Displaying items by tag: Yamama Cement

Saudi Arabia: Yamama Cement has temporarily shut down five of its production lines. The lines have a joint clinker production capacity of 5600t/day. The decision was made due to poor market conditions, low demand for cement and high inventory.

Saudi Arabia: Yamama Saudi Cement has ordered two sets of clinker conveying equipment from Aumund. The Saudi Arabian cement producer plans to start-up two clinker production lines in 2018 at a new site to the southwest of Riyadh. The two lines, with a combined capacity of 20,000t/day, are being built by ThyssenKrupp Industrial Solutions.

The scope of supply includes 29 chain bucket elevators and 18 belt bucket elevators, in heavy-duty and lighter designs, for these two lines. For raw meal, Aumund belt bucket elevators will be used. Filter dust will be conveyed by Aumund chain bucket elevators optimally designed for low capacity. Two Aumund double chain bucket elevators with a capacity of 2300t/hr have been ordered per line as recirculating bucket elevators in the cement mill. The supply package for the two lines also includes six Aumund pan conveyors as well as various flat gates, silo discharge gates, telescopic chutes and cleaning conveyors.

Saudi Arabia: Yamama Cement has signed two finance agreements to raise US$267m towards building a new cement plant. It has signed a deal to raise US$200m from the National Commercial Bank and US$67m from the Samba Financial Group. The deals are both for three years.

Saudi Arabia: Wärtsilä has signed a contract to supply a 161MW Flexicycle (combined cycle) power plant to Yamama Cement. Wärtsilä will deliver a full engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) project. In addition to the EPC contract, a five-year operation and maintenance management agreement and a 10-year spare parts supply agreement have also been signed. The value of the order is approximately Euro115m.

The power plant includes 10 18-cylinder Wärtsilä 50 dual-fuel engines and a steam turbine. The contract was included in Wärtsilä's order book in the first quarter of 2016. The contract announcement was delayed until June 2016 due to the finalisation of technical-commercial details and the operation and maintenance management agreement. The power plant will be delivered in four phases. The first part is estimated to be delivered by the end of 2017 and the complete plant is scheduled to be handed over during the second quarter of 2019. The delivery is aligned with the construction schedule of a new Yamama cement plant.

This is a dual-fuel power plant operating primarily on natural gas with light fuel oil and crude oil as back up fuels. This will be Wärtsilä's first gas fired Flexicycle power plant in Saudi Arabia. The plant will provide power to run the Yamama facility, which has a production capacity of 20,000t/day of cement. Due to the plants' remote locations, most of the cement industry in Saudi Arabia is powered by captive power plants such as this one.

"Wärtsilä has a reputable track record in Saudi Arabia and they have offered an efficient and reliable solution for a harsh operating environment. We consider this relationship a strategic partnership and hopefully it will be rewarding for both parties," said Jehad Abdul Aziz Al Rasheed, General Manager, Yamama Cement Company.

Saudi Arabia: Germany's thyssenkrupp has won a contract from Yamama Saudi Cement Company, one of Saudi Arabia's biggest cement producers, to build two turnkey cement clinker production lines. The two lines with an overall cement capacity of 20,000t/day will be built at a new site around 80km east of the capital Riyadh. The value of the contract is in the high three-digit million Euro range. It is the largest cement contract ever secured by thyssenkrupp.

Jens Michael Wegmann, CEO of the Industrial Solutions business area of thyssenkrupp said, "Our partnership with Yamama is built on a longstanding tradition and dates back many decades. We are delighted that Yamama is once again putting its faith in our comprehensive experience in the turnkey construction of complete cement plants worldwide."

The main components include two mobile primary crushers for limestone (each 1800t/hr throughput), three crushers for additives (each 500t/hr), two crushers for correctives (each 100t/hr) as well as two circular blending beds for limestone, each with a capacity of 80,000t and various additive storage facilities. Four QUADROPOL QMR2 roller mills with a throughput of 425t/hr and two 35,000t capacity homogenizing silos will be used to grind and store the raw material.

The kiln lines comprise six-stage and two-string preheaters with PREPOL AS-MSC calciner, rotary kilns with POLFLAME-VN clinkering zone burners, and POLYTRACK clinker coolers. The clinker will be stored in three 10,000t capacity clinker silos and two 100,000t capacity clinker storage facilities. Four combi grinding units consisting of POLYCOM high-pressure grinding rolls, ball mills and SEPOL separators as well as downstream cement coolers will each produce 300t/hr of cement.

The cement will be stored in six cement silos each with a capacity of up to 25,000t. The line will also feature six cement packing and loading stations. Quality control and monitoring will be handled by a POLCID process control system and POLAB laboratory automation system.

Yamama Saudi Cement and thyssenkrupp have been working together since the 1960s when the company placed an order for an initial 300t/day rotary kiln. Six larger cement production lines have since been added.

Saudi Arabia: The combined net profit of the Saudi cement firms rose by 6% in 2014 to reach US$1.56bn compared with US$1.48bn recorded in 2013. The profit during the October - December quarter grew by 31% to US$383m compared with US$293m during the same period in the previous year.

