Displaying items by tag: Sales

Argentina: Producers sold 649,000t of cement in May 2020, down by 33% year-on-year from 965,000t in May 2019. Data from the Asociación de Fabricantes de Cemento Portland (AFCP) shows that the sharpest decline, of 80%, was in Buenos Aires. Total sales nonetheless grew by 61% month-on-month from 404,000t in April 2020. Five-month sales to 31 May 2020 fell by 35% year-on-year.

Indonesia: Thailand-based Siam Cement Group (SCG) and PT Marindo Inticor have announced the launch of PT Renos Marketplace Indonesia, a digital marketplace to connect Indonesian customers with SCG’s products. Online Stock Business News has reported that ownership of the company is shared 51:49 between SCG subsidiary Better Bee Marketplace Company Limited and PT Marindo Inticor. The joint venture has registered capital of US$1.26m.

Philippines: LafargeHolcim subsidiary Holcim Philippines has said that digital innovations enabled it to continue serving its customer base throughout the coronavirus lockdown. The company said that utilisation of its customer service platform grew to 91% year-on-year in May 2020 from 56% in May 2019.

Through its information sharing platform E-Konekta, the company has hosted 40 events covering fields from Holcim Philippines’ corporate vision and health and safety to business networking. Holcim Philippines sales senior vice president William Sumalinog said, “Particularly in times of crisis, a customer’s interaction with a company can trigger an immediate and lingering effect on his or her sense of trust and loyalty. It is vital for us to keep our warm ties with customers so they continue to feel being part of the Holcim family.”

Botswana: PPC Botswana has taken up a slogan of the Botswana government in encouraging Botswanans to “Buy Botswana” in order to reduce their import bills and utilise local suppliers post-coronavirus lockdown. The Sunday Standard newspaper has reported that, after the economy shrank by 13% since the start of the coronavirus lockdown, PPC announced that it would “continue engaging with more stakeholders on the road to economic recovery.” Regarding the possibility of layoffs in the company, PPC Botswana managing director Tuelo Bolthole said, “The situation is still very fluid, therefore it is difficult to tell whether it will reach that point. We however believe that our workforce is an important asset.” The company is currently producing cement at 100% of its capacity in anticipation of pent-up demand.

Vietnam: Producers sold 29.2Mt of cement between 1 January and 30 April 2020, down by 7% year-on-year from 27.3Mt over the corresponding period of 2019. The Vietnam National Cement Corporation (VICEM) has reported that domestic sales fell by 4% to 19.3Mt (66% of total sales) and exports fell by 11% to 9.90Mt (34%), according to the Việt Nam News newspaper. April 2020 cement sales were just 8.08Mt, including 2.42Mt of exports, due to the effects of the coronavirus lockdown on cement demand from construction.

Paraguay: Industria Nacional del Cemento (INC) has reported sales of 79,800 bags/day of cement between 4 May 2020 and 8 May 2020. Demand had collapsed in April 2020 due to restrictions on construction resulting from the coronavirus outbreak. Esmerk Latin American News has reported that newly reopened distributors collected their orders and that a number of customers purchased more than their usual volume in anticipation of a further easing of lockdown. INC has placed an order for 40,000t of imported clinker to help production to meet demand.

Azerbaijan: Akkord Cement has reported sales of 237,000t of cement in the first four months of 2020, up by 20% year-on-year from 197,000t in the same period of 2019. April 2020 sales fell to 31,200t due to the impacts on demand of the coronavirus outbreak. Trend News has reported that Akkord Cement’s 1.0Mt integrated Gazakh cement plant in Ganja region produced 3250t of clinker for export, up by 10% from 2960t in 2019. The company says that it ‘plans to organise exports’ of clinker from the 3300t/day clinker capacity plant to Iraq and Qatar ‘after the country leaves the coronavirus quarantine regime.’ It added, “The export of clinker to Iran in the future is also being considered.”

Belarus: Krichevcementnoshifer exported US$2.47m-worth of cement in the first quarter of 2020, up by 41% year-on-year from US$1.75m-worth in the corresponding period of 2019. Belta News has reported that the company, whose 0.6Mt/yr integrated plant at Krichev, Mogilev region serves the eastern Belarusian and Russian markets, made total sales of US$15.4m, up by 22% year-on-year from US$12.6m. Krichevcementnoshifer CEO Vladimir Korchevsky said, “We consistently ship 5000t of cement to consumers every day. April 2020 saw shipments reach 6000t/day. We can conclude that, despite the current difficulties associated with the coronavirus pandemic, the demand for our products has not decreased.”

In April 2020 Krichevcementnoshifer completed construction of an elevated track for the unloading of bulk materials from railway cars, reducing unloading time.

Germany: HeidelbergCement has reported a fall in first quarter revenues by 7% year-on-year in 2020, to Euro3.93bn from Euro4.24bn. Revenues fell by 6% in Western and Southern Europe and by 10% in the Asia-Pacific region, but rose by 11% in North America, by 2% in Northern and Eastern Europe and Central Asia and by 3% in Africa-Eastern Mediterranean Basin.

HeidelbergCement Managing Board
Chair Dominik von Achten said that, after year-on-year sales increases across all business lines, “from mid-March our sales volumes were significantly impaired by the effects of the coronavirus pandemic, such as state-imposed production downtimes and construction stoppages on major infrastructure projects.” Total cement and clinker sales over the period were 27.7Mt, down by 3.0% year-on-year from 28.6Mt.

Thanks to its COPE coronavirus action plan, HeidelbergCement says that it has reduced 2020 spending by Euro1.0bn. It says that it has Euro5.7bn of financial liquidity.

France: Vicat has reported first-quarter sales of Euro615m in 2020, up by 7% year-on-year from Euro600m in the first quarter of 2019. Cement sales grew by 5.5% to Euro319m (52% of total sales), up by 5.5% year-on-year from Euro302m.

Vicat chair and CEO Guy Sidos said, “The Group's performance over the first quarter of 2020 was solid despite a sharp slowdown at the end of the period in France, India and Italy.” In spite of the coronavirus crisis, “Industrial and commercial activity was maintained on almost all sites, in line with market evolutions.” Sidos says that the group expects ‘a significant impact on first-half results’ in 2020.