Displaying items by tag: Union Cement Company

UAE: India’s Shree Cement has completed its acquisition of Union Cement. Shree Cement has purchased a 97.61% in the company. It is the company’s first acquisition outside of India. Union Cement operates a cement plant Ras Al- Khaimah.

UAE: Union Cement plans to de-list its shares from the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange and convert the company into a private joint stock company, according to the Gulf News newspaper. India’s Shree Cement agreed to buy Union Cement for US$305m in January 2018 subject to regulatory approval. Union Cement operates a cement plant Ras Al- Khaimah.

UAE: India’s Shree Cement has purchased Union Cement Company (UCC) based in the UAE for US$305m. Its board approved the acquisition of at least a 92.8% share in the company, according to the Press Trust of India. The transaction is expected to be completed by September 2018. Following the deal Shree Cement’s cement production capacity will rise to 33Mt/yr from 29.3Mt/yr. The acquisition is the company’s first outside of India.

UCC was established in 1972. It operates a cement plant Ras Al- Khaimah with a clinker production capacity of 3.3Mt/yr and a cement production capacity of 4Mt/yr.

Given the low oil price the economies of the Gulf Cooperation Countries (GCC) (including the UAE) have taken a knock in recent years. So, the news this week that Arkan has closed its Emirates Cement plant in Al Ain for good may not be too surprising. The building materials producer opened its whopping 5.7Mt/yr Al Ain Cement plant in late 2014 and, now that rising energy costs have become too much of a burden it appears to have shut down the older plant for good and moved the production across. Now it says the new unit is operating at nearly full capacity.

Arkan’s cement business saw its revenue fall by 9% year-on-year to US$220m in 2016 from US$239m in 2015. Net profit fell more sharply, by 25% to US$20.6m. The chairman cited a ‘harsh current market cycle’ as the cause of his company’s woes and also blamed a heavy rainstorm in March 2016. The storm caused an interruption in production due to a damaged conveyor belt at its Al Ain Cement plant that stalled the production on half of its raw material handling line. The producer turbocharged its sales and profits in 2014 with the opening of the new plant and managing to continue the growth in 2015 but it slowed down in 2016. Arkan has also been in the alternative fuels news this week with the announcement of plans to test burning spent pot lining. This certainly hints at a producer trying to minimise its fuel spend.

Other local producers have had similar experiences. Fujairah Cement reported that its revenue fell by 2.5% to US$162m from US$167m although it did manage to grow its profit by 12% to US$15.4m. Earlier in the year it attributed the rise in profits to higher prices and cost control on the production side. The producer, a subsidiary of India’s JK Cement, operates a dual Ordinary Portland Cement and White Cement plant. Union Cement’s revenue fell by 10% to US$153m from US$170m and its profit fell by 19% to US$22.9m from US$28.2m.

A report by Deloitte on the construction market in Dubai published in early 2016 showed that the UAE became a net exporter of cement in 2010. Local producers exported 3Mt of cement in 2012 and this was aided by high energy cost subsidies. Prior to this the nation had been importing large amounts of cement and building up its local production capacity to meet its voracious real estate market. However, this previously caused problems in 2007 when the real estate market crashed. More recently the Dubai Chamber reported that the potential value of construction projects awarded in 2016 was US$36.5bn. Overall in the GCC the value of contracts fell by 17% year-on-year. Locally, the Dubai construction sector’s real added value, or its contribution to the national gross domestic product, fell in 2012 before rising slowly subsequently but its growth rate picked up in 2013 and then started to slow down.

Looking at the broader economy the World Bank reckoned in the autumn of 2016 that growth in the UAE was predicted to continue slowing in 2016 before picking up in 2018 due to rising oil prices. In the midst of uncertain times a report by the Dubai Chamber called for cement producers to improve their competitiveness, save on production costs, use more alternative fuels and push exports. To this end Arkan’s trial with spent pot lining and today’s news of a technology start-up promoting a fly ash and slag cement for 3D printing suggest a cement and construction industry marking time before growth returns.

UAE: Union Cement’s waste heat recovery project has been recognised by the Dubai Carbon Centre of Excellence (DCCE) for reducing CO₂ emissions in Dubai in 2016. Local projects under the emirate’s Carbon Abatement Strategy achieved an emissions reduction of 419,500t of CO₂ in 2016 saving nearly US$1.4m, according to comments made by DCCE to the Gulf Today newspaper. Other projects that contributed to the saving included the Dubai 13MW Photovoltaic Plant and Dewa Energy Efficient Chillers. The DCCE promotes Dubai’s transition to a low-CO₂ green economy and is responsible for monitoring the levels of CO₂ emissions in the Emirate.

UAE: Union Cement has reported an 8% decline in its profits for the first six months of 2015 to US$14.9m from US$16.2m in the sale period in 2014. Union Cement's revenue fell by 3.7% to US$85.7m in the first half from US$88.9m. The cement producer attributed the decline to falling sales volumes during the reporting period.

UAE: After more than 14 years with HeidelbergCement, Kerim Tunçay has been offered the position of general manager at Union Cement Norcem (UCN). Union Cement Norcem (UCN) is a joint venture between Union Cement Company (UCC) of Ras Al Khaimah, UAE and Norcem of HeidelbergCement. It was set up in 1980 to market and sell the American Petroleum Institute (API) certified oil well cement, concentrating on export markets.

Tunçay, who took charge of his new assignment from 1 September 2014, will be in charge of all domestic and export sales of cement and clinker of UCC in addition to the sales of oil well cement.

Born in Istanbul, Turkey in 1972, Tunçay has a Masters Degree in Business Administration from University of Saarland, in Saarbrucken, Germany and a Marketing Diploma from University of California, Berkeley. Trained as an International Trader Candidate, Tunçay started his career with the cement industry in 2000 at HeidelbergCement Trading (HCT) in Istanbul.

UAE: During the first six months of 2014, Union Cement Company (UCC) achieved a net profit of US$16.2m compared to US$5.76m during the same period of 2013, a 181% year-on-year increase. UCC's second quarter 2014 results, which ended on 30 June 2014, showed a net profit of US$11.2m compared to US$4.22m during the same period of 2013.