Displaying items by tag: Saudi Arabia
Middle Eastern cement industry improves in 2012
08 August 2012Middle East: Cement companies in the Middle East witnessed a 24.3% increase in revenues in the first quarter of 2012 to US$1.26bn as construction picked up in certain parts of the region.
The industry's profits rose to US$435.6m in the second quarter of the 2012 financial year, compared to US$359.5m in 2011, a growth of 21.2%. However, according to Global Investment House's report, net margins suffered a fall during the period.
UAE and Oman reported higher revenues due to the better operating environments in both countries. The sales revenue of UAE firms increased by 7.7% to US$258.1m, bringing gross margin back to double digits at 10.5%.
Rizwan Sajan, chairman of Danube Building Materials, said that the UAE construction industry had started to pick up. "The second quarter of this year was much better than the first quarter on positive signs in the UAE," Sajan said. Omani companies witnessed a 16.7% increase in revenue to US$100.3m.
Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia achieved strong growth of 34.7% in revenue during the quarter, outperforming the UAE, Qatar and Oman. Saudi Arabia is witnessing a significant rise in demand because of its development plan. In March 2011 King Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz ordered the construction of 500,000 housing units, as well as the building and expansion of hospitals. He also ordered the injection of capital into specialised credit institutions to facilitate debt write-offs and increase mortgage lending.
It is expected that Saudi Arabia's cement demand will strengthen in 2013, with US$24bn of transport projects under way or in the pipeline. The Haramain High Speed Railway has taken centre stage, with the final contract for the project, worth US$1.4bn, awarded in July 2011. Attention should now turn to the US$7bn Saudi Landbridge project, an east-west rail line that will link Jeddah and Dammam.
Saudi producers Q2 profits rise year-on-year
18 July 2012Saudi Arabia: Southern Province Cement has reported a 9.6% rise in quarterly profits, citing the start-up a second production line at its Tahama plant and increased demand from local markets.
Saudi Arabia's biggest cement producer by market value posted a second-quarter net profit of US$69.9m for the quarter ending on 30 June 2012, compared with US$63.7m for the same period in 2011. However profit was down by 7.75% from the first quarter of 2012, when it was US$75.7m. The company attributed this to instruction by the ministry of commerce and industry decreasing the price that t it is able to sell cement at.
Meanwhile, Saudi Cement Co posted a net profit of US$77.4m for the second quarter, a rise of 36% year-on-year. It cited growing domestic demand for cement and clinker. The Saudi construction sector has been boosted over the past year by ramped-up government spending, including a pledge to build a quarter of a million new houses as well as schools and hospitals.
Saudi Cement Co's profit fell by 10.9% compared to the first quarter of 2012, when it was US$86.8m. The company blamed the decrease on a decline in sales.
Yanbu second quarter profit increases
11 July 2012Saudi Arabia: Yanbu Cement has posted a net profit of US$57.6m for the second quarter of 2012 compared to US$40m for the same period of 2011. This represents a increase of 44% over the US$38.7m made in the previous quarter. The company made a gross profit of US$62.7m in the second quarter, a 48% increase year-on-year.
Over the course of the first half Yanbu's net profit went from US$66.2m in 2011 to US$96m in 2012. Its gross profit for the six months was US$104.8m compared to US$71.7m in 2011, an increase of 46%.
Yanbu said that the the reason for increase in its net profit was an increase in both production and sales, helped by a new cement line and an increase in cement demand.
Southern Province estimated first half results
26 June 2012Saudi Arabia: Southern Province Cement Company has estimated that its net profit for the second quarter of 2012 will be 9.6% higher than the comparable period in 2011 at US$69.9m compared to US$63.7m.
Its estimated gross profit during the second quarter was US$71.9m compared to US$67.2m, a year-on-year increase of 7.1%. The company estimated its operating profit during the second quarter as US$69.8m compared to US$63.7m for the corresponding quarter of 2011, an increase of 9.6%.
Over the course of the six months to 30 June 2012, Southern Province estimates that its net profit will be in the region of US$154.6m compared to US$124.0m and that its operating profit will be US$146.7m compared to US$125.1m in the corresponding period of 2011.
Southern Province said that the rise in net profit for the second quarter and for the six month period was due to operation of the second production line at its Tahama plant, which had no unforeseen stoppages. There was also an increase in demand for cement in the local market.
The company noted that its second quarter 2012 net profit was marginally weaker than that of the first quarter of 2012 due to industry-wide pressure from the Ministry of Commerce to reduce cement prices.
Saudi Cement profit rises in first quarter
12 June 2012Saudi Arabia: Saudi Cement Company (SCC) said that its net profit for the three months to 31 March 2012 surged by 54.4% year-on-year to US$86.8m from US$56.2m in the year to 31 March 2011.
The company attributed the increase to higher sales volumes as a result of rising local demand. Its operating profit increased to US$87.8m for the first quarter of 2012 from US$58.1m a year earlier.
