Displaying items by tag: Norm
New directors appointed at Norm
18 October 2023Azerbaijan: Norm has appointed Ülkü Özcan and Stephan Sollberger to its board of directors, according to the Trend News Agency.
Ülkü Özcan holds over 20 years of experience in the cement industry. She has held various positions in Cimsa and held the position of its chief executive officer from 2018 to 2020. Since then she has been working in the energy & telecommunication cable business in Türkiye. Additionally, she has held various roles at Afyon Cement, including a member of the board of directors, a representative for the Global Cement and Concrete Association and a member in the Audit Committee of the Cement Manufacturers Association of Türkiye. She has also worked for Lafarge Turkey previously. Özcan is a business graduate from Marmara University and has completed the Advanced Industrial Marketing and Strategy Program at INSEAD Business School in Paris.
Stephan Sollberger holds over 30 years of experience in cement and concrete manufacturing companies. From 1992 to 2001, he occupied various positions at Holderbank Cement und Beton. Until 2006, he worked as the manager of the technical centre of Holcim Switzerland and later as a plant director, also in Switzerland. He also holds managerial experience at Jura Group. Since 2020, he has held the role of Chief Operations Director at Landqart. Sollberger is a graduate from the University of Applied Sciences Zurich and the University of Applied Sciences Bern.
Turkey: Medcem has appointed Ruhi Bilge as the director of its integrated Mersin cement plant. He has worked in the cement sector for over 20 years, most recently holding the position of production director for Kümaş Refractories. Prior to this he worked for cement companies including Bursa Çimento, Vicat’s subsidiary Baştaş Çimento and Norm Cement.
Update on Ukraine, February 2022
23 February 2022International tensions reached a new high this week with Russia’s formal recognition of the breakaway Donetsk and Lugansk regions in eastern Ukraine and its decision to deploy troops accordingly. However, what of the local cement industry in Ukraine going into the current crisis?
Ukrcement, the Ukrainian Cement Association, says that its members reported a record 11Mt of cement production in 2021. Clinker production totalled 8.11Mt during the same period. The cement figure is close to Ukrcement’s forecast in the autumn of 2021 of 11.5Mt, a rise of 17% year-on-year from 9Mt in 2020. At that time association head Pavlo Kachur added that the local cement industry operated at 66% capacity utilisation in the first nine months of 2021.
The big industry story locally was the start of tariffs on cement imports from Turkey that was announced in September 2021. After much complaining by local producers and an investigation the year before in 2020 the Interdepartmental Commission on International Trade (ICIT) introduced anti-dumping duties of 33 - 51% on cement imports from Turkey for five years. Other than this the usual energy preoccupations have been present in Ukraine. In an interview with Interfax in November 2021, Pavlo Kachur expressed alarm that the price of coal had tripled from the start of 2021 to August 2021. At the same time he explained that the biggest driver of cement consumption was infrastructure projects.
CRH, the largest producer locally, rebranded its subsidiary as Cemark in November 2021 with the intention to start shipping cement bags with the new marking from January 2022. It operates three integrated plants at Mykolaiv, Podilsky and Odessa. It reported that its local operating profit grew year-on-year in 2020, despite a “challenging pricing environment” as cost savings initiatives and lower fuel and logistics costs resulted in improved performance. In September 2021 CRH said that sales were up due to growing cement sales volumes resulting from market demand. Although once again it complained about competitive pricing forcing it to lower its prices. Despite this though lower maintenance costs and cost controls had boosted its operating profit.
Buzzi Unicem runs two integrated cement plants in Ukraine, Volyn and Yugcement, as well as terminals at Kiev and Odessa through its Dyckerhoff Ukraine subsidiary. In 2021 it noted recovery in the construction sector, helped by government stimulus and the introduction of tariffs on imports from Turkey. It said that prices fell in the first half of the year before recovering in the second half. Ready-mixed concrete output showed more growth. Dyckerhoff Ukraine’s net sales rose by 9.4% year-on-year to Euro127m in 2021 even despite negative currency exchange effects.
As for the other producers, NEQSOL Holding Ukraine filed an application to the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine (AMCU) in October 2021 to acquire a stake in Ivano-Frankivskcement. Azerbaijan-based NEQSOL Holding also operates the Norm Cement plant near Baku in Azerbaijan. HeidelbergCement used to operate in Ukraine, including the Amvrosiyivka Plant in the contested part of Donetsk region, but it sold up in 2019 to local investors. Its two former integrated plants now operate under the Kryvyi Rig Cement brand. Finally, Russia-based Eurocement runs two plants in Ukraine, at Balakleya in Kharkiv region and Kramatorsk in Donetsk region, under its Balcem subsidiary, which formed in 2019. However the status of the second plant is currently uncertain. Balcem said that the Balakleya plant resumed full cycle production in March 2021 when it restarted kiln two. Kiln one was restarted in June 2021 after a down period since 2008. The plant currently has a production capacity of around 1Mt/yr.
Ukrcement’s Pavlo Kachur said that the cement market in Ukraine was experiencing a positive period in November 2021. Whether this continues is very much in the balance given events in the east of the country. The wider implications for cement producers in the rest of Europe and Russia are the fallout from the economic warfare between both sides. A number of countries have started to react to Russia’s actions with the US, European Union, UK, Japan and Australia announcing economic sanctions and Germany halting approval of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline. However, Russia supplies a significant share of Europe’s gas supply. All of this could disrupt energy supplies and force input costs up. This has already been reflected in higher oil prices.
