Displaying items by tag: Lithuania
EvoQuip enters the Baltic region
25 January 2019Estonia/Latvia/Lithuania: UK-based EvoQuip has appointed Stokker as the authorised EvoQuip Distributor to cover Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania for the full EvoQuip portfolio of compact crushing and screening equipment. EvoQuip is a brand owned by Terex Corporation.
Bega cement terminal wins government award
27 December 2018Lithuania: The Bega cement terminal has won a ‘Product of Lithuania’ award from the government. Minister of Economy Virginijus Sinkevičius and the President of the Lithuanian Confederation of Industrialists (LPK) Robert Dargis presented a medal to Laimonas Rimkus, the general manager of Bega, according to the Vakarų Ekspresas newspaper. The joint venture with local cement producer Akmenes Cementas was commissioned in early 2018. The terminal plans to increase its exports of cement to 0.35Mt/yr by 2020.
Akmenes improves but still makes a loss
10 August 2018Lithuania: Akmenes Cementas, Lithuania’s only cement producer, has announced that it expects improved cement sales in 2018 compared to 2017 and hopes to halve its annual loss.
The company suffered a net loss of Euro5.5m in 107, 21.7% lower than a Euro7.0m loss in 2016. Turnover in 2017 grew by 11% to Euro56.7m. The company sold 1.04Mt of cement, 4% more than in 2016.
In 2017 Akmenes sold 58% of its produce to the local market. It exported 35% to other EU countries and 7% to Belarus. The company hopes to increase cement sales and to halve its losses.
Lithuania: Claudius Peters has commissioned a turnkey cement silo and discharge equipment for stevedoring company Bega at the Port of Klaipėda. Its scope of supply comprised a rail car unloading system and a storage silo with pneumatic conveying for ship loading to unload three railcars simultaneously up to a capacity of 200t/hr. The storage silo is a Claudius Peters 3300T Conventional Cone cement storage silo 27m high and 12.5m in diameter equipped with a silo bottom fluidisation system.
The pneumatic conveying system utilises a size 350 Claudius Peters X-pump and enables a total conveying distance of 205m. Originally the project was based on a conveying distance of 148m. During the project phase the customer decided to use two different quays with a conveying distance of 148m and 205m. Commissioning was competed at the end of March 2018.
Akmenes Cementas strikes deal with creditors
04 October 2017Lithuania: 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.
Akmenes Cementas terminal to open at Klaipėda in mid-2018
20 September 2017Lithuania: Akmenes Cementas says that its new terminal at the port of Klaipėda will increase its exports to Scandinavia. At present the cement producer sends about 15% or 0.15Mt/yr of its output to the region, according to the Verslo Zinios newspaper. Once completed in the spring of 2018 the terminal will allow exports to be increased to 0.2Mt/yr.
Lithuania: Akmenės Cementas is fighting a legal battle over the repayment of a Euro40m loan it took out in 2007. The cement producer started negotiating in September 2016 with its creditors to have the repayment deferred by three years, according to the Baltic Business Daily. However the deal was blocked by the Baltijos Kredito Sprendimai, which inherited the portfolio of the bankrupt bank Snoras. On 15 June 2017 the Vilnius Regional Court temporarily banned Akmenės Cementas’ six creditors from taking loan repayments from its accounts with the exception of interest payments.
Akmenes Cementas built a new Euro110m production line in late 2014. The company used its own funds and the loan to finance the project.
Russian certification hits Akmenės Cementas export market
24 January 2017Lithuania: Mandatory cement certification in Russia has forced Akmenės Cementas and other cement producers based in the European Union (EU) to send their exports elsewhere. The Lithuanian cement producer has compensated for this by moving its sales in other markets, according to the Verslo Zinios newspaper. Akmenes Cementas’s sales fell by 8% year-on-year to Euro51m in 2016 from Euro55.4m in 2015.
Around 60% of its sales revenue came from local sales in Lithuania, 20% from sales in other Baltic countries and Belarus and 20% from Scandinavian countries. Previously, exports to the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad accounted for 30% of the company’s revenue. The company expects to generate sales of Euro54m in 2017 based on existing contracts.
Akmenes Cementas revenue drops by 6% to Euro55.4m in 2015
05 February 2016Lithuania: Akmenes Cementas has reported that its revenue fell by 6% year-on-year to Euro55.4m in 2015 from Euro59.2m in 2014. It sold nearly 1Mt of cement in 2015. Nearly half of its revenue came from exports markets in Poland, Scandinavia and Kaliningrad, according to local press.
Akmenes Cementas CEO, Arturas Zaremba, told Verslo Zinios that cement consumption in Lithuania fell by 5% in 2014 and by 7% in 2015. He blamed this on increased competition from cement producers in Belarus.
Lithuania: Eternit Baltic UAB, the corrugated fibre cement sheet plant operating in Naujoji Akmene in the north of Lithuania, has begun the construction of new production facilities. The new production facilities will produce Cedral cement siding for the local market and for the Central and Eastern European markets.
Etex, which owns Eternit Baltic UAB, plans to invest approximately Euro34m in the construction of the new production facilities. Implementation of the project will take a little more than one year. Production is expected to start in early 2017. The new production facilities will enable the company to produce over 4Mm2/yr of cement siding. Approximately 50 new jobs will be created in the new production facilities in three years. Eternit Baltic currently employs approximately 150 people.