Displaying items by tag: Sales

Philippines: Cement sales grew by nearly a fifth, or 18.6%, in the third quarter of 2015 on the back of increased consumer spending, according to the Cement Manufacturers Association of the Philippines (CeMAP).

CeMAP president Ernesto Ordoñez said that the country's total cement sales reached 6.4Mt in the third quarter of 2015, from 5.4Mt in the same period of 2014. The growth was attributed to the expansion of several infrastructure projects in both the public and private sectors, as well as the increased budget of the government for infrastructure projects. "The weather was also better this year compared last year, so that was also a factor," said Ordoñez, who also identified the upcoming Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit as a sales driver. He is optimistic that cement sales will continue their upward trajectory for the rest of 2015.

Pakistan: Listed cement producers in Pakistan continued to deliver double digit profitability growth in the 2015 fiscal year, which ended on 30 June 2015. Their collective profits grew by 13% year-on-year to US$446m, with the improvement in profits caused by volume growth and lower energy costs.

Local cement demand remained strong, rising by 8.2% to 28.3Mt. This was due to higher public and private sector. The growth in profits was also supported by declining financial charges and falling selling and distribution expenses.

However, not all results were encouraging. Exports fell by 11.7% year-on-year to 7.2Mt due to weak demand from the Afghan market coupled with anti-dumping duty imposed by South Africa on Pakistani cement manufacturers.

Total industry dispatches are expected to grow by 8.8% to 38.6Mt in the fiscal year to 30 June 2016, primarily due to strong local demand expected from higher infrastructure spending and mega-projects including the China Pakistan Economic Corridor.

Analysts expect that manufacturing costs for the coming fiscal year will remain 'benign' for the industry and will be led by lower energy costs. Lower electricity charges and shift to more efficient sources like waste heat recovery will lead to further decrease in power and fuel costs for manufacturers. Moreover, imported coal prices are expected to remain at lower levels, owing to slowdown in China's growth, which will further drive up margins of cement manufacturers.

Iran: Iran is gradually losing its domestic and foreign cement markets, according to Abdolreza Sheikhan, secretary of Iran's Cement Industry Employers Association. Iran's cement industry has lost some 8% of its domestic market and 20% of its export markets in the first five months of current fiscal year (21 March 2015 to 22 August 2015).

"Cement supply and demand is not balanced in the market and this has created problems for producers," said Sheikhan. However he did not disclose exact statistics about the country's cement sales. However, each cement producing plant is permitted to store clinker equal to two months output. This means that up to 5Mt of surplus clinker could be stored in the country at any one time.

India: Reliance Cement Company has announced that it will start to sell cement online. Atul Desai, Chief Marketing Officer of the company, said, "With this move, Reliance Cement has become one of the first e-commerce cement companies in India. In line with our consistent efforts to provide superior product and services to our customers, e-retailing is the latest next-generation customer friendly initiative."

The 'e-retailing' facility is available for a minimum order of 25 bags that will be delivered to the customer within 48 hours. Desai said that Reliance Cement has emerged as a premium brand in major cities of Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal. Initially, the 'e-retailing' facility will be available in Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra.

Ecuador: Cement sales fell by 7.04% to 3.38Mt between January and July 2015 compared to 3.64Mt in the same period in 2014, according to data from the Ecuadorian Institute of Cement and Concrete (INECYC). Sales are expected to drop between 10% and 15% in 2015 compared to 2014 when sales of 6.47Mt were recorded.

Consumption is high in Guayas, Azuay, Manabí and Pichincha, according to El Telegrafo. Holcim holds 60.5% of the local market, followed by Unacem (formerly Lafarge) with 22.5% and Union Cementera Nacional (UCEM) with 17%. Recent developments include a US$400m modernisation project at Holcim's Guayaquil plant and a US$230m expansion by Cementera Nacional with Cementos Yura to expand the Riobamba plant.

Europe: Cemex has signed an agreement for the sale of its operations in Austria, Hungary, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Serbia.

Its assets in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Serbia will be sold to Duna-Dráva Cement (HeidelbergCement) for approximately Euro231m. The assets mainly consist of three cement plants (approximately 1.66Mt of cement sold in 2014), two aggregate quarries (approximately 0.16Mt of aggregates sold in 2014) and seven ready-mix plants (approximately 0.25Mm³ of ready mix sold in 2014). Cemex's operations in Croatia, including Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Serbia had net sales of approximately Euro124m in 2014.

