Displaying items by tag: Morocco

Morocco: Ciments du Maroc has signed a deal to buy Atlantic Cement and Cimsud from Anouar Invest Group. Atlantic Cement is building an integrated plant in Settat province and Cimsud has recently commissioned a 0.5Mt/yr grinding plant at Laâyoune. Ciments du Maroc said that the agreement would strengthen its market presence in the central region. The acquisition is planning to complete in the second half of 2019 subject to regulatory approval. No value for the purchase has been disclosed.

Ciments du Maroc, subsidiary of HeidelbergCement, operates three integrated cement plants and two grinding plants. It also runs 30 ready-mixed conrete plants and four quarries.

Cameroon: Ciments de l'Afrique (CIMAF) has agreed with the Cameroon Investment Promotion Agency (CIPA) to invest US$33m in its integrated plant at Douala. The subsidiary of Morocco’s Addoha Group plans to triple the plant’s production capacity to 1.5Mt/yr, according to Business in Cameroon magazine. The unit was originally commissioned in 2014.

Morocco: Denmark’s FLSmidth has won a contract to deliver a greenfield cement plant to a new customer in Morocco. The contract is worth US$45m.

The contract was signed by FLSmidth, together with Société Générale des Travaux du Maroc (SGTM) on 19 July 2019 signed a contract with TEKCIM S.A. to co-deliver a 3600t/day (1.2Mt/yr) cement plant. The plant will be built in Ouled Ghanem in Morocco’s El-Jadida Province and is scheduled to be fully operational during the third quarter of 2022.

This is the first business cooperation between FLSmidth and TEKCIM. The process leading to the agreement has involved the African Development Bank as well as local commercial banks, and the parties involved have set very high standards in terms of quality and sustainability.

“The project includes state-of-the-art equipment that will provide TEKCIM with a very efficient cement plant,” said Jan Kjaersgaard, FLSmidth’s President of Cement. It also demonstrates FLSmidth’s ability to support customers where financing is involved, which has been a key aspect to be awarded this project. The plant will fulfil strict international standards, which is a clear statement that we as a premium player in the industry are following suit on our agenda of delivering sustainable productivity.”

The contract scope includes engineering, supply of a full range of equipment from crushing to packing and load-out, supervision, commissioning and training of a local workforce. The order is effective immediately and has been recognised in the order intake for the second quarter of 2019.

Morocco: Cement sales in Morocco during the first four months of 2019 have reached 4.8Mt, an increase of nearly 6% compared to the same period of 2018. April 2019 was the fourth straight month of improved sales. The increase reverses the trend seen in the previous two sets of four-month statistics, which saw falling volumes year-on-year in both 2017 (5.3% decrease) and 2018 (5.5% decrease).

Gabon: Ciments de l’Afrique (CIMAF) Gabon has assured the government that it can increases national production to over 1Mt/yr from 0.65Mt/yr at present. Carmen Ndaot, the Minister of Industry, and other government representatives visited the CIMAF’s grinding plant as part of an assessment of a memorandum of understanding signed with the subsidiary of Morocco’s CIMAF, according to the L’Union newspaper. The company plans to spend Euro100m towards building a new plant. It is scheduled to be completed by mid-2021.

Morocco: Ciments du Maroc’s turnover fell slightly to Euro371m in 2018. Its net profit grew by 3.4% year-on-year to Euro96m in 2018 from Euro92.8m in 2017. Its cement sales volumes fell by 2.7% in 2018 compared to a drop in local cement consumption of 3.7%. The board of the cement producer said that it was continuing its development plan at Nador in the south of the country.

Morocco: LafargeHolcim Morocco’s turnover fell by 2% year-on-year to Euro725m in 2018 from Euro743m in 2017. Its consolidated net profit dropped by 18% to Euro156m from Euro177m. The subsidiary of LafargeHolcim said that its sales had fallen less than the 5% that the local cement market suffered. It blamed a drop in operating income on lower revenue and rising petcoke costs. The cement producer said it was ‘confident’ about the fundamentals of the building materials sector. It plans to commission a new cement plant in the Souss region in 2020.

Morocco: HeidelbergCement has sold a 7.8% share of its stake in Ciments du Maroc to an unnamed local investor for around Euro140m. Following the transaction the German building materials producer retains a controlling share of 54.6% in its subsidiary. It has reduced its stake in Ciments du Maroc as part of its action plan to optimise its portfolio and improve cash generation. The group has a target of Euro1.5bn of asset divestments by the end of 2020.

“HeidelbergCement is fully committed to remain the long-term majority shareholder of Ciments du Maroc, a key strategic asset within the group’s portfolio,” said Bernd Scheifele, chairman of the managing board of HeidelbergCement.

Morocco: Data from the Ministry of Housing shows that cement sales fell by 3.6% year-on-year to 13.3Mt in 2018. This is the lowest level of consumption since 2007, according to Médias 24. Cement sales fell by 0.7% in 2016 and by 2.54% in 2017.

Morocco: Cement sales volumes at Ciment du Maroc have fallen by 2.6% year-on-year in the first half of 2018. This compares to a decline of 2.9% in national consumption, according to local media. Its operating turnover fell by 4.2% to Euro449m. The subsidiary of Germany’s HeidelbergCement also noted that it was happy with the progress of its Nador grinding plant project.