Displaying items by tag: Legal

Costa Rica: Tang Heng, the Chinese Ambassador to Costa Rica, has confirmed that Sinocem China has ended all commercial relations with Sinocem Costa Rica. The statement was made due to an investigation into alleged irregularities and lobbying involving the owner of Sinocem Costa Rica, Juan Carlos Bolanos, and certain officials of state-owned bank Banco de Costa Rica, according to La Nación newspaper. According to Heng, Hangzhou Sinocem Building Materials said in July 2017 that Sinocem China had stopped supplying cement to Sinocem Costa Rica as the latter allegedly purchased cement from other Chinese cement suppliers and continued to use the Sinocem brand on packaging without its permission.

Peru: UNACEM has filed a lawsuit alleging environmental violations against Cempor. Cempor, a joint venture between Chile’s Cementos Bío Bío and Brazil’s Votorantim, plans to build a cement plant in Lima, according to the La Tercera newspaper. The legal move is the latest action in a long running battle between the cement producers over the project. Cempor has responded by alleging to National Institute for the Defence of Free Competition and the Protection of Intellectual Property (INDECOPI) that UNACEM’s conduct is contrary to the functioning of a free market.

Cementos Bío Bío and Votorantim originally formed Cempor in 2010 with each company holding a 29.5% stake. The other owners include IPSA and the World Cement Group with a 20.5% stake each. At this time Cempor planned to build a 07Mt/yr cement plant near Lima.

Indonesia: Semen Indonesia Aceh has suspended construction of its Pidie cement plant in Aceh due to a land dispute. Local community leaders say they support the project but are calling for the disagreement to be resolved first to avoid problems later on, according to the Antara news agency. Locals are also waiting for environmental impact report requirements to be met. Previously, Semen Indonesia Aceh halted a plant construction project in Laweung until land issues were resolved.

France: Lafarge Cement Syria allegedly paid up to US$100,000/month to armed groups including US$20,000 to the Islamic State (IS) terrorist group. Former plant manager Bruno Pescheux told investigators that the money went via local businessman Firas Tlass, who was a former minority shareholder in the cement plant, according to the Agence France Presse. Witnesses in the French judicial inquiry have also described false accounting methods used to disguise oil purchases from IS, travel documents allowing Lafarge trucks to move in the region and a planned meeting between IS and a Lafarge Cement Syria security official. The inquiry continues.

Australia: The Federal Court has upheld an appeal by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) and raised a fine against Cement Australia and its subsidiaries for anti-competitive agreements to US$16.1m. Originally the cement producer was fined US$13.4m but the ACCC argued it was too low. A cross appeal by Cement Australia was dismissed.

“The penalties imposed in competition cases are hugely important in deterring anti-competitive conduct, which is why we appealed the original penalties given to Cement Australia,” said ACCC Chairman Rod Sims.

The ACCC first brought the proceedings in 2008 against Cement Australia, Cement Australia Holdings, Cement Australia Queensland (formerly Queensland Cement Ltd), Pozzolanic Enterprises and Pozzolanic Industries. They were related to contracts that were entered into by Cement Australia companies between 2002 and 2006 with four power stations in South East Queensland, to acquire fly ash. The court found contraventions of the Competition and Consumer Act in 2014 and a fine was issued in 2016.

Lithuania: Akmenes Cementas has managed to strike a deal with its creditors over the extension of a loan it took out in 2007. The cement producer has been in talks with various banks since mid-2016 to postpone the loan settlement deadline by three years, according to the Baltic Business Daily. However, Akmenes Cementas went to court and asked for an obligation for the banks to comply with the loan payment schedule signed in May 2017. Legal action was dropped in late September 2017 when the banks agreed to continue crediting the company under a deal. The loan currently stands at Euro53m.

US: WeissLaw is investigating the proposed sale of Ash Grove Cement to Ireland’s CRH on the grounds of whether the board acted to maximise shareholder value prior to the deal. Citing an article by financial markets research company Seeking Alpha the law firm says it is exploring whether rising demand for cement due to expected government infrastructure spending, the company’s high market share in certain regions and its recent growth in operating earnings were fully taken into account when valuing the company. CRH and Ash Grove Cement announced the US$3.5bn deal in late September 2017.

Italy: Cementir has defended its conduct in an illegal waste investigation. It expressed ‘full confidence’ in the Prosecutor’s Office of Lecce following the decision by a judge to seize a power plant run by Enel, according to Reuters. The probe is exploring whether Cementir Italia’s Taranto plant purchased ‘illegal’ by-products from Enel and the ILVA steel plant to produce cement. Cementir confirmed that it had regularly purchased fly ash for its Taranto plant but that this ended at the start of 2016. It added that its use of sludge in cement production was covered by an Integrated Environmental Authorisation.

France: French investigators have interviewed three former Lafarge Syria workers as part of an inquiry in to the company’s conduct in Syria. A computer worker, an engineer and packing line worker at one of the company’s cement plants travelled from Syria to be questioned, according to the Agence France Presse. The trio are the first witnesses to be called by the judicial inquiry that started in June 2017. It is investigating whether the subsidiary of Lafarge indirectly paid armed groups, including the ‘Islamic State’ group, to keep its plant during the Syrian Civil War.

Israel: A US$34bn lawsuit by Palestinian activists against a group of businesses including CRH has been dismissed by a court in Washington DC. The activists had tried to sue various groups with connections to Israel for allegedly ‘profiteering’ from the building of Jewish settlements in the West Bank, according to the Irish Independent newspaper. CRH was targeted due to its former co-ownership of Nesher, which produced cement used by the Israeli government in the West Bank. Before it sold its 25% stake in the Israeli cement producer in late 2015 CRH had received protests at its annual general meeting.