Saudi Arabia: Southern Province Cement (SPC), the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's biggest cement firm by market value, and Chinese engineering company Sinoma have signed a US$188m contract for the installation of a third production line at SPC's plant in Tahama.
The turnkey contract will be executed over a period of 24 months. Once completed, the third production line will have a clinker capacity of 5000t/day. SPC said that it will use its own funds to finance the project. In early March 2012, the Saudi company announced that the second production line at the Tahama plant started commercial production, bringing SPC's total capacity to 23,000t/day.
SPC, one of the nine listed cement companies operating in the Kingdom, is based in Abha, southwestern Saudi Arabia. It operates factories in Jazan, Bisha and Tahama.
Saudi firms see strong start to 2012
11 April 2012Saudi Arabia: Yanbu Cement has announced that its first-quarter net profit for 2012 rose by 43% year-on-year to US$38.6m. Earnings per share for the first three months of the year rose to US$0.37 from US$0.26 in the year earlier period. It added that its first-quarter operating profit surged by 44% to US$39.9m.
Meanwhile Yamama Saudi Cement has said that its first quarter profit surged by 54% compared to the first quarter of 2011 to US$74.1m due to higher sales and better operational efficiency. Its first-quarter earnings per share came in at US$0.37 compared to US$0.35 in 2011, according to a statement. Its operating profit for the three-month period rose to US$76.5m, compared to US$49.1m in the same period of 2011, a year-on-year rise of 55%.
Qassim Cement's Q1 profit rises 7.65%
11 April 2012Saudi Arabia: The Qassim Cement Company has reported that its net profit for the first quarter of 2012 grew by 7.65%, from US$39.2m in 2011 to US$42.2m.
The firm added that its consolidated gross profit rose by 4.87% to US$45.5m, up from US$43.4m in 2011. Its consolidated operating profit in the quarter went up by 6.93% to US$43.2m, compared with US$40.44m in 2011. Qassim Cement's first-quarter consolidated net profit increased by 8.45% from US$39m as reported in the fourth quarter of 2011.
Saudi cement floods into Yemeni market
04 April 2012Yemen: It is being reported that large quantities of Saudi Arabian cement are being smuggled to Yemeni markets due to the decline of local supply and an increase in cement demand in Yemen. The head of the financial sector of the Public Cement Corporation, Abdul-Malik Al-Qirshi, told Yemeni press that the trucks that transfer Yemeni salt to the Saudi town of Jazan, return to Hodeida in Yemen carrying Saudi cement. Exports from Saudi Arabia have recently been blocked by the government there.
Al-Qirshi explained that Saudi cement increasingly flows to Yemeni markets due to the suspension of production at some Yemeni factories. He made it clear that the Saudi cement is largely purchased in Hodeida and on the Yemeni-Saudi border, going on to add that Saudi cement is sold at nearly twice the price that it is in Saudi Arabia.
"Despite the fact that Saudi cement is smuggled to the Yemeni markets, there is impure cement of unknown-origin that is packed in Saudi-made bags" he added. "This occurs due to weak control on the Yemeni market." With the exception of Amran and Al-Watania cement factories, all the other five cement factories in Yemen have halted production.
GCC cement sector revenue jumps 14.2%
27 March 2012Kuwait: Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) cement companies have emerged from two years of decline following the credit crisis with a strong 14.2% increase in revenue, according to a report by Global Investment House. Sector profits, however, increased by 2.7% in 2011. Revenues reached US$4.6bn in 2011 compared to US$4bn in 2010. Net profits increased from US$1.44bn in 2010 to US$1.48bn in 2011.
By country, Saudi Arabia, Oman, United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Kuwait overturned declining revenues in 2010 and all four countries reported increasing sales for 2011 except Qatar. UAE, which witnessed declining sales revenue since 2008, enjoyed a 5.9% increase in sales to reach US$940m. Yet net profit was negative for the first time since the researchers started to compile UAE cement data.
Oman witnessed a 12.8% increase in sales revenue reaching US$342.3m in 2011, the second highest revenue in Oman's cement history. However Oman reported a 39.4% decrease in profits in 2011. Kuwait reported a 5.4% increase in revenue reaching US$66.9m in 2011, but it posted a 47.1% decrease in net profits compared to 2010. Qatar was the only GCC country reporting declining sales and profits. Saudi Arabia posted a healthy 22.6% increase in sales revenue and a 25.2% increase in net profits in 2011.
According to Saudi government officials, Saudi Arabia will spend an estimated US$400bn on large infrastructure projects from 2012 until 2017. Ever since the country banked upon diversification, the cement sector witnessed a tremendous pick up in demand from less than 20Mt in 2005 to 49Mt in 2011. In the wake of increasing demand locally, the government imposed a conditional ban on cement exports in 2010 that further pushed demand. Saudi Arabia lifted a ban on cement imports in March 2012 and neighbouring exporter nations, Oman and the UAE, are expected to benefit greatly from the change.