Displaying items by tag: capital expenditure

Mexico: Cemex will invest US$1.4bn in 2025 to strengthen its financial position, maintain liquidity and focus on projects delivering high profitability, including potential acquisitions in the US. Between January and March 2025, it invested US$221m, down from US$249m in the same period of 2024. It expects to invest a further US$1.15bn over the rest of 2025, subject to financial results and market conditions.

Cemex CEO Jaime Muguiro Domínguez said that the company will eventually transition its capital expenditure to acquisitions of small and medium-sized companies in the US that can ‘provide greater profitability.’ He added “Given the increased uncertainty in the current global macroeconomic environment, we will make sure that our capital allocation decisions do not compromise our financial metrics.”

Brazil: Votorantim Cimentos recorded sales of 7.7Mt of cement in the first quarter of 2025, up by 2% year-on-year. Revenues rose by 1% year-on-year in local currency terms, to US$998m. The producer partly attributed the growth to its on-going geographical diversification. Nonetheless, its earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) fell by 14% year-on-year to US$107m, resulting in a net loss of US$58m. Votorantim Cimentos invested US$97.6m in capital expenditure during the quarter, including commencing kiln upgrades at its Alconera and Málaga plants in Spain, up by 35% year-on-year. It expects to commission its newly expanded Salto de Pirapora and Edealina cement plants in Brazil later in 2025 and in early 2026 respectively.

CEO Osvaldo Ayres said “Our financial strength and discipline in capital allocation have enabled us to navigate this volatile global environment. At the same time, we continued to maintain our focus on the long term through our programme of investments in capacity expansion, structural competitiveness and acceleration of new businesses.”

India: India’s top cement producers are planning to invest approximately US$15bn from 2025 - 2027 in capital expenditure, according to a report by ratings agency CRISIL. During this period, the industry is expected to expand cement grinding capacity by 130Mt/yr, which represents a fifth of the current capacity. This move is prompted by robust demand and competitive market share goals, reports the Economic Times.

Senior director and deputy chief ratings officer at CRISIL Ratings, Manish Gupta, said "Cement demand outlook remains healthy with a compound annual growth rate of 7% over the financial years 2025-2029. The surge in capital expenditure over the next three financial years will primarily cater to this growing demand as well as to the aspirations of the cement makers to improve their national presence."

Zimbabwe: Khayah Cement plans to invest approximately US$25m in capital expenditure in 2024, focusing on a kiln refurbishment project at its plant in Harare. The investment aims to increase production capacity and sales volumes, NewsDay Business News has reported. Preparatory work has begun, with completion expected by the end of 2025.

Khayah Cement's CEO, Innocent Chikwata, said that the project will address issues with its current equipment and stabilise the company’s operations by ensuring a reliable supply of raw materials. He noted that the plant's current capacity utilisation rate is 60%, with a target of 70% by the end of 2024.

India: The Ramco Cements plans to more than double the clinker capacity of its Kalavatala cement plant in Andhra Pradesh to 6.3Mt/yr at a cost of US$151m. The new Line 2 will be equipped with a 15MW waste heat recovery (WHR) unit. The line will raise the producer’s installed cement capacity to 26Mt/yr and its clinker capacity to 19Mt/yr with commissioned scheduled by early 2026. The Ramco Cements plans to source the funds through internal accruals and bank borrowings.

At the same time, the company will invest US$18.4m in the construction of a 10MW WHR plant at its Ramasamy Raja Nagar cement plant in Tamil Nadu, scheduled for commissioning by March 2025. Both WHR projects will raise The Ramco Cements’ total WHR capacity by 58% to 68MW.

The Ramco Cements said that Kalavatala plant is currently operating at full capacity utilisation. It added that it decided to expand the plant in response to this and further ‘demand potential.’ In the current, fourth quarter of the 2024 financial year (1 January – 31 March 2024), the company expects to make capital expenditure (capex) investments of US$47m, followed by US$205m in the upcoming 2025 financial year.

China: Xinjiang Tianshan Cement plans to make major capital expenditure (CAPEX) investments in its operations in 2024. Reuters has reported the projected value of the investments as US$2.36bn.

Brazil: Votorantim Cimentos plans to invest US$1bn in expanding its Brazilian operations in the period up to the end of 2028. US$304m-worth of the investments are already underway at the start of 2024. Reuters has reported that the investments include cement plant projects to raise Votorantim Cimentos’ Brazilian cement production capacity by 8.8% to 37Mt/yr. These include a US$162m investment in a 20% capacity expansion to its Votorantim cement plant and a US$60.8m, 1Mt/yr expansion to its Salto de Pirapora plant. Further aims are to ensure structural competitiveness, raise energy efficiency and digitise operations, including applying artificial intelligence (AI) to freight. The producer expects its earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) to eventually rise by US$263/yr between 2023 and 2028 as a result.

Australia: Adbri says that the cost and timing of its on-going expansion of its Kwinana grinding plant in Western Australia remain ‘on track.’ To date, the producer has invested US$161m in the expansion, towards a projected cost of US$385-420m.

In an accompanying trading update, Adbri said that it expects its full-year earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) to be US$208 -212m in 2023, ‘moderately’ above its previous outlook. In 2022, its earnings before interest and taxation (EBIT) amounted to US$106m. The company has forecast total capital expenditure investments for 2023 of US$208-215m. It previously expected to invest US$221-235m during 2023.

India: Ramco Cements has raised the clinker capacity of its Kolimigundla cement plant by 26%, to 3.15Mt/yr from 2.5Mt/yr. The Hindu newspaper has reported that Ramco Cements plans to invest US$192m in capital expenditure (CAPEX) during the 2024 financial year (1 April 2023 – 31 March 2024), and a further US$24 – 30m in on-going projects in the 2025 financial year. The producer said that its projects, involving its cement, concrete and energy operations, are proceeding ‘on track.’ These include an expansion of its Odisha grinding plant to double its capacity to 1.8Mt/yr.

India: A report by the Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW), funded by power provider BP, has estimated that India’s cement and steel sectors will require capital expenditure (CAPEX) investments of US$627bn in order to reach net zero CO₂ emissions. The report stated that waste heat recovery (WHR) and other efficiency-enhancing upgrades to cement plants can immediately reduce the industry’s emissions by 32%.

United News of India has reported that CEEW CEO Arunabha Ghosh said "Incentivising renewable energy will play a pivotal role in decarbonisation, through lower or no transmission charges at central and state levels. The government of India should develop a policy for and expedite the establishment of a carbon capture, utilisation and storage ecosystem to abate more than half of the emissions from the existing steel and cement plants.” Ghosh added “Since hydrogen will play a key role in its implementation, the next phase of the National Green Hydrogen Mission should focus on this agenda."