Displaying items by tag: Turkey

Turkey: Sales from Sabancı Holding’s cement businesses fell by 5% year-on-year to Euro132m in the first half of 2019 from Euro139m in the same period in 2018. Its cost of goods sold grew by 7% during the same period. It made a net loss of Euro1.35m compared to a net profit of Euro23.3m previously. Overall, the group’s sales rose by 24% to Euro1.48bn but its profit fell by 17% to Euro577m.

France: Vicat’s sales rose by 4.6% year-on-year to Euro1.34bn in the first half of 2019 from Euro1.28bn in the same period in 2018. This was mainly due to its acquisition of Brazil’s Ciplan in late 2018. At constant scope and exchange rates its sales fell by 0.6% due to poor markets in Turkey, Switzerland, Indian and West Africa. Its earnings before interest and tax fell by 9.4% to Euro97m from Euro107m. Cement sales volumes dropped by 4.9% to 10.8Mt from 11.4Mt and concrete volumes decreased by 6.7% to 4.3Mm³ from 4.57Mm³.

“In the first half of 2019, solid performances in France, Asia and the US drove an increase in our sales and earnings before interest, taxation, deprecation and amortisation (EBITDA). These results reflect a marked improvement in the operational profitability given the on-going increase in consumed energy costs, the deteriorating macroeconomic situation in Turkey and the exceptional rainfalls in California that we experienced in the first half,” said Guy Sidos, the group’s chief executive officer (CEO).

By region, the group’s sales and earnings rose in France but fell in the rest of Europe. Sales grew in the Americas region, even without the Ciplan acquisition, but earnings fell due to a Euro10.6mn settlement payment booked in the US in the first half of 2018. The group’s sales fell in India but earnings rose due to price increases. Poor markets in Turkey and Egypt hit sales and caused a loss.

Italy: Cementir Holding has blamed poor performance in Turkey for falling cement sales volumes. Although it said that positive trends in Scandinavia, the Baltics and Belgium had party compensated for this. Its sales volumes of grey and white cement fell by 12.2% year-on-year to 4.32Mt in the first half of 2019 from 4.92Mt in the same period in 2018. Ready-mixed concrete sales dropped by 21.3% to 2Mm³ from 2.54Mm³. Its revenue rose slightly by 0.6% to Euro592m from Euro589m. Its earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) grew by 14.7% to Euro110m from Euro96m.

Turkey: The Turkish Cement Manufacturers' Association (TÇMB) has appointed Tamer Saka as its president. He has been the president of Sabancı Holding Cement Group since early 2018.

Saka holds a doctorate from the School of Business at Istanbul University. He worked as the Manager and Senior Manager of Arthur Andersen and Ernst & Young companies, respectively, and he was in charge of Risk Management Consulting Services and then he joined Sabancı Holding family in 2004 as the Risk Management Director. He served as the Executive Director responsible for business development operations of nearly 20 countries, including Turkey, at Willis London in 2010 and 2011. In August 2011, he was appointed as the Strategy and Business Development Coordinator of Kibar Holding and then he was appointed as the Head of Automotive and Corporate Functions Group in May 2012 and as the Kibar Holding Board Member. Tamer Saka became the CEO of Kibar Holding in 2014.

Turkey: Turkish Cement Manufacturers’ Association (TÇMB) chairman Nihat Özdemir says that the local industry needs to focus on exports rather than for local consumption. He made the comments at a meeting between the TÇMB and the Cement Industry Employers' Association (ÇEİS) hosted by Deloitte, according to the Dünya newspaper. Exports grew by 46% year-on-year in the first half of 2019 to a value of US$444m driven by deliveries to the US, Ghana and Israel. ÇEİS chairman Suat Çalbıyık called on the Turkish State Railway company to abolish its fixed tariff for goods moved up to 150km to further support the industry.
TÇMB data shows that local consumption fell by 24% year-on-year to 5.12Mt in the first quarter of 2019 from 6.74Mt in 2018. Domestic sales fell by 34% to 3.98Mt from 5.99Mt. Exports rose by 37% to 0.94Mt from 0.68Mt. Local decline in the market has been blamed on a weak housing market and a slowdown in the Turkish economy.

