Displaying items by tag: US

Turkey: Nuh Cement exported 4.5Mt of cement in 2020, corresponding to 22% of Turkish seaborne cement and clinker exports and over 2% of global seaborne cement and clinker in the year. It says the volume is the highest recorded in any year by a Turkish cement producer. The company also delivered the highest exports to the US from Turkey.

Nuh Cement international sales and marketing and port director Abdulhamit Akçay said, “I would like to extend my gratitude first and foremost to our respected clients, my export and port team under my command, production group management, maintenance group management, the purchasing department, the finance department, the human resources department, the information technology department and all other units and colleagues whose names have not been referred to, and our general manager and lastly but especially to our group chief executive officer who has led us with a unique leadership.”

Mexico: Elementia sold 5.3Mt of cement in 2020, up by 4% year-on-year from 5.1Mt in 2019. Consolidated net sales rose by 8% to US$1.34bn from US$1.24bn, while earnings before interest, depreciation, taxation and amortisation (EBITDA) rose by 8% to US$170m from US$157m. Cement business sales rose in all regions with the exception of Central America with particular earnings growth record in the US.

The company also noted that the sale of its integrated Bath plant in Pennsylvania, US remained under review by competition authorities with a response hoped for in April 2021. The sale of the unit to HeidelbergCement-subsidiary Lehigh Hanson was first announced in September 2019.

US: Phoenix Industrial will install the raw mill for Denmark-based FLSmidth’s raw mill upgrade of CalPortland’s integrated Mojave cement plant in California. The company said that it will conduct civil, concrete, structural steel, mechanical and electrical work on the project. Mobilisation of crews to the site is due to begin in March 2021 with commissioning scheduled for December 2021. Saxum Engineering is also working on the upgrade.

News has been dripping out slowly over the last few months about which assets HeidelbergCement is planning to divest. This week reporting from Bloomberg suggested that the German-based building materials producer might be seriously considering selling one or more integrated plants in Spain. The idea is reportedly part of a wider review of its portfolio in the country with the possible inclusion of cement plants at San Sebastian and Bilbao at a future date also. A proposed price of Euro300m for the national business was put forward by the sources to the reporters but it is unclear how many cement plants that figure includes.

HeidelbergCement announced in July 2020 that it had reduced the value of its total assets by Euro3.4bn following a review. It blamed this on reduced demand for building materials due to the coronavirus pandemic and the devaluation of its Hanson subsidiary in the UK, in part related to the UK’s exit from the European Union. A divestment plan followed at its Capital Markets Day event in September 2020 when it said it was simplifying its country portfolio and prioritising the strongest market positions. To this end it said it was setting up a watch list of underperforming assets to keep an eye on.

Over the next few months a number of corporate reorganisations and actual confirmed divestments occurred as well as plenty of speculation. HeidelbergCement-controlled Suez Cement started to acquire a 100% stake in its own subsidiary, Tourah Portland Cement, in September 2020. Suez Cement then sold its majority stake in Kuwait-based Hilal Cement in late January 2021. This week HeidelbergCement Bangladesh informed the local stock exchange that it is planning to amalgamate its subsidiary Emirates Cement.

Signs that European reviews had taken place could be seen later in the autumn of 2020. In November 2020 the Italian press picked up on rumours that HeidelbergCement was planning to move subsidiary Italcementi’s research centre from Bergamo, Lombardy, to Heidelberg in Baden Württemberg. Whether this was ever a serious proposition or not, this appeared to have been avoided in early February 2021 when an Italian union said it had agreed with Italcementi to keep the research centre in Italy as well as a preserving jobs generally. Meanwhile, also in November 2020, France-based subsidiary Ciments Calcia announced a major upgrade at its integrated Airvault cement plant but along with the conversion of two other integrated plants into a grinding unit and a terminal respectively, and changes at the French headquarters at Guervill.

