Displaying items by tag: cement boards

Australia: The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has said that it is 'chasing up' Boral's failure to pass on savings from the carbon tax repeal.

Legislation to remove the tax was passed in July 2014. ACCC chair Rod Sims said that compliance from the affected businesses had since been very good. However, he singled out landfill companies and Boral for not passing on savings.

The ACCC said that Boral had informed customers in 2012 that the price of cement and terracotta products would increase by 1% and 3% respectively. Boral's CEO Mike Kane said, at the company AGM in October 2013, that the carbon tax would cost it about US$15m/yr.

"We've got a couple of companies that we're chasing up, but they're more ambiguous and so we haven't named them," said Sims. "But Boral, yes, we do have a problem. We're engaging with them." A spokesman for Boral said that it was continuing to comply with its obligations related to the tax removal.

Australia: The Boral cement plant in Berrima, New South Wales, will receive a US$3.3m grant from the Environmental Trust as part of the NSW Environment Protection Authority's Waste Less, Recycle More initiative. The funding will be used to increase the use of waste derived fuels at the plant.

Executive general manager for Boral Cement Ross Harper said the achievement of the grant confirmed the potentially-important role that the New Berrima site could play in reducing the increasing impact of re-usable materials ending up in landfills.

"Since September, we have been informing our local stakeholders about the positive environmental and economic effects which can be obtained by replacing a portion of our coal consumption at Berrima with fuels derived from recovered and processed waste streams," said executive general manager for Boral Cement, Ross Harper.

Boral is currently preparing to submit planning applications which will seek approval for the use of wood waste-derived fuel and refuse-derived fuel in production at the Berrima plant. The site already holds an approval to use rubber tyre chips. Pending approvals, the site is looking to begin integration of the two fuels from the start of 2016 following construction of the new infrastructure.

Australia: Fibre cement producer James Hardie has posted a sharp increase in its operating profit for the second quarter of its 2015 financial year, despite a slower-than-expected recovery in the US housing sector.

James Hardie, which generates 66% of its revenue in Europe and the US, had warned of short-term US uncertainty with the recent 'flattening in housing activity,' but has forecast a moderate improvement for the year ending in March 2015. Its Australian, New Zealand and Philippines businesses are also expected to improve.

"Management cautions that, although US housing activity has been improving for some time, market conditions remain somewhat uncertain and some input costs remain volatile," said James Hardie.

The company reported a net operating profit of US$127m for the quarter that ended 30 September 2014, up from US$51.9m in the same period of 2013. Chief executive Louis Gries said that the 66% jump reflected increased volumes and higher average net sales prices across its US, European and Asian fibre cement businesses, which drove net sales up by 12% for both the quarter and the half-year. "The recovery of the US housing market remains below our expectations at the beginning of the year," said Gries.

For the 2015 financial year, James Hardie expects US$205 – 235m of net operating profit, excluding asbestos compensation costs. In the 2014 financial year, the company reported US$197m of net operating profit.

UAE: Everest Industries, a leading Indian manufacturer of building solution products, plans to set up a fibre cement board plant in the UAE as part of its global expansion strategy. The new plant, which will produce about 72,000t/yr of fibre cement, will be set up through a wholly-owned subsidiary company of Everest Industries in Mauritius. Everest Industries has already won approval from its board of directors for the new UAE venture.

Australia: James Hardie Industries, an Australian fibre cement producer, has posted an 80% fall in its net profit to US$28.9m during the first quarter of its 2015 fiscal year, which ended on 30 June 2014. During the same period of its 2014 fiscal year, net profit was US$142m.

The company revised down its full year earnings expectations due to an uncertain US economic recovery. James Hardie generates 66% of its revenue in Europe and the USA. James Hardie's CEO, Louis Gries, said that the US market 'is recovering more modestly than we assumed at the start of the year.'

Vietnam: The Vietnamese Ministry of Health has proposed that the government should add asbestos, which is widely used to produce roofing sheets in Vietnam, to the list of toxic chemicals subject to a full ban. There are 36 producers of asbestos cement (AC) roofing sheets in Vietnam, with an annual production capacity of 100Mm² of roofing sheets.

