Displaying items by tag: South Africa

Nigeria: Lafarge Africa is considering raising up to US$248m in a share sale. The sale will take place in the fourth quarter of 2018 said chief financial officer Bruno Bayet whilst reporting the company’s half-year results, according to Bloomberg. Its sales rose by 5% year-on-year to US$448m in the first half of 2018 from US$427m in the same period in 2017. However, its earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) fell by 25% to US$76.4m from US$102m. The subsidiary of Switzerland’s LafargeHolcim blamed its falling earnings on poor performance in South Africa.

Botswana: The Ministry of Investment, Trade and Industry plans to restrict imports of cement following the introduction of new legislation. It will require 70% of cement to be sourced from local producers with only 30% allowed to be imported, according to the Weekend Post newspaper. The Control of Goods, Prices and Other Charges Act was announced in April 2018. An import permit scheme is scheduled to start in September 2018. The new regulations are intended to regulate trade with South Africa better.

South Africa: Sephaku Cement says that its earnings for its 2018 financial year that ended on 31 March 2018 are expected to fall by up to 40% to US$3m. It has blamed this on a poor start to the year from its cement business, the impact of one-off income from a closure agreement with Sinoma regarding the opening of a new cement plant on the previous year’s results and poor results from its concrete business.

South Africa: PPC’s profit rose due to strong performance in Zimbabwe and Rwanda. Its gross profit rose by 3% year-on-year to US$174m in the financial year that ended on 31 March 2018 from US$169m in the same period in 2017. Its revenue grew by 7% to US$762m from US$715m. However, its earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) fell by 9% to US$140m from US$153m.

"Our performance has been resilient against the backdrop of challenging economic and political environments in markets in which we operate. While our rest of Africa operations, particularly Zimbabwe and Rwanda, achieved good results, our materials division faced reduced demand and increased competition. Our results have also been impacted by a number of significant abnormal items: corporate action, impairment of Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) operations and restructuring costs,” said chief executive officer (CEO) Johan Claassen.

By region, the group’s sales in South Africa and Botswana fell slightly due to a fall in cement sales volumes of 2 – 3%. Imports rose by 32% although PPC said it was from a low base. Elsewhere in Africa, PPC’s sales volumes rose by over 50% supported by ‘robust’ volume growth in Rwanda and Zimbabwe. The group’s PPC Barnet cement plant in Democratic Republic of Congo was commissioned in November 2017.

PPC’s lime division increased its revenue by 2% to US$59m, with volumes and selling prices similar to 2017. Volumes were constrained by key steel-customer shutdowns and non-extension of a significant contract. Lime's EBITDA contracted by
18% after higher variable costs for maintenance and raw material inputs.

Mozambique: The Mozambican customs service has defended the seizure of a 1440t import consignment of cement from South Africa in early June 2018. Fernando Tinga, the press attaché of the National Customs Directorate, said that the seizure of the cement was because the importing company Kawena did not present the legally required documentation at the time, according to the Noticias newspaper. Kawena has defended its actions saying that it has imported cement from South Africa for ‘many years’ and that its goods belonging to Mozambican migrant workers living in South Africa are exempt from taxes. However, it admitted that it did not have the correct documentation for the consignment.

South Africa: Magotteaux International has become a strategic equity partner in Grinding Media South Africa (GMSA). The decision follows an agreement between the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) and Magotteaux on extending their partnership in GMSA. GMSA, a newly created company spun out of industrial group Scaw Metals, specialises in the manufacturing and design of grinding balls for use in the mining, cement and utilities industries.

The partnership will also enhance the technical and financial capacity of the business as well as provide access to new growth markets. As part of this partnership, Magotteaux will assume the operational management of GMSA upon conclusion of the agreement.

“Magotteaux has been collaborating closely with Scaw High Chromium grinding media for more than 30 years”, said Sébastien Dossogne, chief executive officer (CEO) of Magotteaux.

Mozambique: Cement imported illegally from South Africa has been seized at the border town of Ressano Garcia. Customs impounded 36 railway wagons containing an estimated 29,000 bags of cement being imported by Kawena, according to the O Pais newspaper. Due to a lack of proper documentation the customs office is treating the case as fraud. The shipment is valued at US$0.12m and duties of US$74,500 should have been paid on it. Kawena says it has the documentation for the consignment, according to the Mozambique News Agency.

Nigeria: Lafarge Africa’s chairman Mobolaji Balogun says that the company plans to cut its debts by 2020 before continuing with its expansion programme. In an interview with Bloomberg he said that the cement producer wants reduce its leverage ratio to below 70% from over 100% at present.

The subsidiary of LafargeHolcim wants to take advantage of improvements in the Nigerian economy and a recovery in South Africa to grow its profits. Its total debt recently dropped to about US$600m. Lafarge Africa incurred debt to expand the production capacity at its Calabar cement plant and plans to add more production to plants in the southwest and the north of the country.

South Africa: Gebr. Pfeiffer has started installing a MVR 3750 C-4 mill for a joint venture between Osho Cement and HeidelbergCement that is building a cement grinding plant at Port Elizabeth. The deal was agreed in 2017 and TCDRI is the general contractor. It is Gebr. Pfeiffer’s first MVR mill in the country.

The new mill will be grinding 110t/hr of Ordinary Portland Cement (CEM I) to a fineness of 3500cm²/g Blaine and 80t/hr of blast-furnace cement (CEM III-A) to 4500cm²/g Blaine. A SLS 3750 BC classifier with high-precision cut will be mounted on top of the mill. The mill will have an installed power of 2600kW. It is intended to start operation later in 2018.

South Africa: PPC and China’s Sinoma Construction have successfully ignited the kiln at the Slurry Kiln 9 project in North West province. The new clinker production line will now undergo a three-month test period, according to the China Economic Daily newspaper. Once testing is finished, the 3300t/day line will be transferred to PPC to start commissioning.