Displaying items by tag: South Africa

South Africa: Research carried out by Beton-Lab on the instigation off PPC has revealed a widespread flouting of cement quality regulations, with the majority of samples overweight or underweight and of inconsistent quality. Beton-Lab tested 14 products from 10 different producers. Cape Times has suggested that the results are due to the addition of fly ash and slag to finished cement as a common practice amongst producers.

In August 2019, PPC and other South African producers lobbied the government International Trade Administration Commission for a tightening of cement standards in response to a perceived compromise on quality by importers, whose 4.6% stake in the market grew by 293% year-on-year in July 2019.

South Africa: The National Regulator for Compulsory Specifications (NRCS) has confiscated cement supplied by Rainbow Power Cement due to non-compliance with the requirements of the compulsory specification on cement. The NRCS has issued a directive against the sale and supply of such products.

“Rainbow Power Cement does not have the authority to manufacture and supply cement in South Africa as it had failed to meet minimum safety requirements in line with the NRCS Act. This has therefore led to withdrawal of the Letter of Authority as previously issued by the NRCS,” said the regulator in a statement. It added that sub-standard cement can negatively affect the sustainability of buildings and structures leading to higher maintenance costs and even structural failures.

The NRCS said that non-compliant cement was initially identified and confiscated in Gauteng province but that there were signs that the cement had also been distributed in other provinces.

Rainbow Power Cement said that it is moving to a new certifying body, the South African Bureau of Standards (SABS). It acknowledged that it is unable to sell any cement until this process is completed.

South Africa: PPC has appointed the former Holcim Philippines chief operating officer and Eastern Europe regional CEO Roland Van Wijnen to the position of CEO. Van Wijnen, who holds a master’s degree from the University of Twente, will take over control of the company’s 6.2Mt/yr total integrated capacity across South Africa and Zimbabwe from Johannes Theodorus Claassen on 1 October 2019.

South Africa: South Africa imported 0.1Mt of cement in July 2019, 293% more than in July 2018. The Algeria Press Service has reported the value of July 2019’s imports as US$4.85m. This represents a decrease from the June 2019 figure of US$6.73 of 28%. Vietnam continues to be the main contributor to the June and Julyimport figures, with Pakistan notably absent in both months. In the record seven months to 31 July 2019, South Africa imported 0.6Mt of cement at a total cost of US$29.6m.

Njobo Lekula, managing director of PPC, has stated that cement prices are ‘critically’ low for domestic producers, whose 18Mt/yr capacity faces a domestic demand of 13Mt/yr. In August 2019, South Africa’s major cement producers applied to South Africa’s International Trade Administration Commission (ITAC) for a tightening of cement standards, which may take the form of a blanket tariff on imports.

South Africa: PPC has reported an increase in it earnings before interest, tax, and depreciation (EBITDA) of 5 - 10% for the four-month period to 30 July 2019 compared to a year ago.

Against a backdrop of subdued domestic demand and competitive pricing by importers (whose imports increased 22.0% year-on-year to 0.64Mt in the first half of 2019), the group has held gross debt at a similar level to that reported in March 2019, implementing its US$4.56/t saving initiative and a focus on its most profitable market segments, with sales reduced by 10-15% in the four months to 30 July 2019 compared with 2018.

PPC’s financial report states that South African cement producers have engaged the relevant authorities for a cement standards check.

South Africa: The South African cement industry is calling on the International Trade Administration Commission (ITAC) to probe a flood of imports into the country. South Africa, which has six cement producers and more than 30% over-capacity, has become a net importer of cement. Imports have increased by 139% since 2016, according to The Concrete Institute’s (ITC) managing director Brian Perrie.

Perrie said in an interview that TCI, representing AfriSam, Dangote Cement South Africa, Lafarge Industries South Africa, Natal Portland Cement and PPC were approaching ITAC to investigate whether the industry required protection from an 18-month surge in imports.

He said that imported cement was undercutting South African prices by as much as 45%, while local producers also had to meet the requirements of the Southern African Customs Union (SACU), meet black empowerment and other social requirements and, at the same time, protect thousands of jobs in the domestic industry. Also, the recent carbon tax translated into a 2% increase in selling prices, putting the local industry at a further price disadvantage. “Trade remedy protection is required," said Perrie, pointing out that producers did not want a ‘ban’ on imports, rather some form of protection to ‘level the playing field.’

South Africa instituted anti-dumping duties of 17 – 70% against importers from Pakistan in 2015. Imports duly fell in 2016 but rose again in 2017 and 2018, mainly from Vietnam and China. Perrie said that 350,441t of cement arrived in the second quarter of 2019 alone, the most since the third quarter of 2015. Most came in through Durban (260,909t), an 85% increase on the first quarter.

Nigeria: Dangote Cement’s sale revenue fell by 3% year-on-year to US$1.30bn in the first half of 2019 from US$1.34bn in the same period in 2018. Its earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) dropped by 11.4% to US$605m from US$683m. Cement sales volumes decreased slightly to 12.3Mt. Revenue, earnings and sales volumes all fell in Nigeria but only earnings fell for its operations outside of the country.

“Group sales volumes were only slightly down on last year and this was a solid performance against the impact of delayed elections and increased competition from new capacity in Nigeria, as well as operational and economic challenges in key territories such as Ethiopia and South Africa. However, we saw a stronger performance from Tanzania, which is now running on gas turbines, and also from Senegal, where our sales volumes are more than 100% of our rated capacity,” said Joe Makoju, the group chief executive officer of Dangote Cement.

Zimbabwe: Kyle Wang, the general manager of Livetouch Investments, says that his company is considering plans to build a clinker plant. He said that the Chinese company was holding negotiations with South Africa’s PPC to invest up to US$50m into a joint venture, according to the Chronicle newspaper. Livetouch Investments owns the Diamond Cement grinding plant at Redcliff, which opened in 2017. It sources its clinker from PPC at present.

Rwanda: The Rwandan government has extended the sale of its stake in Cimerwa to 19 July 2019 to give potential investors more time. The initial deadline was 5 July 2019, according to the New Times newspaper. The government and its related shareholders own a 49% stake in the cement producer. The controlling share in the company is owned by South Africa’s PPC.

South Africa: PPC has appointed Roland van Wijnen as its chief executive officer (CEO). He succeeds Johan Claassen, who announced his retirement in November 2018. Van Wijnen has signed a four-year contract and is expected to take up the position as soon as he secures a work permit.

Van Wijnen has worked for Holcim and LafargeHolcim for 17 years in various leadership positions across the group including the CEO of Holcim Philippines. He also worked in South Africa for the business before it left the territory. He is an Industrial Engineering graduate from the University of Twente in the Netherlands.