Displaying items by tag: Results

Argentina: Loma Negra’s full-year sales rose to US$655m in 2021, up by 17% year-on-year from 2020 levels. Its adjusted earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) rose by 15% to US$215m. Nonetheless, an increased operating income only partially offset the impacts of a higher income tax rate. During the year, the producer inaugurated its L’Amali cement plant’s new Line 2.

Saudi Arabia: Yanbu Cement’s sales recorded a 0.6% year-on-year decline to US$251m in 2021 from US$249m in 2020. Arab News has reported that the company’s net profit fell by 43% compared to 2021 levels.

Jamaica: Caribbean Cement recorded revenues of US$153m in 2021, up by 19% year-on-year from US$129m in 2020. Its operating expenses rose by 6.4% to US$16m from US$15.1m. The company recorded a loss for the year of US$3.31m, just under half of the US$6.79m loss that it recorded in 2020.

Ireland: CRH’s consolidated sales rose by 12% year-on-year in 2021 to Euro28bn. Its earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) for the year rose by 16% to Euro4.83bn.

CEO Albert Manifold said "Our 2021 performance reflects the outstanding commitment and resilience of our people as well as the benefits of our integrated, customer-focused business strategy. Despite an inflationary input cost environment, we expanded our margins and delivered good growth in profits, returns and cash generation. This further underpins our strong and flexible balance sheet, providing us with significant opportunities for future growth and value creation.” Looking to the future, Manifold said “While the demand backdrop remains favourable across our markets, there are a number of challenges and uncertainties which we must continue to manage carefully as we look to deliver further value for our shareholders in the year ahead."

Cement markets have mostly recovered following the shock emergence of coronavirus in 2020. Most of the producers that have released their results so far for 2021 have reported strong boosts to sales revenue and racing earnings as something more like normality resumed. The following roundup covers a selective group of cement companies around the world.

The recovery in 2021 has made the outliers in the companies covered here noteworthy. UltraTech Cement, Semen Indonesia and Dangote Cement are all large regional companies with dominant positions domestically and varying degrees of international spread. As can be seen in Graph 1, UltraTech Cement and Dangote Cement both reported very large increases in sales, over 20% year-on-year. By contrast, Semen Indonesia sales fell very slightly.

Graph 1: Sales revenue from selected cement producers in 2020 and 2021. Source: Company reports. Note: Figures calculated for UltraTech Cement.

One reason for UltraTech Cement and Dangote Cement’s success can be seen in Graph 2 (below). Both companies managed to sell more cement in 2021. Semen Indonesia did not due to Indonesia’s production overcapacity and new competitors. It also blamed a significant rises in coal prices for a 9% drop in its earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA).

UltraTech Cement has been wary of successive waves of coronavirus throughout its 2022 financial year, but generally the Indian regional markets have recovered and government-backed rural housing and infrastructure spending have supported growth. It did note rising coal prices earlier in the year, but these were reported to have somewhat softened during the quarter to 31 December 2021. It is worth noting that the ongoing war in Ukraine is affecting energy markets but more on this at the end of this article. Dangote Cement’s performance was slowed somewhat by the start of coronavirus but it has since resumed its turbo-charged trajectory with volumes, revenue and earnings growth all above 10% in 2021. Mostly this performance is supported by the Nigerian market but the company is doing well internationally too.

Graph 2: Cement sales volumes from selected cement producers in 2019 and 2020. Source: Company reports. Note: Figures calculated for UltraTech Cement.

Holcim and HeidelbergCement’s increase in sales revenue in 2021 are actually fairly similar on a like-for-like basis, both with around 10%. The former’s sales volumes were up across cement, ready-mixed concrete and aggregates in each of its regions around the world, as were sales revenue. Holcim’s big move in 2021 has been the expansion of its Solutions & Products segment with the acquisition of Firestone in April 2021. Now this has continued with the completion of the Malarkey Roofing Products purchase on 1 March 2022, a few days after it released its 2021 results. Chief executive officer Jan Jenisch described the move towards lightweight building materials as generating, “further double-digit growth engines for the company.” As an aside, it was fascinating to see CRH leave the building envelope business this week, mostly based in the US, with an agreement to sell up its division for US$3.8bn to private equity. The business CRH is divesting sells architectural glass, storefront systems, architectural glazing systems and related hardware to customers primarily in North America. CRH is clearly pursuing a different business strategy to Holcim.

HeidelbergCement has also reported a strong year in 2021 albeit without the Holcim razzle-dazzle of barging into new market areas. It noted significant increases in energy prices and pandemic‐related lockdowns in some key markets in Asia. It described a very slight cement sales volume decline in Africa and the Middle East and a drop in earnings in Asia. Its trump cards are its carbon capture projects coming down the pipeline. It’s keen to remind investors about this with the unspoken implication that it might save the company money in the future when carbon taxes bite further.

Both Cemex and Buzzi Unicem followed the growth pattern seen in sales and earnings by the other larger multinational producers covered above. Central and South American markets really took off for Cemex in 2021, starting with its home market in Mexico. However, growth was present, although slower, in both its largest markets in the US and its Europe, Middle East, Africa and Asia region. Notably cement volumes in the Philippines grew by 7% and that’s even with the devastation caused by typhoons at the end of the year taken into account. Similarly, Buzzi Unicem performed well in 2021 due to growth in Italy, the US and Eastern Europe compensating for a small sales decline in Germany. As mentioned in Update on Ukraine, February 2022 Buzzi Unicem has particular exposure to the war in Ukraine as it operates two cement plants in Ukraine and two units in Russia but this is a problem for the 2022 financial year.