Its assets in Austria and Hungary will be sold to Rohrdorfer Group for approximately Euro160m. The Austrian operations consist of 24 aggregate quarries (approximately 6.47Mt of aggregates sold in 2014) and 34 ready-mix plants (approximately 1.60Mm³ of ready-mix sold in 2014). Cemex's operations in Austria had net sales of approximately Euro217m in 2014. The Hungarian operations being divested consist of five aggregate quarries (approximately 1.36Mt of aggregates sold in 2014) and 34 ready-mix plants (approximately 0.46Mm³ of ready-mix sold in 2014). Cemex's operations in Hungary had net sales of approximately Euro42.2m in 2014.

The proceeds obtained from the transactions will be used mainly for debt reduction and for general corporate purposes. The closing of the transactions is subject to the satisfaction of standard conditions for this type of transaction, which includes authorisation by regulators. Cemex currently expects to finalise the transactions during the fourth quarter of 2015.

Indonesia: Cement sales for the first seven months of 2015 have continued to decrease. Weak demand, in addition to the Eid al-Fitr holiday period, caused national cement sales for July 2015 to fall by 4.2% year-on-year to 31.3Mt.

Regions with the largest cement consumption drop for July 2015 were Bali and Nusa Tenggara, which saw a 26.5% drop to to 214,540t, Kalimantan with a drop of 23.6% to 208,939t, Java with a 13.9% decrease to 1.79Mt and Sumatra with a drop of 3.3% to 726,000t.

Widodo Santoso, chairperson of the Indonesian Cement Association, is optimistic that cement sales and consumption will increase in the second half of 2015 as the government starts actualising its budget to boost the infrastructure sector. Santoso said that the cement industry would gain 11Mt/yr of additional production capacity from the operation of four new plants from Semen Bosowa, Holcim Indonesia, Semen Merah Putih, Semen Jawa and Semen Conch. The additional cement supply and weakening of cement demand may cause oversupply in the cement industry and create higher competition.

Meanwhile, Semen Indonesia has revised its domestic cement sales growth target to 0% from the initial target of 5%, in line with weak demand in the cement market in the first half of 2015. Agung Wiharto, corporate secretary of Semen Indonesia, said that unsupportive macroeconomic conditions, depreciation of the Indonesian Rupiah and the weakening of commodity prices affected the company's sales for the first semester. Its sales volume for the first half of 2015 decreased by 4.2% year-on-year.

"Semen Indonesia's sales volume in several regions was affected by tight competition with new players and new plants," said Wiharto. He added that he expects the domestic cement market to improve in the third quarter of 2015, in line with actual infrastructure developments to boost cement demand in the private and retail sectors. "Cement sales are expected to again grow by 6 - 8% in 2016 if infrastructure developments continue." Semen Indonesia plans to resume several cement plant expansion projects in Rembang and Padang to meet cement demand growth in the future. The plants in Rembang and Padang will each have capacities of 3Mt/yr.

Brazil: Based on Brazil's 2015 GDP forecast, cement production and civil construction in Brazil are expected to remain flat in 2015 for the first time in more than a decade.

GDP rose by 7.53% in 2010, but growth dropped in the following four years to 2.73%, 1.03%, 2.49% and 0.1%, according to BNamericas data. The amount of cement produced has followed the same trend. While in 2010 production was up by 14.2%, it rose by 7.55%, 8.19%, 2% and only 1.5% in the following four years, ending 2014 at 71.2Mt. Finally, civil construction revenue jumped by 33.5% in 2010, but the industry posted increases of 12.6%, 12.9%, 7.60% and 8.48% over the next four years. The last drop in Brazil's civil construction industry occurred in 2002. As GDP estimates are pointing toward a 1.7% contraction for 2015, cement production and civil construction are unlikely to grow in 2015 if they continue to follow Brazil's overall economy.

Tunisia: According to the latest statistics from the Ministry of Industry, Mining and Energy, grey cement production grew by 0.99% year-on-year to 4.75Mt in the first six months of 2015 from 4.7Mt in the first half of 2014. The amount sold locally fell by 6.29% 3.73Mt, compared to 3.98Mt in the first half 2014. Exports increased by 33.8% from 722,248t to 966,095t. In the first half of 2015, white cement production fell by 11.1% to 222,408t from 250,096t in the same period in 2014. Local sales of white cement fell by 6.69% to 96,551t from 103,476 in 2014.

Russia: According to SKRIN Newswire, in the first five months of 2015, Eurocement's Pikalevskiy cement plant shipped 11,700t of bagged cement to its customers, which is 23% more than in the same period of 2014.