Vietnam has used asbestos since the 1960s and the country is among the world's 10 largest users of asbestos, consuming and importing some 60,000t/yr. More than 90% is used to manufacture AC roofing sheets, while the rest is for the production of car brakes and thermal insulation.

Deputy health minister Nguyen Thanh Long has said that the World Health Organisation (WHO) and international cancer research agencies have warned that all types of asbestos can cause lung, larynx and ovarian cancer, as well as mesothelioma and asbestosis. Asbestosis, a disease of the lungs caused by inhaling asbestos fibres, has been recognised in Vietnam as an occupational disease eligible for compensation since 1976. Ministry research has shown that people living near an area where asbestos is used, or those living under a roof made from asbestos, can also be affected.

The Research Institute of Technology for Machinery under the Ministry of Industry and Trade have developed a non-asbestos roofing sheet production line. Polyvinyl alcohol synthetic fibre (PVA) is used to replace the asbestos, while pulp additives increase stickiness. Prices of non-asbestos roofing sheets are 10 - 15% higher than those made from asbestos.

India: CK Birla group's subsidiary, HIL Limited, has announced that it has sold 100,000t of Charminar brand fibre cement roofing sheets in May 2014.

"This is the highest ever achieved by any brand globally," said HIL's managing director, Abhaya Shankar. He added that Charminar has been a household name, synonymous with asbestos roofing solutions across India, for nearly six decades. HIL has eight manufacturing plants, an installed capacity of 1Mt/yr and a 20% share in the US$669m market of asbestos roofing products in India.

Formerly known as Hyderabad Industries Limited, HIL launched Charminar asbestos roofing products 66 years ago. Shankar said the brand had attained market leadership some time in the late 1950s and retained that position thereafter. As a part of brand-building efforts, HIL has deployed campaign vans, relied on wall paintings and actively participated in village marts and other such events in rural areas. According to Shankar, the brand building involved three aspects: a strong relationship with distributors, a pan-Indian presence and consistent policies in respect of trade. HIL has also made use of a good supply chain and a robust system to get customer feedback. HIL spends about 2.5-3% of its revenues on brand building.

Australia: Boral will cease clinker production at its Maldon cement plant in New South Wales on 31 December 2014, axing up to 28 jobs in the process. Boral Cement's executive general manager, Ross Harper, said that a decline in demand for off-white clinker, which forms the basis of a range of specialty cement products, was behind the decision.

"Unfortunately, demand has declined sharply as consumers switch to products made from imported white clinker," said Harper. "This decline has coincided with a downturn in demand, rising costs of production, the availability of cheap imported clinker and the slow recovery of the building and construction industry." He said that the combination of these factors, plus the Maldon kiln's high cost and sub-scale output, rendered off-white clinker production unsustainable at Maldon. Harper added that Boral would maintain its Maldon grinding mill, packaging and associated logistics on site.

Australia: Fibre cement producer James Hardie Industries said on 22 May 2014 that it expects the US housing construction market to improve in 2014 as it posted a more than doubling in annual net profit. "The company continues to expect improvement in the US operating environment," said James Hardie.

James Hardie, which generates two-thirds of its revenue in Europe and the US, said that its annual net sales in those markets grew by 19%, helped by strong rises in US single-family building permits. James Hardie posted a net profit of US$99.5m for the year to 31 March 2014, up from US$45.5m in the previous year. Net operating profit, which excludes charges for asbestos liability, asset impairments and regulatory charges, was US$197.2m compared with US$140.8m in the prior year. Overall net sales grew by 13% to US$1.49bn.

James Hardie has been compensating Australian victims of asbestos-related illnesses such as mesothelioma and said that its asbestos liability grew by US$186.18m to US$1.44bn by 31 March 2014, after the number of claims were higher than expected for a second consecutive year.

US: Saint-Gobain has signed an agreement for the sale of its US-based fibre cement siding business to Plycem USA, a subsidiary of Elementia of Mexico. The transaction is expected to be finalised in the first quarter of 2014, subject to standard closing conditions.

The business is part of Saint-Gobain's Exterior Products activity of the Construction Products Sector. It manufactures and sells fibre cement siding, trim and accessory products for the US and Canadian residential and commercial construction markets. The business employs close to 250 people and has three US production sites at Roaring River, North Carolina, Terre Haute, Indiana and White City, Oregon.