Displaying items by tag: Sales

Colombia: Cemex Latam Holdings (CLH)’s net sales in the first quarter of 2020 were US$214m, down by 11% year-on-year compared to sales of US$240m in the same period of 2019. Operating earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) throughout the quarter declined by 12% year-on-year to US$46.0m from US$52.3m. Cement volumes over the period were 11% below their first-quarter 2019 level, however prices were 3% higher. Total debt decreased by 8% year-over-year, reaching US$766m as of March 2020.

Cemex Latam Holdings CEO Jesus Gonzalez 
said, “We came into 2020 with favourable demand momentum in Colombia, Nicaragua, Guatemala and El Salvador, and a stabilising trend in Costa Rica. The coronavirus outbreak began to impact on this in March 2020. With respect to capex, US$20.0m has been postponed until 2021. Also, members of CLH’s Board and senior leadership have agreed to voluntarily waive a percentage of their second quarter salaries. Other employees voluntarily deferred a percentage of their salaries for the period. I would like to thank my colleagues for their support in these challenging times.”

China: Anhui Conch’s profit in the first quarter of 2020 was US$690m, down by 19% year-on-year from US$860m in the corresponding period of 2019. Sales fell by 24%, to US$3.28bn from US$4.31bn. The coronavirus outbreak in China impacted the results, notably through decreased sales volumes and a 190% increase in financial expenses due to devaluation of the local currency.

India: Ambuja Cements’ profit in the first three months of 2020 was US$52.4m, down by 6.5% year-on-year from US$56.2m in the corresponding period of 2019. Sales were US$3.72bn, down by 3.4% from US$3,86bn. The company said the shutdown of all plants in March 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic ‘impacted operations.’ It added, “Taking into account directives from the government, operations at a few plants have commenced in a phased manner since 20 April 2020.’

Ambuja has said that together with ACC it has donated US$434,000 to non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to provide food and ration kits to vulnerable people affected by the coronavirus outbreak. LafargeHolcim CEO India and Ambuja Cements managing director and CEO Neeraj Akhouray said, “Collaborative models are more effective in both containment of the disease as well as support for those whose livelihood and even survival is at risk. We believe that our contributions to these NGOs that are delivering grass-roots relief measures, coupled with our own companies’ efforts on ground working with local communities, will greatly accelerate the scale and impact we will have.”

Denmark: FLSmidth’s revenue in the first three months of 2020 was Euro607m, up by 2.5% year-on-year from Euro592m in the corresponding period of 2019. FLSmidth’s cement division’s sales were Euro240m (40% of total revenue), down by 2.6% from Euro246m. The company said that the coronavirus outbreak impacted results, especially in March 2020, when ‘customer hesitation on large investments intensified, particularly in cement,’ and customers increasingly deferred large investments. It added, “Demand for spare and wear parts is relatively stable, whereas technical services are challenged by restricted access to sites.”

FLSmidth says that it aims to ‘carry out business as usual’ throughout the coronavirus outbreak, with an increased reliance on ‘remote monitoring, maintenance and support.’

FLSmidth’s 2020 financial guidance remains suspended.

China: China Resources Cement (CRC)’s profit in the first three months of 2020 was US$144m, down by 25% year-on-year from US$192m in the corresponding period of 2019. Sales were US$722m, down by 26% from US$969m. CRC sold 11.2Mt of cement over the period, down by 27% from 15.2Mt, although prices hadincreased. Cement sales constituted 82% of total revenue at US$589m, down by 22% from US$752m.

Indonesia: Japan-based Taiheiyo Cement has announced its acquisition of a 15% stake in state-owned Semen Indonesia subsidiary Solusi Bangun Indonesia for between US$186m and US$232m, subject to the terms of a partnership agreement with Semen Indonesia.

Under the ‘2020 Mid-Term Management Plan,’ Taiheiyo Cement says that it aims to ‘become a corporate group with a strong presence in the Pacific Rim.’ Its partnership with Semen Indonesia is part of Taiheiyo Cement’s response to a forecasted long-term decline in domestic cement demand in Japan.

In the first quarter of 2020 Semen Indonesia sold 9.36Mt of cement, up by 7.0% year-on-year from 8.74Mt in the corresponding period of 2019. InsiderStories News has reported that domestic demand in the period fell by 4.9% to 14.9Mt from 15.7Mt, while exports fell by 2.5% to 1.39Mt from 1.42Mt but rose by 6.2% on a month-by-month basis in March 2020 to 3.09Mt from 2.91Mt in February 2020. April 2020’s cement sales are expected to be lower due to the impacts of the coronavirus outbreak.

Ireland: CRH has said that it had a ‘positive start to the year’ in the first three months of 2020. Total sales over the period rose by 3% year-on-year. In the Americas region, cement volumes rose by 4% and prices by 6%. European cement sales were ‘broadly in line with the same period of 2019’ due to general volume and price increases offset by a fall in volumes in Western Europe.

