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Saudi Arabia: Yanbu Cement has started a two months modernisation project on Line 4 at its integrated Yanbu plant. The company said that dispatches would not be affected by the stoppage due to sufficient clinker stocks. Line 5, which represents 60% of the company's total capacity at the plant, will continue production at full capacity.

The cement producer reported that its sales fell by 4% year-on-year to US$251m in 2020 from US$260m in 2019. Its net profit after zakat and tax grew by 9% to US$74.9m from US$68.7m.

France: Vicat recorded full-year consolidated sales of Euro2.81bn in 2020, up by 2% year-on-year from Euro2.74bn in 2019. Earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) rose by 6% to Euro557m from Euro526m. Consolidated net income rose by 8% to Euro172m from Euro160m.

The group said that organic sales were ‘strong,’ rising in all regions except in France, by 6% in total. It attributed the decline to a near-total shutdown due to the coronavirus outbreak in mid-March 2020, which lifted incrementally throughout the first half of the year. Vicat France’s cement business recovered ‘robustly’ in the second half of 2020, resulting in an operational sales increase of 3% for the year. Full stoppages of activity lasted for 33 days in India and for 30 days in Italy. Despite these challenges, business growth, cost-cutting and lower energy costs drove earnings growth, with ‘very sharp improvements’ recorded in the Americas and in Asia. Additionally, the ramp-up of a new grinding plant in Mali and production performance improvements in Senegal supported a ‘significant’ earnings increase in Africa.

Chair and chief executive officerGuy Sidos said, “Thanks to our employees’ tremendous efforts and commitment, the Vicat group strengthened its position amid the unprecedented current pandemic situation. Our resilience and flexibility allowed us to make organisational changes in order to reconcile our competing imperatives of keeping everyone safe and healthy, unlocking savings and making rapid adjustments, such as relocating our Paris head office to L’Isle d’Abeau in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region. Likewise, we made improvements to Vicat’s governance and stepped up our environmental and digital transformation programmes. Given the strength of our cash generation, we were able to resume key productivity investment programmes for the future. Despite the adversity we faced, our teams across all our various regions successfully delivered higher production efficiency levels and met market demand cost-effectively, paving the way for a solid increase in the Vicat group’s results.”

In 2021, the group plans to expand cement production and invest in new cement terminals in India and to continue with the upgrade of its Ragland cement plant in the US. It also says that it will ramp up projects aimed at meeting its carbon footprint reduction targets. The group expects its earnings to rise at constant scope and exchange rates over the full year.

US: HeidelbergCement subsidiary Lehigh Cement has resumed work on an expansion at its 0.8Mt/yr Mitchell, Indiana cement plant with the execution of initial project plans and the delivery of materials to the site. Local media has reported that the upgrade will cost US$600m and create 1000 construction jobs over a four year project timeline.

Mitchell cement plant manager Tracy Crowther said, “We are currently receiving parts and over the summer this will continue to get busier. Much of the equipment will come in through a port near Louisville and will be hauled by truck up here. There will be some large equipment that will be moved in.”

On April 2020 it was reported that Lehigh Cement had suspended work on a 2.0Mt/yr expansion of the Mitchell plant to 2.8Mt/yr, on which it had broken ground in October 2019. The scheduled completion date moved to late 2023 from September 2022.

China: Germany-based supplier IKN says that its customer Jidong Group has started up a 6200t/day-capacity cooler at its Lincheng cement plant in Hebei province. The supplier also said that installation of another cooler for the cement producer for a new production line was underway and scheduled for completion later in 2021.Jidong Group completes IKN cooler installation

US: France-based Vicat subsidiary National Cement Company of Alabama has completed the installation of a new 5000t/day clinker line at its Ragland, Alabama cement plant. The line has a raw meal capacity of 13,000t.

Vicat engineering senior vice president Jean-Claude Brocheton congratulated the installation team on the ‘major step’ and on completing the work ahead of schedule.

India: JK Cement’s consolidated revenue from operations in the first three quarters of its 2021 financial year rose by 5% year-on-year to US$614m from US$584m. Its consolidated profit after tax rose by 52% to US$67.1m from US$44.3m, while standalone earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) rose by 29% to US$147m from US$115m. Its sales volumes of cement grew by 9% to 7.75Mt from 7.12Mt.