The net profits of seven firms, out of 14 listed companies, grew. The profits of six companies dropped in 2014 and one company, Um Al-Qura, registered a net loss.
Arabian Cement Company (ACC) registered the biggest profit, with its profits reaching US$172m compared to US$51.0m in 2013, an increase of 236%. The company attributed the surge in profits to a growth in sales, which reached US$457m in 2014, compared with US$361.6m in 2013.

ACC was followed by Hail Cement Company (HCC), which was the second biggest booster for the sector. Its profits reached US$39.1m in 2014 compared to US$13.3m in 2013, increasing by 191%.

The profits of six companies dropped in 2014 and this negatively affected the sector's profit growth for the year. The profits of Yamama Cement Company (YCC) fell by 23%, followed by Saudi Cement Company (SCC), the profit of which fell by 8% year-on-year.

Saudi Arabia: Yamama Cement has reported that its net profit in 2014 has fallen by 23% year-on-year to US$179m from US$232m in 2013. The decrease was attributed to lower sales due to poor cement demand in 2014. Its operating profit fell by 21% to US$175m from US$221m.

Saudi Arabia: Cement sales dropped by 17% year-on-year to 3.65Mt in November 2013 from 4.37Mt in November 2012, according to local media. The decline in sales was blamed on a campaign against migrant workers following the end of an amnesty period on 3 November 2013.

Sales of all of the cement companies fell during November 2013 with the exception of Northern Province Cement Company, Arabian Cement Company and Madinah Cement Company, whose sales increased by 58%, 24% and 20% respectively, according to data from Yamamah Cement Company. Riyadh Cement Company and Jouf Cement Company posted the biggest drop in November 2013 at 45% and 44% respectively. Sales by Saudi Cement Company and Yamamah fell by 21% and 32% respectively.

Sales of clinker for the country's fifteen cement companies rose by 9% year-on-year to 4.75Mt in November 2013 from 4.35Mt in November 2012.

Demand for cement is so intense in Saudi Arabia that certain producers have reported production line shutdowns in dedicated stock market statements. Notably, industry newcomer Hail Cement reported a scheduled shutdown for late October/early November 2013, Al Jouf Cement reported unscheduled shutdowns in October and June 2013 and Najran Cement reported scheduled maintenance in July 2013. Even a short delay to cement production is a newsworthy event for both investors and analysts.

Saudi cement producers have risen to the infrastructure challenges of the country's Ninth Development Plan, increasing cement production by 6% year-on-year to 42.7Mt for the first nine months of 2013. In this febrile environment, the king ordered 10Mt of cement imports in April 2013 followed by government demands for producers to build up a two-month 'strategic' inventory reserve. Unsurprisingly, as we report this week, exports of cement from Saudi Arabia have fallen by 55% for the first nine months of 2013.

At the time of Global Cement's feature on Saudi Arabia in December 2012 only two of the country's cement producers had an inventory of joint clinker and cement stock meeting the government's stockpiling request. For the first nine months of 2013 the situation remains the same although the overall inventory has increased by 18% year-on-year to 10.3Mt. This compares to the end of 2012 where inventories fell year-on-year by 14% to 7Mt.

Unsurprisingly again, the Kingdom's major cement producers have seen balance sheets bulge so far in 2013. Yamama Cement reported a 12% year-on-year rise in net profit to US$145m for the first half of 2013 on the back of local demand. Saudi Cement Company reported a 5% year-on-year rise in its net profits to US$173m and Southern Province Cement saw a 4% year-on-year rise in its net profits to US$150m for the same period. Yanbu Cement saw its net profit rise by 29% year-on-year to US$176m for the first nine months of 2013.

With more large government infrastructure contracts pending, analysts expect the Saudi cement market to remain heated. Although as NCB Capital pointed out in September 2013, uncertainties over fuel supplies for coming cement plant expansions provide uncertainty to the situation. Nobody wants a repeat of the Yanbu - Aramco spat over fuel supplies that occurred in 2011. Irony would barely describe the situation if a Saudi Arabian cement boom was dented by a lack of fuel in one of the countries with the biggest oil reserves in the world.

Global Cement will be at stand T9 at the 18th Arab-International Cement Conference and Exhibition in Jordan from 11 – 13 November 2013

Saudi Arabia: Yamama Cement has reported that its net profit remained stable year-on-year for the first three months of 2013 at US$73.9m. However its net profit rose by 59% from US$46.4m in the fourth quarter of 2012. The company attributed the increase in net profit from the fourth quarter to an increase in domestic demand.

The Arabian Cement Company reported a net income of US$42m for the first three months of 2013, a rise of 7.7% from US$39m year-on-year. Net income doubled from US$21m for the fourth quarter of 2012. Gross profit fell year-on-year by 3.6% to US$44.9m from US$46.5m. The company attributed the year-on-year rise in net income to a decrease in operating expenses and the increase in other income. The decrease in gross profit was attributed to a decrease in sales revenue.

Yanbu Cement Company reported that its net profit rose by 70% to US$65.9m in the first quarter of 2013 compared to US$38.4m in the same quarter in 2012. Net profit rose by 21.4% from US$54.1m in the fourth quarter of 2012. Yanbu's gross and operating profits rose accordingly. The company attributed the rises in profits to increased sales and as a result of the start of 'Line 5 commercial production from April 2012 and Opex efficiencies.'