Displaying items by tag: Uruguay

Uruguay: The Administación Nacional de Combustibles, Alcohol y Portland (ANCAP) and the Administración de Ferrocarriles del Estado (AFE) have signed an agreement to exchange logistics services, materials and real estate. Under the deal ANCAP estimates that 380,000tt/yr of fuel and 390,000t/yr of cement and limestone can be transported by rail. The arrangement also includes: offering preferential transport rates to ANCAP; moving cement and limestone between ANCAP’s plants and quarries; conducting restorative work at ANCAP’s Queguay limestone quarry and its integrated Paysandú cement plant; and supplying rail ballast to AFE.

Brazil: Votorantim Cimentos’ consolidated net sales were US$6.41bn in 2020, up by 19% year-on-year from US$5.41bn in 2019. Its adjusted earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) also rose, by 35% to US$1.21bn from US$899m. The group attributed the growth to increased cement volumes sold in Brazil, Canada and the US. Total global cement sales increased by 8% to 32.4Mt. Net revenue grew in all regions, but the sharpest growth was reported in North America at 43% to US$945m.

Chief financial officer Osvaldo Ayres Filho said, “The past year has been extremely challenging due to the pandemic and its impacts across the planet. We have implemented a contingency plan to protect people's lives and preserve operations. This allowed us to respond with agility both in Brazil and in the other markets in which we have operations, ending the year with increased sales, cash generation growth and the lowest leverage in the past ten years.”

During the year, the group unified its joint-venture in Uruguay, with Cementos Molins, at a single site and merged its Canadian and US businesses under a new 83% owned subsidiary. It suspended its Pecém grinding plant expansion in Brazil due to the coronavirus pandemic and resumed it in September 2020. Completion of the project is scheduled for the first half of 2021. The producer also released its Sustainability Commitments for 2030 in November 2020.

Brazil: Votorantim Cimentos’ consolidated net sales in the first nine months of 2020 were US$2.17bn, up by 23% year-on-year from US$1.76bn in the corresponding period of 2019. However, its profit fell by 61% to US$28.7m from US$73.9m

Cement sales in the third quarter of 2020 rose by 15% year-on-year to 9.7Mt from 8.4Mt in the third quarter of 2019. The company reported increased sales volumes in Uruguay, the US and Canada, and an 18% increase in Brazil, “maintaining the strong pace” recorded at the end of the first half of 2020. The company said, “The significant emergency aid from government during this period and its use in the direct purchase of construction inputs, including cement, has supported civil construction alongside the currently historically low interest rate. In addition, people continue to invest in improving their homes, with retail sales of building materials increasing nationally.”

The company’s third quarter adjusted earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) rose by 94% to US$281m in 2020 from US$145m in 2019. It said, “The economic opening after the initial restrictions of the Covid-19 pandemic is turning out more positively than anticipated on the third quarter of 2020, while the on-going recovery is projected to be gradual, considering the uncertain scenario. Currently, global gross domestic product (GDP) is projected to decrease 4% in 2020 - less severely than the previously published data, although uncertainty around the recovery path for upcoming years due to second wave of Covid-19 remains considerable in some countries, alongside viability of additional fiscal and monetary stimulus.”

Uruguay: Spain-based Cementos Molins and Brazil-based Votorantim Cimentos subsidiary Cementos Artigas plans to invest US$40m in upgrading its integrated Minas clinker plant with the addition of a vertical roller mill and new cement silos in order to consolidate its clinker production and grinding capacity at the site. The El Periodico newspaper has reported that, as a result, the producer will shut its Sayago grinding plant, leading to a net reduction in production costs of 40%.

Work will begin by early 2021 and the company will commission the new integrated production line in 2022. Cementos Molins chief executive officer (CEO) Julio Rodriguez said, “With this new investment we continue to develop our strategy, in which sustainability and respect for the environment are the first priority. At the same time, it is also a clear sign of our long-term commitment to the Uruguayan market where we have been present since 1991.”

Uruguay: Cement producers sold 166,000t of cement in the second quarter of 2020, down by 3.9% year-on-year from 173,000t in the second quarter of 2019. The country exported 5600t of this (3%), up by 3.9% from 5380t. Domestic sales fell by 4.1% to 160,000t from 153,000t, corresponding to 84% of a domestic consumption of 190,000t, down by 4.2% from 200,000t. Imports rose by 8.8% to 30,000t from 27,400t.

Uruguay: The Federación Administación Nacional de Combustibles, Alcohol y Portland (FANCAP) and Construction Union (SUNCA) have rejected plans for the privatisation of the Administación Nacional de Combustibles, Alcohol y Portland’s (ANCAP) 0.3Mt/yr integrated Paysandú cement plant in Paysandú Department, according to the La Diaria newspaper.

ANCAP Coordinator of Trade Unions Gerardo Rodríguez said, “Any change in the cement industry must leave cement production in public hands and keep all three ANCAP cement plants open, as well as keeping all jobs. Management must provide the necessary levels of investment to complete upgrades to the Paysandú plant and the personnel necessary for its operation.” He added, “In the face of adversity, we show more unity, solidarity and struggle and in the face of an attempt to close Paysandú we will respond with more organisation and more struggle.” He said that an occupation of all workplaces would follow the closure of any plant.

Spain: Coronavirus has forced the suspension of operations at all Cementos Molins facilities, in accordance with a royal decree. Europa Press has reported that the company began the progressive shutdown of the 1.6Mt/yr integrated line at its Sant Vincenç dels Horts cement plant in Barcelona, Catalonia, on 31 March 2020, and switched off the plant on 2 April 2020.

Cementos Molins said that it has already suspended production in Argentina, Uruguay, Bolivia, Colombia and Tunisia. It says it has ‘implemented the teleworking model in the areas of the company where its application is possible.’

Colombia: Empresa Colombiana de Cementos (EcoCementos), a 50-50 joint venture between Colombian multinational Organizacion Corona and Spanish-based Cementos Molins, has announced the start of production at its new 1.5Mt/yr integrated cement plant at Sonson, Antioquia province. The plant, which was constructed with an investment of US$380m, mines limestone from its own quarry and will produce Alion brand cement for the Colombian market. The unit is increases Cementos Molins’ first in Columbia. It already produces and trades cement via its subsidiaries in Argentina, Bolivia and Uruguay.

Uruguay: The union at state-owned oil firm Administración Nacional de Combustibles, Alcoholes y Portland (ANCAP), has supported government plans for the state to buy locally made cement. Under the proposal, half of the government’s requirements for cement would have to come from ANCAP, according to the El Pais newspaper. The initiative is intended to support local industry and jobs.

Uruguay: Cement sales rose by 4.6% year-on-year to 0.60Mt in the first nine months of 2018 from 0.57Mt in the same period in 2018. Exports and internal sales both rose by similar ratios to 87,700t and 0.51Mt respectively, according to data from the Chamber of Industries of Uruguay. Despite overall growth, exports in the third quarter of 2018 nearly halved. Most exports were sent to Paraguay, followed by Argentina and Brazil.