To finish on Ukraine, first and foremost, a human tragedy is unfolding. Yet the war also presents many economic challenges to financial markets through sanctions and counter-actions. A recession in Russia looks likely as do energy price surges in the US and Europe leading to further inflation and, perhaps, recessions too. All this potentially lies ahead. For now, the dilemma for US and European-based cement companies and suppliers with operations in Russia is reputational. Should they continue to do business in Russia as public opinion hardens and companies like BP, Shell, Equinor, HSBC and AerCap head for the exit? The Russian government has blocked foreign companies and individuals from selling shares locally but pressure looks set to intensify for such companies to do something.

Nigeria: Dangote Cement’s revenue grew by 33.8% year-on-year to US$3.33bn in 2021 from US$2.49bn in 2020. Its sales volumes rose by 13.8% to 29.3Mt from 25.7Mt driven by a strong domestic market, although international volume growth was strong. Earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) increased by 43.2% to US$1.65bn from US$1.15bn.

“Over the last two years, we have finalised the deployment of 6Mt new capacity in Nigeria. Looking ahead, we are now focused on a less capital-intensive expansion cycle, which includes building grinding plants across West and Central Africa to leverage and strengthen Dangote Cement’s regional integration. We are on track to deploy grinding capacity in Cote d’Ivoire and Ghana. In addition, our Alternative Fuel Project is at an advanced stage which aims to leverage waste management solutions, reduce CO₂ emissions, and source material locally. This year, we co-processed 89,000t of waste representing a 60% increase over 2020,” said chief executive officer Michel Puchercos.

The group noted that Cement demand in Nigeria was sustained by increasing housing infrastructure, commercial construction, and government projects including major highways, roads, and railways. In May 2021 it re-started exporting clinker from its Onne and Apapa terminals and delivered seven clinker shipments with a total volume of 197,000t in 2021. It also exported 706,000t in 2021 by road to Togo and Niger. Internationally, the group said that it performed well but it also faced challenges in Cameroon, Ghana and Sierra Leone, where freight costs had increased substantially, causing volatility in the landing cost of cement and clinker.

Indonesia: Semen Indonesia has blamed falling earnings in 2021 on increased competition, production overcapacity and mounting coal prices. Its revenue fell slightly to US$2.43bn. However, its earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) dropped by 9.3% year-on-year to US$572m in 2021 from US$630m in 2020. Its sales volumes were driven by international sales, with domestic sales remaining stable at 32.2Mt. Foreign sales grew by 7.7% to 8.3Mt. Overall sales volumes increased by 1.6% to 40.5Mt from 39.8Mt.

In order to tackle its fuel costs the company says it has increased its use of alternative fuels, both biomass and non-biomass, and is optimising its coal consumption index by maintaining stable coal quality. It has also integrated coal procurement into the group to help better secure competitive pricing, supply and quality.

Turkey: Çimsa Çimento revenue grew by 80% year-on-year to Euro240m in 2021 from Euro133m in 2020. Its earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) grew by 46% to Euro41.4m from Euro28.5m. The subsidiary of Sabancı Holding says that 54% of its sales in 2021 came from foreign sales. However, it noted that its production energy costs increased by 94%. It also reported that its alternative fuels substitution rate hit 15%.

“In July 2021 we took over the Buñol Factory in Valencia, Spain with Cimsa Sabancı Cement. With the addition of the Buñol Factory to our production and distribution network, we have strengthened our export network and expanded our sphere of influence in Europe, North Africa and South America,” said chief executive officer Umut Zenar. With the acquisition of the white cement plant in Spain, Çimsa Çimento says it has become one of the largest white cement producers in the world.

Austria: RHI Magnesita says that customer demand and sales volumes to above pre-pandemic levels have driven revenue growth in 2021. It added that, at the same time, unprecedented supply chain disruptions resulted in higher freight, energy and purchased raw materials costs. Its adjusted revenue grew by 12.9% year-on-year to Euro2.55bn in 2021 from Euro2.26bn in 2020. Its adjusted earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) rose by 7.7% to Euro280m from Euro260m.

Stefan Borgas, chief executive officer of RHI Magnesita, said, “This has been a strong year of progress for RHI Magnesita in challenging conditions. Customer demand recovered much faster than was anticipated, creating an unprecedented strain on global supply chains and significant increases in costs and logistics lead times. Despite logistics difficulties and market volatility we have progressed the strategic investments which will deliver long term growth and margin improvement. We enter 2022 with restored margins and ready to build further on our sustainability and technology leadership position in the global refractory industry.”

The group said that merger and acquisition progress has been accelerated in the reporting year with an agreement to buy Turkey-based Sormas Refrakter and the establishment of a new joint venture in Chongqing, China to widen the product range for cement customers in the region.

Finally, RHI Magnesita reported that it has 63 staff based in Russia and Ukraine but no refractory production sites. Approximately 3.4% of group revenues were from the Commonwealth of Independent States region in 2021. It said that this business would be impacted by economic sanctions but that the main financial effects for the group as a whole were expected from higher energy costs.

Nigeria: Lafarge Africa, Holcim’s subsidiary in Nigeria and South Africa, says that it acheived record full-year results in 2021. Its net sales were US$705m, up by 27% year-on-year from US$554m in 2020. Meanwhile, its recurring earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBIT) rose by 43% to US$157m from US$110m.

CEO Khaled El Dokani said "Our 2021 performance showed significant improvement.” He added “We are equally pleased with the progress we are making on sustainability. Our use of affordable clean energy and agro-ecology footprint are in accordance with our net zero pledge journey."

In 2022, the company forecast ‘good demand momentum’ as it continues to maximise volume opportunities across its markets, while actively managing costs. During the year, it also plans to consolidate its sustainability efforts.