Displaying items by tag: Secil
Update on Angola
19 July 2017The old joke about buses only coming along in pairs might just apply to Angolan cement plants this week with the inauguration of Nova Cimangola’s new 2.4Mt/yr cement plant in Luanda. It follows the announcement of the start of an upgrade project to build a clinker kiln at Cimenfort’s grinding plant in Benguela. In cement industry terms for a country with a production capacity below 10Mt/yr these projects are right on top of each other!
Nova Cimangola’s new plant has been a well-publicised project internationally. Sinoma International Engineering coordinated the line for US$400m in 21 months using components from well-known suppliers. Loesche provided a number of raw material, cement and coal mills for the project, including the country’s first vertical roller mill, as well as other components and parts. Loesche’s Austrian subsidiary A Tec also got involved as an EPCM (Engineering, Procurement & Construction Management) partner.
Cimenfort’s clinker kiln project is the third phase of a process to turn its grinding plant at Catumbela in Benguela into a fully integrated unit since it opened in 2012. Earlier phases saw the grinding plant’s capacity increase to 1.4Mt/yr from 0.7Mt/yr by using a new roller press. Work on the kiln is now scheduled to start in January 2018 with completion scheduled for 2020.
If Cimenfort makes it to clinker production they will join the country’s three main producers: Nova Cimangola, Fabrica de Cimento do Kwanza Sul (FCKS) and the China International Fund. Getting that far is by no means certain as the Palanca Cement plant project demonstrates. That scheme was backed by Brazil’s Camargo Corrêa, the owners of InterCement, and local business group Gema. However, the regulators bailed out Portugal’s Banco Espírito Santo, the financial backer of the project, in 2014 effectively killing it. Another project that has gone on the back burner is Portugal’s Secil’s plan to build a second plant next to its grinding plant in Lobito. Originally approved by the Angolan government in 2007 the project has been kicked around since then through various revisions to the local investment body. It was last reported as being under consideration by the president’s office of Angola in 2016.
Ministry of Industry figures place cement production capacity at 8.3Mt/yr compared to a consumption of 6Mt/yr. In contrast to this Secil’s parent company Semapa reported that the Angolan cement market contracted in 2016 by 25% to 3.9Mt in line with the poor state of the general economy, pushed down by poor oil prices. It blamed the decrease in cement consumption on a halt in public infrastructure spending and the negative effect that local currency devaluations had on clinker imports and other incoming raw materials. With the International Monetary Fund (IMF) forecasting economic growth to pick up for Angola in 2017, improvements in the construction and cement sector are expected by Semapa but they hadn’t been seen so far during the first quarter of the year.
The government’s keenness to describe its cement industry as ‘self-sufficient in cement’ mimics calls from other African countries like Nigeria. The Angolan government banned cement imports in 2015, with the exception of certain border provinces, and this has continued into 2017. However, the ban hasn’t stopped the country exporting cement to its neighbours. Earlier this year the head of Cimenterie de Lukala in the Democratic Republic of Congo blamed the closure of his company’s integrated plant on imports from Angola.
All of this leaves an enlarged local cement industry waiting for the good times to come again. In the meantime, exporting cement and clinker no doubt seems like a promising proposition. In the middle of this are projects like those from Cimenfort and Secil that are looking decidedly dicey in the current economic environment. These companies may have just missed the bus to make their upgrades happen. Still, if they wait around long enough, their chance may come again when the market revives.
Belgium: Gonçalo Salazar Leite has been appointed as the president of Cembureau, the European cement association, for a two-year term at the association’s general assembly held on 9 June 2017 in Paris. The vice-chairman of Secil has served as the association’s vice-president since 2015. He succeeds Daniel Gauthier, the former chief executive officer (CEO) Western Europe-Africa and member of the managing board of HeidelbergCement, in the role. In addition, Raoul de Parisot, advisor to Vicat’s chairman and CEO, has been elected as the vice-president of Cembureau for a two-year term.
Leite said that he intends to focus on supporting the industry on the path towards its low-carbon targets, framing the association’s European Union (EU) policy discussions in a wider international context and contributing to the ‘true image’ of the industry.
Otmar Hubscher appointed CEO of Secil
23 November 2016Brazil: Otmar Hubscher has been appointed as the new chief executive officer of Secil. He replaces Gonçalo Salazar Leite, according to the Negócios newspaper. Hubscher, a Swiss national, was previously the head of LafargeHolcim's Brazilian operations.
Secil Lobito struggling to import raw materials
05 August 2016Angola: Augusto Miragaia, the director of Secil Lobito, has said that he expects his company’s sales volumes of cement to drop by 25% year-on-year to 150,000 in 2016. He attributed the fall in sales to difficulties in obtaining foreign currencies to import raw material, according to the O País newspaper.
The company, which operates a cement grinding plant in Lobito, is unable to import sufficient clinker, other raw materials or hire skilled workers. It also faces mounting fuel and electricity costs. During the past three months the plant has used clinker purchased from the Cuanza Sul Cement plant but this source stopped supplying it in late June 2016.
Angola has five cement plants and an installed capacity of about 8Mt/yr. Demand exceeded production capacity by 2.7Mt/yr in 2015. The Lobito cement plant is majority owned by Secil-Angola. The remaining 49% stake is held by Angola’s state-run company Empresa Nacional de Cimentos.
Secil to build new 2Mt/yr cement plant in Brazil via Supremo
15 October 2015Brazil: Portugal's Secil plans to upgrade its production capacity in Brazil by 2Mt/yr by the end of 2015. The move results from the addition of a new US$149m plant by its local division, Supremo, in Adrianopolis, Parana. Supremo also runs another plant in Pomerode, Catarina. The new plant will increase Secil's total cement production capacity from 7.65Mt/yr to 9.65Mt/yr, a 26% rise.
Portugal: João Castello Branco will replace Pedro Queiroz Pereira as the CEO of Semapa. In a company statement, Pedro Queiroz Pereira announced that he would propose João Castello Branco to the board of directors in July 2015 for the post as well as for appointment to the post of chairman of the executive committee. Pedro Queiroz Pereira intends to remain as chairman of the board of directors. João Castello Branco works currently as a senior director at McKinsey Iberia.
Semapa's 2014 profit fell by 23%
18 February 2015Portugal: Portugal's conglomerate Semapa, which owns cement maker Secil and pulp and paper producer Portucel, has posted a 23% fall in its 2014 net profit due to tax adjustments and a financial loss. Semapa's net profit fell to Euro113m in 2014. Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) fell by 2.6% year-on-year to Euro410m. Total sales rose by 1.5% to nearly Euro2bn, with cement sales up by 5%.
N+P signs solid recovered fuels deal with Secil and Cimpor
03 December 2014Portugal: N+P International has announced the signing of a five year contract for the supply of solid recovered fuels (SRF) into a number of cement plants belonging to the Portuguese cement companies Secil and Cimpor. The contract was signed by Gestão Ambiental e Valorização Energética, a subsidiary company of Secil, Cimpor and SGVR, responsible for sourcing and supply of alternative fuels and raw materials into the Portuguese cement industry.
"In the past years we have invested millions to develop UK market, to provide end users of our SRF sustainable supply concept. We have put a lot of effort in optimising quality levels of SRF in the UK market, as well as investing in the development of sustainable logistic chains. Now N+P has several port sites at strategic locations and the possibility to use a large number of sea containers," said Karel Jennissen, chairman of N+P.
By signing the contract N+P has committed to supply over 700,000t of SRF in the next five years. The majority of the SRF is already sourced and contracted by companies in the UK recycling market. A minor part of the volume will be sourced in Italy and France.