Just before Christmas the bigger speculations started to appear in the press, with a story suggesting that HeidelbergCement was considering selling assets in California, US, with a target price of US$1.5bn for three integrated plants and associated concrete and aggregate units. That story is particularly beguiling given Cemex’s decision this month to reopen a kiln in Mexico to supply cement to the southwest US to meet shortages (See GCW 493)! Incidentally, readers should also note the story this week about a shortage of natural gas exports from Texas, US, that has caused cement plants in northern Mexico to shut down. This week, as mentioned at the start, has seen Spain added to the list of places that HeidelbergCement might be considering selling up in. The Spanish market like Italy has been rationalising heavily over the last decade particularly as export markets have dwindled. Oficemen, the Spanish cement association, reported that domestic cement consumption fell by 10% year-on-year to 13.3Mt in 2020 from 14.7Mt in 2019. On top of this Oficemen has repeatedly warned of the threat that CO₂ emissions prices pose for its members’ exports.

Group chairman Dominik von Achten told Reuters this month that the company plans to sell the first of the five assets in early-to-mid 2021. Of course he wouldn’t say where, except for adding that the company would stay in ‘rock solid’ markets like Northern Europe. Indonesia has been seen as a candidate for disposal by analysts, likely due to local production overcapacity levels and LafargeHolcim’s own departure in Indonesia 2018. All Von Achten would say on the matter was that Indonesia was an ‘important’ market for the group. Whether it’s seen as important for reducing company debt or building value remains to be seen. HeidelbergCement hasn’t exactly been shy about saying what they are doing over the last half year or so but they are only going so far and they won’t comment on speculation. So in the meantime we must wait to find out more.

Mexico: Nearly 500 cement and concrete plants in the northern Mexican states of Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo León and Sonora have partly or fully suspended production due to an on-going regional shortage of natural gas. The El Financiero newspaper reports that plants run by Grupo Cementos Chihuahua (GCC), Cemex, Holcim and Cruz Azul operate in this region.

GCC said that a lack of electricity and natural gas had affected production at three of its plants in Chihuahua, Samalayuca and Juárez. Mexican Association of the Ready-mix Concrete Industry (AMIC) president Ana Laura Burciaga said that the situation has caused a 50% drop in the cement supply to concrete plants.

The cause of the shortage is reported to be the suspension of natural gas exports from Texas, US. Mexican steel and automotive manufacturers have also been affected.

US: Martin Engineering has launched the N2 Twist tensioner, an autonomous tensioning system that continuously monitors and delivers proper cleaner tension. The company says that the system integrates with its Martin Smart Device Manager software product to alert operators when the blade needs changing or if there is an abnormal condition. It says that this facilitates efficient cleaning, increased safety, reduced labour and a lower cost of operation.

Product development engineer Andrew Timmerman said, “We designed the unit for heavy-duty applications and tested it outdoors in punishing environments and applications. The N2 Twist Tensioner has proven itself to be a rugged and highly effective way to maximise both cleaning efficiency and blade life.”

Germany: Claudius Peters’ 2020 sales were Euro80.2m, down by 19% year-on-year from Euro98.8m in 2019. The company recorded a ‘small profit’ compared to a loss in 2019. It said that it started the year with a historically low order book. This was compounded by the effects of the coronavirus pandemic. Despite this, the supplier exceeded targets in China, Romania and the US.

The company said, “Order intake is currently looking much more promising than a year ago with several major projects, delayed due to the pandemic, coming into the decision phase during the first quarter of 2021. With an operational overhaul now well under way, the future for Claudius Peters is looking more positive.”

One news story to note recently has been Cemex’s decision to recommission a kiln in Mexico to address cement shortages in the southwest US. In early February 2021 the Mexico-based producer said it was spending US$15m to restart a 1Mt/yr kiln at its CPN cement plant in Hermosillo, Sonora. The unit is over 250km from the US border but Cemex said it was making the investment to cope with cement shortages and project delays in California, Arizona and Nevada. At present it supplies over 3Mt/yr to California, Arizona, and Nevada from its integrated plant in Victorville, California and via sea-borne imports. Efficiency improvements at Victorville and other unspecified supply chain changes are also planned.

