Displaying items by tag: Titan Cement Group

Europe/US: Titan Cement has reported sales of €2.64bn in 2024, up by 4% year-on-year, with growth across all product lines and regions, led by the US and Europe. The group recorded earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) of €592m, up by 10%, with gains from operating efficiencies, lower solid fuel costs and increased alternative fuel use. Net profit after tax stood at €315.3m. In February 2025, Titan completed the IPO of Titan America on the New York Stock Exchange, raising US$393m.

Sales in the fourth quarter grew by 1% year-on-year to €660m, with net profit after tax at €77.5m. Titan said it is on track to digitalise 100% of its plants by 2026.

Holcim revealed the board members for its proposed North America business this week. Former group CEO Jan Jenisch was confirmed as the designated chair and CEO. He will be joined by nine directors chosen from sectors including construction, manufacturing, industrial operations and financial services. Notably, current Holcim director Jürg Oleas will be joining Jenisch at the new company. He previously worked as the head of GEA Group and had senior stints at ABB and the Alstom Group.

The group’s decision to split its business in North America from that in the rest of the world has been presented as a piece of financial engineering designed to increase earnings, margins and increase the value of the business. Markets in the US and Europe have diverged in recent years, with the former growing and the latter slowing in comparison. Splitting the business should, in theory, allow both companies to grow at their own pace. However, the spin-off company in North America will remain linked to Europe as it will be listed at both the New York Stock Exchange and the SIX Swiss Exchange. The latter is for the benefit of European investors. The separation is expected by the end of the first half 2025, subject to shareholder and customary approvals.

Naturally, other companies are also chasing growth in North America. Titan Cement announced this week that its US-based subsidiary, Titan America, has filed a registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission as part of a proposed initial public offering (IPO). Yet, the company said that the offering is subject to market conditions. As such it couldn’t say when it might happen, how big it might be or much else. Back in May 2024 the group said it was going to list Titan America in the US to “...facilitate the group’s and Titan America’s future growth and unlock new opportunities.” The IPO was intended to be of a minority stake without creating any large-scale tax issues. At this time the transaction was planned to be completed in early 2025.

Titan’s sales share in North America has remained similar from 2018 to 2023 at around 55%. Holcim’s, by comparison, grew to 39% in 2023 from 22% in 2018. This is due to big acquisitions in the US such as Firestone Building Products in 2021 as it built up its lightweight building materials segment. The size of the two companies’ operations in North America are also different. Holcim reported net sales in the region of over US$11bn in 2023. Titan reported net sales of just under US$1.5bn.

Ireland-based CRH moved its stock market listings to the US earlier than both Holcim and Titan. It completed the transition of its primary listing to the New York Stock Exchange in mid-2023, although it too retains a listing in Europe, at the London Stock Exchange in its case. Yet analysts have started to wonder whether the company might spin-off its businesses outside the US. As reported by the Irish Times, Bank of America analysts reckon that the non-US parts of the company now represent only 16% of the US$82bn concern. For sanity’s sake this is still a US$10bn-plus sized company! Although other commentators did wonder why CRH might have bought assets in Australia in 2024 if it was seriously considering making changes on this scale anytime soon.

Despite all this attention on the US and North America by some of the multinational cement producers, it is worth remembering that markets change over time. Europe may not look so hot right now but it is unlikely to stay like this. The head of Heidelberg Materials, for example, said in early 2024 that his company wasn’t planning a split in the US because it was focusing on decarbonisation. This may prove prescient in the longer term if Europe sticks to its sustainability goals. FInally, the US isn’t the only place where cement companies are attempting to build their value in growth markets. It was also reported this week that JSW Cement had obtained approval from the Securities and Exchange Board of India to proceed with its IPO.

Greece: Titan Cement’s sales grew by 8% year-on-year to €1.32bn in the first half of 2024 from €1.23bn in the same period in 2023. It’s earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) rose by 17% to €281m from €241m. By region, its sales increased everywhere but earnings only increased in the US. However, the US constitutes the group’s biggest operating region for both sales and earnings.

Marcel Cobuz, chair of the Group Executive Committee, said “An outstanding performance of the first half of the year with strong commercial focus and accelerated execution of our Strategy 2026 across our markets. We are set for delivering transformational key projects, creating long term value for all stakeholders, focusing on decarbonisation and digitalisation, while driving commercial transformation and excellence in serving our customers.”

The company said that its Titan 2026 Green Growth Strategy execution was ‘well on track,’ with four new bolt-on acquisitions completed in the reporting period and it had achieved new performance level in alternative fuels substitution and clinker substitution in blended cements. A carbon capture and storage project in Athens and a newly awarded calcined clay project in the US are also set to enter their feasibility assessment phases. Titan Cement added that its plan to list its US operations in a New York exchange is progressing according to schedule, with the listing expected to take place in the first quarter of 2025.

Egypt: Titan Egypt has appointed Amr Reda as its CEO. Reda has worked for Lafarge and related companies since 2008 starting as the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) for Lafarge Pakistan Cement. He then became the Country CEO for Lafarge Pakistan in 2012 and the Country CEO for Lafarge Jordan in 2015. Prior to holding positions with Lafarge, Reda held senior finance positions for subsidiaries of Heineken and 3M in Egypt. He is a business graduate from the American University in Cairo and holds a master of business administration (MBA) from the same institution.

