Displaying items by tag: SNIC

Brazil: According to data from SNIC, the Brazilian national cement industry union, 4.6Mt of cement was sold in Brazil during May 2019. The figure is 27.6% higher compared to May 2018, with the large percentage increase due to the low base resulting from a truck drivers’ strike in May 2018. The first five months of 2019 recorded sales of 21.6Mt, a 5.6% year-on-year rise.

Brazil: Data from the National Union of Cement Industry (SNIC) shows that cement sales rose slightly to 12.7Mt in the first quarter of 2019 compared to 12.6Mt in the same period in 2018. Regional sales fell slightly to 6Mt in the southeast of the country including the major markets of Minas Gerais, São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. However, most of the other regions reported growth, particularly the centre-west. SNIC president Paulo Camillo Penna said that March 2019’s performance was better than expected and that it was forecasting growth of 3% in 2019.

Brazil: The National Union of Cement Industry (SNIC) and the Brazilian Portland Cement Association (ABCP) have launched a Cement Technology Roadmap to 2050. SNIC president Paulo Camillo Penna said that the document would help the local industry cut its carbon footprint in the medium and long term. The roadmap was developed with the International Energy Agency (IEA), the Cement Sustainability Initiative (CSI) of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), the International Finance Corporation (IFC) of the World Bank and a group of academics led by José Goldemberg.

The roadmap intends to reduce specific CO2 emissions by over 30% to 375kg CO2/t of cement in 2050. Key actions to 2030 include strengthening national and international cooperation, promoting new cement standards, raising the clinker substitution rate, promoting the use of alternative fuels in compliance with the National Policy on Solid Waste (PNRS), sharing best practive in energy efficiency and promoting resaerch and development in new greenohuse has mitigation technologies.

Brazil: Paulo Camillo, the president of SNIC, forecasts that cement sales will rise by 3% in 2019. If he is correct then it will be the first rise in four years for the local industry. Total cement sales fell by 1.1% year-on-year to 52.8Mt in 2018 from 53.4Mt in 2017. Particular falls in sales were noted in the north and northeast of the country, although exports rose by 14.3% to 88,000t. A truck drivers strike and general economic uncertainty reduced the effects of a positive first half to the year. The cement association also said that freight, fuels and electricity costs grew ‘significantly’ in 2018. However, it is optimistic that new legislation support co-processing of alternative fuels will partly help to alleviate this situation.

Brazil: SNIC, Brazil's national cement industry union, has announced that sales of cement in Brazil came to 4.6Mt in July 2018. The figure is down by 2.5% in comparison to July 2017. In the comparison for working days, the drop reached 4.6% in July 2018 in the year-on-year comparison, and 9.5% in comparison with June 2018. In the first seven months of 2018 domestic cement sales totalled 30.4Mt, a fall of 1.7%. SNIC forecasts a drop of 1-2% for 2018 compared to 2017.

Brazil: Paulo Camillo Penna, the president of the National Union of Cement Industry (SNIC), has blamed a fall in national cement sales on a truck drivers strike. Despite forecasting growth a strike in May 2018 caused sales to halt for 10 days. Cement sales fell by 1.5% year-on-year to 25.4Mt in the first half of 2018 from 25.8Mt in the same period of 2017.

SNIC originally expected the local cement industry to grow its sales by 1 – 2% in 2018. However, the poor first half of the year and a slowdown in the country’s economic growth has led SNIC to revise its forecast downwards.

Brazil: The Public Labour Ministry has signed an agreement with producers to reduce the standard weight of cement sacks sold locally to 25kg from 50kg. 33 cement producers, the local competition authority (CADE), the national cement industry union (SNIC), the Brazilian Portland Cement Association (ABCP) and Labour minister Ronalo Fleury all signed the arrangement, according to Surgiu. The agreement has been planned to reduce workplace accidents involving cement despatches.

The agreement establishes a deadline of 31 December 2028 for companies to adapt to the new standard, after which period only cement specifically for export can be over the 25kg limit, with all other sacks over 25kg to cease being sold from 1 January 2029. The agreement follows four years of negotiations.

Brazil: SNIC, the national cement industry union, says that 70% of cement plants have suspended operation due to a strike by truck drivers. A survey the union ran found that less than 3% of the average daily cement distributed has been delivered to its final destination since the start of the strike action on 21 May 2018.

