faster in having more cement capacity in Visayas and Mindanao." Lee said that expansions by cement companies are critical for sufficient raw material supplies for energy, water, telecommunications and transport projects. Included in RCSI's upcoming expansions are an 800,000t/yr grinding plant in Norzagaray, Bulacan that is expected to be operational early in 2016.

Lee said that the Cement Manufacturers' Association of the Philippines had reported a year-on-year cement demand increase of 18% in the third quarter of 2015. "I think that for the full year, we're about 13.5 – 14%. We have one of the healthiest cement markets in the world, driven by construction in infrastructure, individual homes and mid-high rise constructions," said Lee.

Lee said he was also confident that Republic Cement would be able to post above industry growth. "With our new capacity coming on and new shareholders, we are in a good position to develop new projects and continue to invest ahead of demand. Our two new parents are financially healthy," said Lee.

RCSI is a joint venture between Aboitiz Equity Ventures Inc and CRH. The two companies secured 99.09% ownership of Lafarge Republic Inc, which operates the Republic Cement brand, for US$530m.

Vietnam: 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.

Canada: The Lafarge Brookfield cement plant in Nova Scotia, Canada, is celebrating its 50th anniversary of operations in 2015.

In 1957, the Canada Cement Company sent a team of engineers and land surveyors to Nova Scotia, Canada to search for a limestone deposit suitable for the construction of a cement plant. Out of 27 potential sites, Brookfield received the nod of approval. The company proceeded over the next few years to build a US$25m state-of-the-art cement plant. Production began on 29 September 1965.

While the raw materials mixture and fuels used for production have changed in the past five decades, the overall method of manufacturing remains the same, according to Plant Manager ScarthMacDonnell. "In some ways the plant has not changed a bit since it opened up. The fundamental process of cement manufacturing has not changed. The products we make, the fuels we use and the environmental footprint has completely transformed. So the cements we make today make 25% less carbon dioxide then they did when the plant started up," said MacDonnell. He added that more than 20% of the energy used for cement production comes from recycled materials.

More than 1000 individuals have earned a living working at Lafarge over the past 50 years while continuously producing cement that has been used in countless projects, big and small. By far the biggest showcase project the plant has been involved with was providing all the cement used in the construction of the Confederation Bridge, between New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island. "It was a very special recipe," said MacDonnell, of the 250,000t of cement used for the project. "It was a specialised, high-performance cement that was required for the job and it was a different product than was normally made."

Despite 50 years of mining, the reserves in the limestone deposit discovered back in 1957 are far from being depleted. "We've got well over 25 years of stone still on the property," said MacDonnell. "And there's more there if we want to go get it."

UK: A pair of peregrine falcons nesting in a disused building at the former Westbury Lafarge Cement plant in Wiltshire will be protected even if the buildings are demolished, according to the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB).

Owners of the site, Tarmac (now part of CRH), recently submitted a Prior Notification to Wiltshire Council to have the area demolished so that it could be used for other purposes. "We've worked with Tarmac nationally and we're working with them on this to ensure that the birds are not dramatically affected by any development work at the site," said Phil Sheldrake, a conservation officer from the RSPB. "They don't have a nest in the chimney, but they are nesting in another building on the site for the first time this year and have been roosting on the chimney. We have to make sure that if the buildings are demolished we can provide an alternative for them, such as a nest box that could be placed close to the site until a new building is built." Peregrine falcons are strictly protected under the Wildlife and Countryside Act after their numbers went into steep decline in the 1980s.

Egypt: Lafarge Egypt's total investments in the local cement market will hit US$3.2bn at the end of 2015, according to CEO Hussein Mansi.

Mansi said that Lafarge Egypt intends to expand in the local market with US$16.8m of new investments in a recycling project. The project is expected to start within six months of the required land being supplied by the government. In the near future, Lafarge Egypt will supply national projects currently being executed by the government such as the New Administrative Capital project and New Suez Canal projects.

Mansi said that Lafarge Egypt plans to increase its current market share, which is currently estimated at 14%.

France: The French insurer of health professionals MACSF has announced that it has paid Euro150m to real estate agent Eurosic to buy the office building in Paris that is the former headquarters of cement group Lafarge. Lafarge left the building after its merger with Swiss peer Holcim as the headquarters of the combined group was moved to Switzerland.

The building was constructed in 1993, covers a surface of 12,000m² and is situated in the 16th Arrondissement in central Paris.

India: The government has decided to cancel the allotment of a cement plant given to India Cements in Gumma, Shimla, Himachal Pradesh.

The decision was taken after India Cements expressed its unwillingness to start works, according to local media. "It has been decided to cancel the allotment as the company is no longer keen to set up the plant and they have failed to show any progress in the years since the allotment was made," said Mukesh Agnihotri, industry minister. He added that the government cabinet would need to confirm the allotment cancellation.

Agnihotri said that the government plans to invite global bids for the proposed cement plant in Chamba have been put on hold as Jaiprakash Associates, which had earlier been given the project, has moved to court. The project in Chamba was allotted to Jaiprakash Associates in 2006 and a memorandum of understanding was signed in February 2007 to establish a 2Mt/yr capacity cement plant.

The industry department issued notices to three cement plants in addition to Jaiprakash Associates as to why their plants should not be cancelled, as they had failed to set up facilities that had been approved several years ago. The three cement plants included units by Lafarge in Alsindi, India Cement in Gumma and Harish Cement in Sundernagar. After finding the replies unsatisfactory, the government cancelled the cement plants allotted to Jaiprakash Associates and India Cements. Some of the companies have already invested a lot of money, but could not start operation due to various factors, including clearances from different agencies like the Ministry of Forest and Environment. In some cases, locals have moved to court against the projects, citing loss of agricultural land and an adverse impact on the health of people.

San 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.

Europe: LafargeHolcim has announced that it will pay Lafarge minority shareholders Euro60/share in a planned squeeze-out. As an alternative, the minority shareholders have the option to receive 9.45 new LafargeHolcim shares per 10 Lafarge shares. The transaction still needs to be approved by France's Financial Markets Authority (AMF). Provided that the regulator approves the process, the squeeze-out will take place in October 2015. Lafarge's shares are then expected to be delisted from Euronext Paris on 23 October 2015.