Displaying items by tag: South Korea
Korea’s cement firms brought in Japanese radioactive coal
23 October 2014South Korea: According to local media, Korea's cement firms have received US$127m from the Japanese government for three years from 2011 to 2013 for bringing in Japanese coal that is thought to have been contaminated with radioactivity.
According to data submitted by the Environment Ministry to Lee In-young of the main opposition New Politics Alliance for Democracy, who is also a member of the National Assembly's environment labour committee, four domestic cement firms (Ssangyong Cement Industrial, Tongyang Cement and Energy, Lafarge Halla Cement and Hanil Cement) brought in 3.69Mt of coal from Japan from 2011, when the Fukushima nuclear accident occurred, until 2013. In return, they received a total of US$127m for waste disposal.
This is the first time that the amount of money Korea's cement firms received from importing Japanese coal has been revealed. Japanese coal imported to Korea stood at 1.11Mt, worth US$39.9m in 2011, 1.23Mt or US$45.5m in 2012 and 1.35Mt or US$42.2m in 2013. The amount has continued to increase over the past three years.
"The problem is that 20-73Bq/kg of radioactive cesium was detected in the Japanese coal," said Lee. "Though this level is lower than the safety threshold (370Bq), there is the possibility of cesium exposure in everyday life, given that coal is used in cement as well as other construction and industrial materials." If the level of cesium that is radioactive exceeds the safety threshold and permeates into body, it can cause osteomyelitis or thyroid cancer, among others.
Tong Yang Cement files for court receivership
02 October 2013South Korea: Tong Yang Cement, a subsidiary of Tong Yang Group, has filed for court receivership. The receivership with the Chuncheon District Court was lodged in an official note, as reported by the Korean Broadcasting System. Sister-companies Tongyang Incorporated, Tongyang International, Tongyang Leisure and Tongyang Networks have also filed for court receivership in recent days.
Tongyang Group will have to repay debts of more than US$1bn.
South Korean cement producers retract price rise warning
24 April 2013South Korea: Leading cement producers in South Korea, including Tongyang Cement, Hanil Cement and Sungshin, have notified ready-mixed concrete companies and construction contractors that they will freeze cement prices for 2013. The move follows an investigation on suspected price collusion by the Fair Trade Commission.
The official notices from the cement producers attributed the decision to the financial difficulties experienced by most cement-consuming industries. Accordingly, the cement makers will soon cancel the invoices sent out to the consumer firms.
Since February 2013, cement producers have said they would raise cement prices by 9 – 10% in 2013 due to a rise in the prices of bituminous coal and other raw materials. The cumulative losses of Korea's six major cement producers since 2007 have been in excess of US$867m.
South Korea: The South Korean Fair Trade Commission has started an investigation into major cement companies including Ssangyong Cement Industrial and Hanil Cement for suspected price fixing. The companies had notified ready-mixed concrete operators that they would raise their cement prices by 9-10% in 2012.
On 9 April 2013 the commission sent investigators on a two day probe to seven cement producers: Ssangyong Cement Industrial, Hanil Cement, Tongyang Cement, Sungshin Cement, Lafarge Halla, Asia Cement and Hyundai Cement.
An industry source said, "Lately cement producers and ready-mixed concrete operators are at loggerheads over cement prices. It appears that the Fair Trade Commission is looking closely into the matter. In 2003, the commission had imposed penalties of US$22.5m for restricting the supply of cement to ready-mixed concrete makers in order to prevent them to use slag powder in place of cement."
Lafarge to sell South Korean unit
12 December 2012South Korea: French cement maker Lafarge is looking to sell its controlling stake in its South Korean subsidiary Lafarge Halla Cement Co, according to South Korean online media Edaily. The French company, which controls about 90% of its Seoul-based unit, expects to raise around US$651m in proceeds from the divestment, for which it has picked Lazard and HSBC's South Korean arm.
Lafarge, which has been offloading non-strategic assets in a drive to push its debt below US$13bn from US$16bn, has not commented on the report. The move follows the announcement in November 2012 that Lafarge and Anglo American would sell a portfolio of its UK operations to Mittal Investments for US$439m, and the sale of two of Lafarge's cement plants in North America to Eagle Materials for US$446m in September 2012.
US: Texas Industries (TXI) has requested that the US Department of Commerce and the Interagency Trade Enforcement Center investigate and counteract 'unfairly' priced portland cement imports from Greece and the Republic of Korea.
In a letter to the organisations, TXI, the largest producer of cement in Texas and a major cement producer in California, stated that it believes that imports from Greece and Korea are being sold at less than a 'fair' value and are benefiting from government subsidies. In addition it alleged that these imports have materially injured Texas cement producers and their employees.
Imports from Greece and Korea to Texas increased by almost 40% from 2009 to 2011, and increased another 14% from the first half of 2011 to the first half of 2012. Allegedly these imports have taken substantial sales volumes from Texan producers resulting in underutilisation of local production capacity and reduced profits.
Negotiations collapse over South Korean prices
24 February 2012South Korea: A rift between South Korea's construction, cement and ready-mixed concrete companies deepened yesterday as a series of price negotiations ended in stalemate with all sides refusing to compromise.
Squeezed by soaring raw cement costs, some 750 manufacturers of premixed concrete across the country halted production on 22 February 2012, saying they are only losing money by running their plants. They demand that builders accept an 8% increase in prices of ready-mixed concrete and that cement suppliers withdraw a recent 11% increase. They had been prepared to negotiate a lower increase, but two rounds of three-way talks convened by the government have failed to break the impasse. This has seen scores of construction projects put at risk as trucks remain idle.
"Things are not working out because all sides are not willing to step back," said Bae Jo-woong, head of the Korea Federation Ready-mixed Concrete Industry Cooperatives' (CIC) emergency committee and chief executive of Kookmin Remicon. Other officials at the CIC say that the current rates leave no margin for concrete producers and do not reflect sharp growth in cost of coal, sand, gravel and other raw materials seen in 2011.
The CIC argues that while cement manufacturers secured an 11% price hike on 1 January 2012, ready-mixed concrete makers were only allowed to raise their prices by less than 4%. "It made sense to push up cement prices that had been exorbitantly cheap. The recent increase will keep the cement firms afloat but the problem now is that construction companies are resisting raised ready-mixed concrete prices," said Park Jong-rok, an analyst with a Seoul-based brokerage.
2011 a record year for South Korean cement exports
18 January 2012South Korea: South Korea's cement exports reached an all-time high in 2011 as domestic manufacturers turned their eyes overseas amid a deepening domestic property slump.
The Korea Cement Association (KCA) said that South Korean cement manufacturers exported a total of 4.49Mt of cement in 2011, up a massive 62% from the 2.77Mt exported in 2010. The total amount of clinker and cement exported by South Korea rose to 9.97Mt, surpassing the 2010 record of 7.53Mt.
The KCA said that the long-running slump in the local construction market had forced its domestic companies to make inroads into overseas markets and diversify their business portfolios. "Cement makers sought to sell their products in overseas markets because the local demand for cement was so low," said an official from a local cement manufacturer.