Cemex isn’t the only company with an eye on the south-west US. Around the same time Japan-based Taiheiyo Cement concluded its deal with Semen Indonesia to buy a 15% stake in its subsidiary Solusi Bangun Indonesia (SBI) for around US$220m. It’s a long way from Arizona but the related statement mentioned plans to make SBI’s integrated Tuban plant in East Java more export focused, with the construction of a new jetty and silos. It intends to export 0.5Mt/yr of cement to Taiheiyo Cement’s business in the US. Its local subsidiary, CalPortland, runs two integrated plants in California and one in Arizona.

Chart 1: Annual change in US cement consumption by state, December 2019 – November 2020. Source: PCA & USGS.

In its recent winter forecasts the Portland Cement Association (PCA) reported that the Mountain region of the US recorded the highest growth in cement consumption in 2020, at 10%, due to underlying economic fundamentals and favourable demographic trends. Data from the United States Geological Survey (USGS) supports Cemex’s view too. Ordinary Portland Cement and blended cement shipments rose by 21% year-on-year to 2.74Mt in Arizona and New Mexico in the first 11 months of 2020 from 2.28Mt in the same period in 2019. This doesn’t quite tally in California where shipments fell slightly, by 0.8%, to 9.42Mt. However, it reported 12% growth to 2.38Mt in the first quarter of 2020, suggesting that the market could return sharply once the coronavirus epidemic is better under control. Overall, shipments in the US grew by 1.03% to 82.3Mt in the first 11 months of 2020, driven by growth in central regions. The PCA expects national cement consumption to grow by about 1% in 2021 with a ‘robust’ recovery driven by residential housing but slowed by uncertain coronavirus vaccination supplies and general market volatility.

In a world with too much clinker production capacity, it stands out to see two established producers so visibly chasing market share in a mature market. Rather than building new plants, both Cemex and Taiheiyo Cement are using or reviving existing production lines in other countries, and building import strategies as well as optimising their existing facilities in the regions. With the western building material multinationals now often looking to focus on ‘safe’ markets in Europe or North America the fight to grow market share in these regions is likely to become more intense. It also complicates decisions about when or if an existing plant should be mothballed or shut. After all, Cemex’s old production line in Hermosillo is about to become very useful indeed.

US: Martin Marietta’s total revenue remained stable at US$4.73bn in 2020. Its adjusted earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) rose by 11% year-on-year to US$1.39bn from US$1.25bn in 2019. Cement shipments rose by 11.7% year-on-year to 1.1Mt in fourth-quarter of 2020 due to strong demand in Texas.

“As we move forward, we believe underlying demand fundamentals will reset, establishing 2021 as the year during which the nation regains its economic footing,” said Ward Nye, the chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of Martin Marietta. He added, “We anticipate single-family housing growth, expanded infrastructure investment and notable heavy industrial projects of scale will support the company’s near-term shipment levels. We expect these demand drivers, combined with the ancillary construction necessary for housing community buildouts and the potential increased infrastructure investment from a comprehensive Federal surface transportation package, should provide for multi-year growth in product demand,”

US: Cemex USA has acquired Beck Readymix Concrete. The ready-mix producer operates three concrete plants in San Antonio, Texas and an additional portable plant.

Texas Regional President Scott Ducoff said, “Texas is experiencing explosive growth and Cemex has repeatedly shown it is ready to make moves to help fuel it. By acquiring these facilities, Cemex will be able to deliver our high-quality products that many Texans are already familiar with to satisfy the high demand of customers of one of the state’s most dynamic markets. We welcome our new employees and look forward to a smooth transition for them.”