The group reported that it had two projects on-going in the period with a combined cost of US$267m at 31 December 2020. These were the installation of an overland belt conveyor for limestone at a 4.2Mt/yr cement plant expansion and the upgrade of Line 3 of its Nimbahera cement plant in Rajasthan.

Italy: Cementir Holding recorded revenues from sales and services of Euro1.22bn in 2020, up by 1% year-on-year from Euro1.21bn in 2019. Cement and clinker volumes rose by 13% to 10.7Mt from 9.49Mt. Volumes registered the sharpest increase in Turkey, of 39%. Ready-mixed concrete (RMX) volumes grew by 7.8% to 4.4Mm³ from 4.1Mm³. The company maintained its 2019 earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) levels of Euro264m. It said that an improvement in performance in Turkey, Denmark, Egypt, China and Sweden balanced out negative effects on earnings in Belgium, US and Malaysia.

Chair and chief executive officer Francesco Caltagirone said, “In 2020, despite the serious pandemic, the group showed significant resilience with a 13% increase in cement volumes sold and revenue reaching the historical record. On a recurring basis, EBITDA increased by 2%, EBIT was up by 4% and yearly cash generation was Euro119m."

Under Plan 2021 – 2023 Industrial Plan, the company says that it envisages sales growth of 20% to Euro1.47bn and EBITDA growth of 29% to Euro340bn in 2023 compared to 2020 figures. It said that digitalisation investments begun in 2019 will contribute an expected Euro15m to EBITDA in 2023. As part of its sustainability commitments it has set a CO₂ emissions reduction target of around 30% by 2030, with emissions below 500kg/t of grey cement. However, it said that under the future European Taxonomy criteria white cement emissions are not included.

The group is planning to invest around Euro107m from 2021 to 2023 on sustainability and digitalisation. This includes a the construction of a new calcination plant in Denmark for the production of its Futurecem product and, the installation of wind turbines with an installed capacity of 8.4MW. It is also planning to increase the alternative fuels substitution rate at its integrated Gaurain plant in Belgian to 80% from 40% and invest in the use of natural gas and biogas in some of its plants.

Latvia: Schwenk Building Materials Group subsidiary Schwenk Latvija plans to invest Euro34m in installing a new 170t/day grinding mill and 12,500t silo at its Broceni cement plant. The Baltic Business Daily newspaper has reported that the company aims to reduce energy consumption with the new mill.

The group acquired Schwenk Latvija from Cemex in February 2019 as part of a Euro340m expansion into the Baltic and Nordic markets. The company’s 2019 profit was Euro36.4m.

India: Ramco Cements’ nine-month profit for the period ending on 31 December 2020 was US$77.9m, up by 23% year-on-year from US$63.3m in the corresponding period of the 2020 financial year. Cement sales volumes dropped by 18% to 67.6Mt from 82.7Mt. Its revenue from sale of products fell by 9% to US$488m from US$535m.

The company reported that it has redeposited US$3.54m for its appeal against cartelisation charges that carrya penalty of US$35.4m. It said, “The company, backed by legal opinion, believes that it has a good case and hence no provision is made.”

The cement producer plans to commission a 1.5Mt/yr clinker line and a 9MW waste heat recovery (WHR) system at Jayanthipuram, Andhra Pradesh and a 2.25Mt/yr clinker line at Kurnool, Andhra Pradesh in the first quarter of its 2021 – 2022 financial year. A 1Mt/yr grinding unit, a 12MW WHR unit and a thermal power plan are expected to be commissioned later in the year.

Turkey: Denmark-based FLSmidth has won a contract to provide a grey-to-white cement line conversion at Çimko Çimento’s cement plant in Adiyaman. The company will supply equipment suited to the production of white cement including its DuoFlex burner, rotary cooler and OK raw mill. It said that it will begin work in 2021 and the producer will commission the renovated line in early 2022.

The supplier said, “Once completed, the upgraded line will offer Çimko Çimento new opportunities to expand its product range and enter new markets. White cement is especially sought-after in countries with relatively hot climates, as it tends to keep buildings cooler with its reflective characteristics. In addition, as a high-quality, value-added product, white cement is often used in the construction of innovative buildings and important landmarks. FLSmidth brings significant experience and know-how to the project, having conducted several similar grey-to-white conversions in recent years, including projects with Turkey-based Adana Cement and Eskisehir Cement, as well as Alsafwa Cement Company and Riyadh Cement Company in Saudi Arabia.”