Displaying items by tag: Ukraine

Italy: Buzzi Unicem says that a cyberattack on its information systems could delay its interim accounting closings and related financial disclosures. The attack, believed to be the Petya ransomware virus, which originated in the Ukraine where the producer operates two cement plants, has caused problems in managing and administrating its processes. Buzzi said that it is taking ‘all necessary measures’ to restore its systems but was unable to provide a recovery timescale.

Ukraine: The supervisory board of Podilsky Cement has appointed Leonard Barry as its supervisory board chairperson. Previously, he was the director of CRH in the country, according to the Ukrainian News Agency. Barry, aged 52 years, is an Irish national. He joined Irish Cement in 1989 as a process engineer before becoming its managing director in 2011. He trained as a chemical engineer at University College Dublin and holds an MBA from the University of Limerick.

Other personnel changes include the appointment of Declan Maguire, CRH’s chief operational director for Eastern Europe, as deputy supervisory board chairperson. Alan Connolly has also been appointed as secretary of the supervisory board.

Ukraine: Cement production has increased by 10.5% year-on-year, to 3.19Mt/yr according to Roman Skilsky, CEO of the Ukrcement cement producers' association. Skilsky expects for the country’s annual cement production to grow by 10% to over 9Mt in 2016 in comments made to Interfax-Ukraine.

Exports of cement grew by 71% to 62,700t in January to March 2016. However, Skilsky attributed the rise to the introduction of various restrictions by key exports markets including Moldova and Belarus. Skilsky also said that the introduction of European standards for cement production in Ukraine could help to restrict counterfeit products on the market.

Dyckerhoff Cement Ukraine, HeidelbergCement Ukraine, Ivano-Frankivskcement, Eurocement-Ukraine, Podilsky Cement, Mykolaivcement and Cement LLC (part of CRH Group) are all members of Ukrcement.

Ukraine: Mykolaiv-based Mykolaivcement reduced the loss that it made by 25.3% to US$8.75m in 2015, having boosted its net revenue by 31.9% to US$27.2m.

Ukraine: Ukrcement, the Ukranian association of cement producers, has urged government agencies to be more effective in preventing sales of packaged cement. A study by Ukrcement with the NGO Union of Ukrainian Consumers has reportedly shown a rise in volumes of counterfeit product at large DIY retail chains.

"Ten samples [of packaged cement] were bought in several DIY supermarkets in Kyiv during the third phase of the project in early 2016. The conclusion is that the situation with counterfeit cement has been worsening. Violations have been revealed in all the chains," said Ukrcement CEO Roman Skylsky. "We insist on toughening oversight over the quality of cement programs and punishment for the sale of counterfeit products."

Ukraine: Dnipropetrovsk-based HeidelbergCement Ukraine has appointed Silvio Thiede as the Board Chairperson, effective from 11 January 2016.

Indonesia: ABB, a power and automation technology group, has won an order from Tianjin Cement Industry Design & Research Institute Co. Ltd, a subsidiary of Sinoma Group, for a variable-speed drive solution for a dual pinion ball mill at the PT Semen Bosowa Maros cement plant in Indonesia.

The equipment will be delivered in March 2016 and commissioned in the third quarter of 2016. ABB was selected for that project because the end customer is satisfied with earlier deliveries for the first cement grinding line at the plant, including a gearless mill drive (GMD) and a vertical mill with ABB slip ring motors.

"ABB's solution was favoured for several reasons, not least because of the high level of efficiency offered by the permanent magnet motors used and the absence of a gearbox in the system, which maximises availability and reliability," said Rachid Hamdani, Project Director of PT Semen Bosowa Maros.

This will be the first drive system for a grinding application with permanent magnet motors in this power range. The solution has the highest efficiency among all variable-speed drive systems and will raise productivity at the plant, while minimising electricity consumption.

Ukraine: Dyckerhoff Cement Ukraine has reported a net loss of Euro8136 for 2014, a net revenue of Euro398,695. Compared to 2013, its net loss fell 7.2-fold and its revenue fell 6.6-fold.

Dyckerhoff Cement Ukraine plans to acquire the Volyn Cement plant in Rivne and the YUGcement plant in Mykolaiv. The plants are already part of Dyckerhoff and would be turned into separate divisions in order to increase sales in Ukraine. The planned production capacity of Volyn Cement is 2Mt/yr, while YUGcement produces 1.25Mt/yr of cement.

Dyckerhoff Cement Ukraine's shareholders will also consider the early termination of powers of the current supervisory board and the election of a new one.

Ukraine: Eurocement Ukraine cut its cement production by 21.9% year-on-year to 1.09Mt in 2014. Its sales volumes decreased by 24.7% year-on-year to 1.09Mt, while its sales fell by 19.5% to Euro34.1m. Eurocement Ukraine has reported a loss of Euro11.7m for 2014, having decreased its net revenues by 23.6% to Euro34.3m.

Ukraine: Podilskiy Cement has reported a loss of Euro121m for 2014, having upped its net revenue by 12.1% year-on-year to Euro53.8m. In 2013, it reported a loss of Euro4.95m. Podilskiy Cement has six cement kilns with a total capacity of 3.7Mt/yr. It is controlled by Ireland's CRH.