Greece: Titan’s full-year 2023 report shows a 12% year-on-year rise in its sales to €2.55bn in 2023. Over 90% of sales derived from Europe and the US. Group earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) grew by 63% to €540m, with ‘double-digit’ profitability growth across all markets. Titan’s cement volumes rose by 2% to 17.5Mt in Greece, with 'double digit' growth in Western Europe, 'historically high' volumes in Southeastern Europe and increased demand and export volumes in the Eastern Mediterranean. For 2024, its outlook is positive, due to its increased volumes and prices in the US and Europe, buoyed by scheduled completion of growth projects. In particular, the group noted the strength of the US economy and high anticipated infrastructure spending, population growth and pent-up housing demand there. It expanded two US cement terminals, in Florida and Virginia, in 2023.

Chair Marcel Cobuz said “This year’s remarkable performance showcases our relentless focus on executing our strategy, delivering above-market results while positioning for further growth. In 2023, we have strengthened our presence in our core growth markets, delivered efficiency improvements and broadened our solutions, serving the increased and evolving needs of our customers. As we celebrate these achievements, we continue our digitalisation and decarbonisation journey, building on our Green Growth Strategic Directions and delivering long-term sustainable value to all our stakeholders.”

Greece: Titan has endorsed the Antwerp Declaration, advocating for an European Union (EU) Industrial Deal complementing the EU Green Deal, to bolster the European economy's sustainable growth and competitiveness. Resulting from a summit in Antwerp, Belgium on 20 February 2024, the declaration has gained support from over 630 businesses across 20 sectors. It highlights the necessity of elevating competitiveness, ensuring a level playing field to counter unfair competition, and prioritising infrastructure development in energy, digital technologies, CCUS, and materials recycling.

Greece: Titan has launched a new, refreshed logo and branding to symbolise its commitment to sustainability and green growth. The logo features the familiar blue globe of the former Titan Cement Group emblem, now interspersed with bright green lines. The producer says that the new branding preserves its heritage, while signalling the modernity of its dynamic, forward-looking strategy. Titan’s new slogan, accompanying the visual identity, is ‘Building a better world together.’

Titan serves 25 markets, complementing its regular operations with over 100 current decarbonisation initiatives.

Valentine’s Day last week included some ‘hot’ news for the cement sector with the announcement that Electrified Thermal Solutions is preparing to build the first commercial-scale pilot of its Joule Hive thermal battery (JHTB) in San Antonio, Texas. The company is working with the Southwest Research Institute on the project along with Buzzi Unicem USA, 3M and Amy’s Kitchen as industrial partners. Advisors include Imerys. The project update follows the award of a US$5m grant from the US Department of Energy (DOE) in late January 2024.

The funding description from the DOE’s Industrial Efficiency & Decarbonization Office reports that the end goal is to “turn intermittent renewable electricity into constant industrial grade heat” that can replace fossil fuel usage. Electrified Thermal Solutions aims to test its JHTB thermal energy storage system, which uses electrically conductive refractory bricks, to convert and store electricity as heat at temperatures higher than 1700°C. The JHTB power ranges between 1 - 200MW of thermal output, with duration up to tens of hours, enabling ‘very affordable’ high temperature energy storage and on-demand heat. Notably, it can charge and discharge simultaneously, allowing a continuous heat supply.

Electrified Thermal Solutions is not alone in targeting the cement sector. As Global Cement Weekly has covered previously energy storage is a growing topic of interest with a few large-scale electrical battery units running at cement plants in Pakistan and Taiwan. The other big name in thermal batteries for cement production is Rondo Energy. Both Electrified Thermal Solutions and Rondo Energy are using modular three-dimensional arrays of refractory bricks to store thermal energy and then release it, although they are likely to have key proprietary differences. However, Rondo Energy appears to be further along the industrial adoption process so far. Titan Cement and Siam Cement Group (SCG) invested in Rondo Energy in 2022. Then in July 2023 SCG and Rondo Energy said that they were planning to expand the production capacity of a heat battery storage unit at an SCG plant from 2.4 GWh/yr in mid-2023 to 90GWh/yr. For more information on Rondo Energy read the feature by CEO John O’Donnell in the January 2023 issue of Global Cement Magazine.

The reason that this matters, as partly explained above, is that fossil fuels contribute about one third of the CO₂ emissions created by heating up the kiln in cement production to make clinker. This is dropping globally due to the uptake of alternative fuels, but burning alternative fuels emits gross CO₂, however you account for the emissions. Mass adoption of thermal batteries by the sector could potentially cut out this double-accounting and reduce that third down to the carbon footprint of the refractory bricks used. This would then create knock-on issues concerning what to do with the waste streams instead but that is not a problem for the cement sector. These are worries for another day, as we first need to see how thermal batteries work at scale at a cement plant.

A recent feature in the Economist considered whether the mass adoption of electrical power from renewable sources might be an increasingly viable path to decarbonising industry. Geopolitics, faster-than-expected growth in renewables and new technology are all doing their bit to make this possible. As with so much of the carbon agenda it may alter the very concept of the traditional cement production line or at least the speed of change. Just imagine how a future cement plant might look, decked out with a electrical micro-grid, a heat battery, an oxy-fuel kiln, a carbon capture unit and either a chemical plant or gas pipeline junction. Will it happen? Who knows… but it is an exciting time for the cement sector.

Greece: Titan Cement Group has appeared on carbon disclosure organisation CDP's A List for corporate transparency and climate impact mitigation. The company achieved an A- for water security. Titan Cement Group says that the recognition aligns with its 2026 Green Growth strategy.

Titan Cement Group reduced its CO₂ emissions by 10% between 2020 and 2023. In 2023, it commenced construction of the 1.9Mt/yr IFESTOS carbon capture and storage project.

North Macedonia: Titan Cement Group subsidiary Cementarnica USJE has secured the approval of its shareholders to take two new loans. In a submission to the Macedonian Stock Exchange, the company said that it plans to take one loan of between Euro9m and Euro18m from Titan Global Finance, and another of not more than Euro9m from Sharrcem Kosovo.