Trinidad & Tobago: The Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) is continuing to hear arguments about whether Rock Hard Cement should be exempt from higher taxes applicable to third party goods. Both the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Council for Trade and Economic Development (COTED) and the World Customs Organisation (WCO) previously ruled that Rock Hard Cement imports from Turkey and Portugal were correctly classified as ‘other hydraulic cement,’ according to Barbados Today. However, lawyers on behalf of Trinidad and Tobago and Trinidad Cement have dismissed this classification of the imports, insisting that the classification of the World Customs Organization (WCO) and COTED were ‘unsafe, unreliable and incorrect.’ As such the imports should be classified as ‘building cement grey’ and liable to a tariff of 15% instead of 5%. The case continues.

Algeria/Iraq: Dal Machinery & Design (DMD), part of Turkey’s Dal Engineering Group, has been awarded a contract to supply a kiln shell to LafargeHolcim Algeria’s Oggaz cement plant. The shell has an internal diameter of 5mm. The shell will be manufactured from a single part, with one single welding in the axial direction. It is expected to be delivered by September 2019. No value for the order has been disclosed.

Other recent orders for DMD include the supply of two kiln shells for LafargeHolcim’s Bazian cement plant at Sulaimani in the Kurdistan region of Iraq. The kiln shells were manufactured with a diameter of 5.2m. Delivery was made at the beginning of March 2019. DMD’s other kiln shell clients in Iraq included the Gasin cement plant in 2018. It also supplied a mill tunnion to LafargeHolcim’s Kerbala cement plant.

France/Serbia: Turkey’s Fons Technology International, part of Dal Engineering Group, has released information about recent projects for CRH. In France a replacement clinker cooler and roller crusher was commissioned at the Lumbres plant in February 2019. The project started in October 2018 and the upgrade has a capacity of 1500t/day. In Serbia a Fons Delta clinker cooler and three roller crushers were commissioned at Popvac plant in January 2019. This project started in September 2018 and it has a capacity of 2200t/day.

Turkey: Aslan Cement, part of Oyak Cement Group, has placed an order with Germany’s Aumund Fördertechnik for its Darıca plant in Kocaeli Province. The order is part of a project to increase the plant’s clinker production capacity to 6600t/day. The machines are due to be dispatched in September 2019 and commissioning is planned for the beginning of 2020. No value for the order has been disclosed.

The order includes a 225t/hr bucket elevator with a BWZ-L (low capacity) central chain type and a centre distance of 27m to feed the raw meal mill as well as three different models of BWG belt bucket elevators with capacities up to 500t/hr and centre distances up to 132m. The belt bucket elevators will also be used for raw meal silo feed as well as to transport raw meal to the dosing hopper and the heat exchanger. The order also includes three KZB type pan conveyors, each with capacities of 350t/hr and centre distances of up to 77.2m to convey clinker from the cooler to the silo, as well as two LOUISE BEW type rotary discharge machines, each with a diameter of 3m and a capacity of 400 t/hr.

Egypt/Qatar/Russia/Turkey: Dal Engineering Group has released information about recent project from its Dal Teknik Makina subsidiary in Russia, Egypt and Qatar. In Russia Dal Teknik Makina is currently converting a production line at Eurocement’s Zhigulovskiye Stroymaterialy plant in Samara to manufacture white cement. The project started in November 2018.

In Egypt Dal Teknik Makina conducted a technical audit for HeidelbergCement’s Helwan Cement plant in February 2019. It was carried out on clinker production line one. In Qatar Dal Teknik Makina was awarded a contract in February 2019 to install a pilot scale plant for a calcium sulfoaluminate clinker production line. Dal’s engineers will evaluate the concept and identify the possible problems with operation, and supply the complete engineering and instrumentation for the whole project.