Displaying items by tag: Maldives

Bangladesh: Cement producers and traders exported US$9.68m-worth of cement during the first nine months of the 2023 financial year. This corresponds to a year-on-year rise of 49% from US$6.51m during the first nine months of the 2022 financial year. The Bangladesh Export Promotion Bureau is targeting full-year growth of 15% year-on-year to US$11m from US$9.57m. Maritime Gateway News has reported that MI Cement Factory contributed 50% of Bangladesh’s cement exports so far in the 2023 financial year.

Bangladesh’s main trade partners for its cement exports for India, Nepal, Sri Lanka and the Maldives.

Indonesia: Semen Indonesia subsidiary Semen Padang’s cement and clinker exports totalled 1.6Mt in 2020. Indonesia Government News has reported that the company said that it exported 0.2Mt of cement and 1.4Mt of clinker throughout the year. The main markets for its products were Bangladesh, China, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Australia, the Maldives and Sri Lanka.

Semen Indonesia group senior export sales manager Fifit Abriyanto said, “There are two types of cement that we export, namely ordinary Portland cement (OPC) Type I grade 52.5N and OPC Type I grade 42.5N."

There’s no single theme this week, just a few news stories of note that may have wider significance.

Firstly comes the news that Semen Indonesia subsidiary Semen Padang has been exporting 25,000t of cement to Australia. This follows a consignment of 35,000t of clinker to Bangladesh. The company is hoping to hit a cement and clinker export target of 1.58Mt in 2020 in spite of the on-going coronavirus pandemic. It reached 1.09Mt (about 70%) of this by mid-September 2020 through exports to Bangladesh, Myanmar, Philippines, Australia, Sri Lanka and Maldives.

The wider picture here is that local sales in Indonesia fell by 7.7% year-on-year to 27.2Mt in the first half of 2020 from 29.4Mt in the same period in 2019, according to data from the Indonesian Cement Association (ASI). Cement and clinker exports are up by 32.8% to 3.7Mt from 2.8Mt. Semen Indonesia’s revenue is down but it has managed to hold its earnings up so far. During press rounds in late August 2020 its marketing and supply chain director, Adi Munandir, told local press that he expected domestic demand to fall by up to 15% in 2020 due to effects of coronavirus on private construction and government infrastructure plans. Analysts reckon that the worst of the demand slump hit in the second quarter of 2020 when government-related coronavirus restrictions were implemented, so Semen Indonesia’s third quarter results will closely scrutinised.

One of Semen Padang export targets is the Maldives. This chimes with another story this week because Oman-based Raysut Cement has just bought a majority stake in a cement terminal from Lafarge Maldives for US$8m. The 9000t capacity Thilafusi cement terminal is located on the island of Thilafusi, Kaafu and was expanded in 2015. Raysut Cement has tended to stick to markets in the southern Arabian Peninsula and the east coast of Africa, with projects planned in Madagascar and Somaliland. Yet expansion plans in places further away such as India and Georgia have also been mentioned publicly. A greater presence in the Maldives is a solid step towards Raysut heading eastwards. This would also mirror the plans of the country’s gypsum sector to dominate African and Asian markets and a general longer term shift in global markets from west to east.

One place west that has been doing well in cement though is Brazil. National Cement Industry Union (SNIC) data for September 2020 show a 21% year-on-year boom in cement sales to 5.8Mt and a 9.4% year-on-year increase to 44.6Mt for the first nine months of 2020. Earlier in the year the country’s limited coronavirus suppression methods were attributed for letting the recovering cement sector grow. Now, SNIC has directly thanked government support for civil construction. However, Paulo Camillo Penna, the president of SNIC said. “The results are surprising so far, but that doesn't give us security in the long run,” due to a bubble of real estate and commercial activity that already appears to be declining. Given the slump in cement demand from 2015 to 2018 it’s understandable that SNIC is taking the recovery cautiously.

And to finish we have two connected stories about Cemex. Following the release of its resilience strategy in September 2020, the company has now declared that its integrated Rüdersdorf cement plant in Germany will be the centrepiece of its CO2 reduction plans as part of ‘Vision Rüdersdorf.’ Details are light at present but we expect some kind of carbon capture and storage or usage project. An addendum to this – or perhaps it’s the other way round (!) – is that Cemex has also just announced further credit amendments but with sustainability-linked metrics. Cemex’s chief financial officer (CFO) Maher Al-Haffar said, “We are especially proud that this transaction represents one of the largest sustainability-linked loans in the world.” The teeth of this arrangement remain to be seen but the integration of finance and sustainability has serious implications generally.

Watch out for a research and development themed interview with Cemex and Synhelion in the December 2020 issue of Global Cement Magazine

Maldives: Lafarge Maldives has rebranded to Raysut Maldives Cement following its 75% acquisition by Oman-based Raysut Cement. State Trading Organization retains its 25% stake in the joint venture, which operates the 75,000t/yr-capacity Thilafushi Island cement terminal. The company says that it plans to expand the terminal’s capacity by 167% to 0.2Mt/yr by 2022.

Raysut Cement group chief executive officer Joey Ghose said, “Our foray into the Maldives will help drive self-sufficiency of cement in Maldives, which currently is predominantly an import market. Raysut is looking at adding local value in the Maldives by installing production facilities to ensure there is at least 40% local content. This will also make the market more competitive from a price point of view, which will have a positive impact on infrastructure development in the country.”

Maldives: Oman-based Raysut Cement has announced its acquisition of a 75% stake in Lafarge Maldives for US$8m. The subsidiary of LafargeHolcim operates the 9000t-capacity Thilafusi cement terminal on the island of Thilafusi, Kaafu Atoll, which it opened in June 2015.

Maldives: Oman-based Raysut Cement has announced that it is seeking a 75% stake in a cement terminal in the Maldives, as part of its long-term global expansion strategy.

In a disclosure filed with the Muscat Securities Market (MSM) in Oman, Raysut stated, “Raysut Cement Company wishes to inform that it is in discussions with Cementia AG of Zurich to acquire its 75% shareholding in LH Maldives Ltd, a cement terminal located at Thilafushi Island, Maldives.” Both Cementia and LH Maldives are controlled by LafargeHolcim.

Raysut Cement is also constructing a 1.0Mt/yr cement grinding plant in collaboration with MSG Group in Somaliland, internationally recognised as an autonomous region of Somalia. In September 2019 Raysut signed an agreement to set up a 1.0Mt/yr grinding plant in Duqm, Oman and is also setting up a US$200m integrated cement plant in Georgia via its UAE-based subsidiary Pioneer Cement.

Bangladesh: Producers exported US$5.03m-worth of cement and clinker from Bangladesh in the six months to 31 December 2019 - down by 13 from US$5.75m in the corresponding period of 2018 and 1.6% below the government’s target of US$5.11m. Arab News has reported that the recipients of Bangladeshi cement and clinker included India, Myanmar, Nepal, the Maldives and Sri Lanka.

Maldives: Lafarge Maldives has opened a 4000t cement silo at its Thilafushi silo terminal. It is the largest single cement silo in the Maldives. The facility now has a total capacity of 9000t due to other silos at the same site.

The expansion was opened by the Minister of Economic Development Mohamed Saeed, Lafarge Cement Managing Director Breece Orden Reece and State Trading Organisation Managing Director Ahmed Shaheer.