Meanwhile, one aspect of the current situation to watch is how multinational cement producers with a presence in Russia will cope. Moving money in or out of the country is likely to become harder. HeidelbergCement told Reuters this week that it did not expect any major impact on its Russian operations, even if the conflict escalated. Its three cement plants supply local markets and do not export outside of Russia, it added. Other companies straddling the potential sanctions divide include Holcim, Buzzi Unicem and Eurocement.
The crisis continues.
Azerbaijan: The US-based American Petroleum Institute (API) has certificated Norm Cement’s cement plant in Baku’s Garadagh district. The Turan Information Agency News has reported that the certificate confirms that the plant meets the highest standard for oil well cement. This will enable the company to begin the export of oil well cement produced at the plant.
Norm Cement to increase production for export market
24 June 2019Azerbaijan: Norm Cement plans to increase its clinker production in order to expand its export markets. It intends to export 1Mt in 2019, according to the Trend News Agency. In 2018 it exported 10,000t to Georgia. In 2019 it hopes to send 0.1Mt to Kazakhstan.
Norm Cement’s sales grow by 47% in 2017
13 July 2018Azerbaijan: Norm Cement’s sales grew by 47% year-on-year to US$74m in 2017 from US$50.4m in the same period in 2016. Its operating profit more than tripled to US$22.6 from US$6.62m. However, the cement producer reported that it paid US$25,000 in income tax in 2017 compared to US$710,000 in 2016.
Norm Sement reaches its designed capacity
27 January 2015Azerbaijan: The largest cement plant in the South Caucasus, Norm Sement, situated in Garadagh District of Baku City, has reached its design capacity, according to Norm Sement's CEO Hasan Yalcinkaya. The plant has 5000t/day of clinker production capacity and 2Mt/yr of cement production capacity. Yalcinkaya said that 2014 was successful for the company and Azerbaijan's cement industry as a whole.
"We managed to successfully complete our projects," said Yalcinkaya. "The cement plant was inaugurated by the president of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev on 21 July 2014. "Since that time, the plant has been working very efficiently and has started to produce its own clinker. We have reached our design capacity. So, I can say that 2014 has been successful. 510,000t of cement was produced, while clinker production was at the level of 471,000t in 2014. We were able to cover about 20% of the market for just six months since the beginning of clinker production. We plan to increase our market share with the production of high-quality cement and rendering high-quality services to our clients in the consumer market."
Yalcinkaya further noted that, in 2014, Azerbaijan's domestic demand for cement stood at around 4.3Mt and in 2015 year demand will be at least on the same level. "Currently, about 60% of the market is provided by local producers," said Yalcinkaya. "About 40% of cement is imported from neighbouring countries." He said that the local production plants are fully capable of meeting the market requirements. "Our goal is to reduce cement imports as much as possible," said the CEO.
"To date, we have invested US$326m in the new plant," said Yalcinkaya. "We have several projects on efficiency and production improvements, in particular the expansion of the product range. We will continue to improve our efficiency and reduce energy consumption. We also plan to invest in the production of cement for oil wells."
According to Yalcinkaya, oil well cement production will be developed in 2015. "This is exactly the product that we can easily export to oil producing countries, for instance, to Kazakhstan and Russia," said Yalcinkaya. "Once we develop this product, we will start to export it."
Azerbaijan: Cement production has risen by 40% year-on-year to 1.1Mt for the first half of 2014. The rise has been attributed to the operations of the new market players in the country according to local media.
Cement imports into Azerbaijan by value have fallen by 19% to US$50m compared to a rise of 46% to US$61.5m of clinker and cement in the first five months of 2013. Imports are now expected to fall by 20% in 2014 and 2015.
In the whole of 2013 some 2Mt of cement was produced locally and 2.6Mt of clinker and cement was imported. Azerbaijan's three main cement producers, Holcim, Qazax Sement Zavodu and Norm, are planning to manufacture 4.5Mt in 2015. In addition there are approximately ten small producing companies in Azerbaijan.
Norm cement plant in Azerbaijan to reach 2Mt/yr in 2014
21 October 2013Azerbaijan: Norm Cement's cement plant in Garadagh, Baku will reach its full production in 2014, General Director Hasan Yalcinkaya has announced. The plant will produce up to 1.6Mt/yr of clinker and 2Mt/yr of cement.
"We are currently importing clinker, and we will start production of clinker in January 2014. We plan to produce 50,000 - 60,000t by the end of 2013. We will begin retail sales of cement in October - November 2013," said Yalcinkaya.
According to Yalcinkaya the cement plant cost US$400m and it is one of the largest projects outside the oil industry in Azerbaijan. It is anticipated that the plant will reduce cement imports and annual outflow of capital from the country by US$150m. Subsequently Norm intends to focus on the local market in Azerbaijan.
Gizildash 2Mt/yr plant to start by end of 2013
23 December 2012Azerbaijan: Norm has announced that the 2Mt/yr Gizildash cement plant will start operation in the last quarter of 2013.
"With a cement production capacity of 2Mt/yr it will not only the largest in the region, but also the only plant producing API standard cement," said Norm's general director Hasan Yalcinkaya. Yalchinkaya added that the plant will hire 400 people, with another 100-150 people to be engaged in mining.