Government-implemented covid-19 restrictions on construction towards the end of the period impacted sales in Canada, the UK and France. The likely effects on 2020 profit ‘cannot be reasonably estimated at this time.’ CRH chief executive officer (CEO) Albert Manifold said, “With the financial strength of CRH and the experience of our leadership teams, we will endure through these unprecedented and uncertain times.”

Data is starting to emerge about how the Chinese cement industry has coped with the economic effects of government action regarding the coronavirus. National cement industry output fell by 29% year-on-year to 150Mt in the combined months of January and February 2020. Output then picked up to 149Mt in March 2020, a drop of 17% compared to March 2019. These are massive figures, larger than the annual output of most countries, but they give some idea of what shutting down economies does to demand for cement and concrete.

Graph 1: Year-on-year change in cement output in China, April 2018 - March 2020. Source: National Bureau of Statistics of China. Note that accumulated data is issued for January and February each year so these months show a mean figure.

Graph 1 above gives the general picture of changes in cement output in China over the last couple of years. Growth fell in early 2018 as the government implemented its supply-side reforms, including measures such as industry consolidation and peak shifting. This improved in the second half of the year and throughout 2019. January and February output has been steady for the last few years, possibly due to peak shifting, but this year the trend was massively more pronounced. In March 2020, meanwhile, output fell by 17% compared to a rise of 17% in 2019. On the demand side, reporting from the Chinese Cement Association reveals that national infrastructure investment (excluding electricity) decreased by 19.7% year-on-year in the first quarter of 2020. National real estate development investment fell by 7.7% to US$310bn.

The figures above are for the whole of China whilst the outbreak was centered in Wuhan in Hubei province. The government implemented its toughest public health measures in this city and the surrounding Hubei province, with other regions using social distancing and tracking methods to various degrees. The Chinese Cement Association explains that, once other cities in Hubei province were released from lockdown, construction projects were allowed to resume but that progress was limited due to a lack of workers. Three weeks after measures were relaxed, the average shipping rate for cement producers was only 60% in these outer regions. In Wuhan the situation was more stark with demand for cement at only 20% of expected levels at the time the lockdown ended on 8 April 2020. Data from the Hubei Cement Association reports that on 30 March 2020 only half of Hubei province’s 57 clinker production lines were producing cement. The rest were suspended. To compound the problems here once logistics networks started to reopen imports of cement from other provinces flooded in taking advantage of price differences.

Few if any of the larger domestic producers have released their first quarter financial results for the first quarter of 2020. Huaxin Cement has said that its sales fell by 36% and that this is expected to cause a profit drop of 46% year-on-year to US$100m. Shanshui Cement has said likewise, although it has not released any forecasts. In its annual report for 2019 released in early April 2020, Anhui Conch said that the coronavirus had exerted a ‘short-term negative impact’ on the group’s business due to the slowdown in supply and demand in the construction materials industry. CNBM also acknowledged the situation in its 2019 report saying that it would, ‘impact on economic activity.’ CNBM’s subsidiary BNBM, a gypsum wallboard manufacturer, has released a forecast for the first quarter predicting a 90% drop in net profit due to poor sale volumes.

How this can inform the cement industries of other countries around the world that have enacted restrictions on their populations is unclear. China, as ever, is an exceptional outlier both economically and as a cement producer. Plus, the severity of how a country enacts a lockdown is crucial here. If the early reports above are indicative then half of Hubei’s clinker lines were forced to suspend production, demand for cement fell by 80% at the time the lockdown ended and imports headed in once transport networks were reopened. Issues were also noticed with labour shortages. Forewarned is forearmed as they say. The next point of focus will be how fast the Hubei and Chinese cement industry recovers from this shock. More on this as we have it.

India: The impact of the coronavirus pandemic was visible in the financial performance of ACC, one of LafargeHolcim’s major Indian subsidiaries, during the three months to 31 March 2020. For the quarter, the company’s consolidated net profit fell by 6.6% on a year-on-year basis to US$42.1m, while net sales declined by 11% to US$448m on the back of a steep fall in volumes, which came to 6.6Mt, 12% lower year-on-year. ACC’s ready mix concrete (RMC) volumes remained stable at 930,000t.

The pandemic mainly impacted sales volumes in March 2020, whereas January and February 2020 saw healthy growth in both cement and RMC sales. ACC said that this was due to a focus on premium products, increase in value-added solutions in its ready mix business, cost reductions on the manufacturing side and logistics-derived savings. Input cost of raw materials were lower on account of material source mix optimisation and supply chain efficiencies. Consequently, the company’s earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) for the first quarter increased by 10% year-on-year to US$76.4m.

Sridhar Balakrishnan, ACC’s managing director and chief executive officer (CEO), said, “We believe that with a high probability of a normal monsoon season, growth in the rural economy will revive and stay strong. We expect cement demand to increase in the medium term once the pandemic subsides and business operations commence”.

Qatar: The manufacturing sector of Qatar recorded a 2% month-on-month decrease in activity in February 2020 compared to January 2020. Cement and non-metallic mineral product production decreased by 1.6%.