Before industrial action started the local cement industry distributed around 200,000t/day. At the start of the strike this fell to 10,000t/day and has since dropped further to 6000t/day. Paulo Camillo Penna, president of SNIC, said that the cement industry was suffering disproportionately because plants have been affected by raw materials failing to be delivered and lack of space to store cement inventory. SNIC expects that once the strike ends, it will take two to three weeks for production at cement plants to return to normal.

Votorantim shone a glimmer of hope for the Brazilian cement industry with the release of its first quarter financial results this week. Increased sales volumes in Brazil, Turkey, India and Latin America led to an 11% rise in revenue to US$682m in the period. Admittedly back home in Brazil, most of this came from concrete and mortar sales, but after the slump Brazil’s had they’ll take whatever they can get. This compares to a 14% drop in sales revenue in the same period in 2017 due to falling cement consumption.

Graph 1: Accumulated 12 months local cement sales in Brazil. Source: SNIC.

SNIC, Brazil's national cement industry association, preliminary figures for April 2018 show a similar trend. Cement sales for April 2018 rose by 8.9% year-on-year to 4.35Mt from 4Mt. Sales for the first four months of the year dipped slightly by 0.2% to 16.9Mt although this is an improvement on the first quarter figures showing the benefit a strong April has had. Improvements are driven by growth in the central and southern parts of the country. SNIC’s graph of accumulated sales (Graph 1) definitely shows a slowing trend of decreasing cement sales with April 2018 being the only the second month in over two years where sales have risen.

Paulo Camillo Penna, the president of SNIC, even went as far as to speculate that the three months from April to June 2018 might see the first sustained period of improvement since 2015 and that sales could even grow by 1% for the year as a whole. This is a far cry from Penna’s description of his industry at the start of 2017 as, “One of the worst moments in its history.”

Votorantim reported that some regions of Brazil were starting to show a positive trend in the second half of 2017. Unfortunately it wasn’t enough to stop the cement producer’s overall sales falling for the year. LafargeHolcim didn’t release specific figures for its Brazilian operations in 2017 but it did say that its cost savings programme had, ‘provided for material improvement versus prior year both in recurring earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) and cash flow.’ It reckoned that despite the market contracting, it had managed to increase its market share. Meanwhile, on the supplier side RHI Magnesita said in a first quarter trading update that its cement and lime business was flat due to continuing low capacity utilisation rates in China and Brazil.

If this truly is the end of the Brazilian cement market slump then it seems surprising that there haven’t been more mergers or acquisitions. Mineração Belocal, a subsidiary of Belgium’s Lhoist, said this week that it had purchased L-Imerys, a lime producer that operates a plant at Doresópolis in Minas Gerais. Local refractory producer Magnesita merged with RHI in mid-2017.

The big deal that hasn’t happened is the sale of InterCement, the country’s second largest cement producer. Owner Camargo Corrêa was reportedly selling minority stakes in the company in 2015. Then in early 2017 local press said that it was aiming for a price of US$6.5bn for the whole company with Mexico’s Cemex as a potential bidder. Since then nothing has happened publicly although the initial public offering of InterCement’s Argentine subsidiary Loma Negra in November 2017 for US$954m may have bought Camargo Corrêa the time it needed to wait for the market to improve. Rumours of a public listing of InterCement’s European and African operations have followed.

In its World Economic Outlook in April 2018 the IMF forecast a 2.8% rise in gross domestic product (GDP) in Brazil in 2018. If SNIC’s forecast for 2018 is correct then Camargo Corrêa may have survived the worst of the slump to live to trade another day. The price for InterCement at this point can only rise, as should the prospects of the Brazilian industry.

Brazil: According to data from Brazil's national cement industry union SNIC, domestic cement sales in January 2018 were down by 0.1% compared to January 2017, at 4.33Mt. However, average sales per working day increased by 0.2% in the same comparison. Apparent consumption in the period stood at 4.4Mt, down by 0.5% from January 2017. The results for the period were in line with SNIC's expectations, with sales forecast to drop in the first quarter 2018, before seeing growth in the second quarter 2018.

In the 12 months ending January 2018 domestic sales saw an accumulated 6.2% drop, in comparison with the previous 12 month period, at 53.77Mt. SNIC forecasts a 1-2% increase in cement sales in 2018.