Displaying items by tag: market

India: Dalmia Bharat has announced a capacity target of 120Mt/yr by the end of 2031. The Business Standard newspaper has reported that the producer will make total investments of US$2.31bn in its on-going growth drive. The sum includes US$723m invested in the acquisition of Jaypee Group's 9.4Mt/yr cement business in December 2022. Dalmia Bharat's eventual investments in erecting new capacity are estimated at US$1.09bn, US$485m (44%) of it in its North Indian cement business.

CEO Puneet Dalmia said “We are executing the largest capital expenditure in our history.” Regarding the Jaypee Group deal, Dalmia said "The acquisition will give us access to Central India’s and North India’s markets and we would look for more acquisition opportunities in the mid segment. We expect the industry to consolidate further in the coming years. India will invest US$1Tn in infrastructure in the next decade, and that will create a sizeable demand growth for cement.”

Uzbekistan: Bekabadcement is carrying out a 'large-scale' upgrade to its 0.7Mt/yr Bekabadcement plant in Tashkent Region. The producer said that the upgrade involves a 20% capacity expansion of the plant's production line to 2500t/day. Austria-based Unitherm CemCon supplied burners for the upgraded line, while China-based Beijing Triumph International Engineering supplied heat exchanger components and a KC 4.1-0955 cooler. The upgrade also involves the installation of new kiln lining, and will transition the plant's cement production from wet to dry process. Germany-based Christian Pfeiffer previously upgraded the Bekabad cement plant's grinding unit in April 2023.

General director Vasily Korobkin "We see that (parent company) United Cement Group (UCG) is interested in the modernisation and development of the enterprise. The group adheres to international standards, so all plans for the development of the plant are built accordingly." He concluded "We expect to become a modern and successful enterprise in Uzbekistan which is capable of becoming a major player in the cement industry of Central Asia.”

Ireland/US: Shareholders have approved Ireland-based CRH's board recommendation to transition to a US primary listing on the New York Stock Exchange. The company says that it will effect its transition on or around 25 September 2023. This will entail delisting shares from Ireland's Euronext Dublin, while retaining a standard listing on the UK's London Stock Exchange (LSE).

CRH derived 75% of earnings from North America in 2022. It expects the US market to be a key driver of future growth due to the country's growing populace and construction needs.

CEO Albert Manifold said "We are pleased to see such strong shareholder support for the listing transition, as it marks an important milestone in our development and will enable CRH to fully participate in the significant growth opportunities that lie ahead.”

Philippines: Holcim Philippines introduced Holcim Optima, a blended Portland limestone cement (PLC), on the Philippine market on 8 June 2023. The Business Mirror newspaper has reported that Holcim Optima cement offers 10% reduced CO₂ emissions compared to ordinary Portland cement (OPC).

President and CEO Horia Adrian said that Holcim Optima cement 'delivers the same strength, workability and durability as OPC and remains compatible with other cement additives such as slag and fly ash. The new product is best used in large building projects and available in bulk.' Adrian added "It is a timely product for the Philippines, as infrastructure building accelerates and green demand grows."

Bolivia: Bolivia produced 915,000t of cement during the first quarter of 2023, up by 3.2% year-on-year from 886,000t in the first quarter of 2022. Domestic consumption rose by 1.9% to 871,000t in the period under review. The National Institute of Statistics has recorded total national cement imports worth US$35m, up by 45% from US$24.1m.

Fiji: The Construction Industry Council of Fiji (CIC) has named cement among possible 'questionable' building materials being imported that are below Fijian quality standards. The Fiji Times newspaper has reported that CIC president Gordon Jenkins called on authorities to implement better quality checks at points of entry. Jenkins named South Korea as a current source of low-price cement, which he said buyers do not know is 'good or not.'

Heidelberg Materials North America held an official opening ceremony this week for its upgraded slag cement plant and terminal at Cape Canaveral in Florida. The US$24m project added a new roller press to the unit to increase its production capacity. In a statement Chris Ward, the president and chief executive officer of the company, said that it had made the investment to meet sustainability and resilient construction goals. Industrial Accessories Company (IAC) said in mid-2021 that it had been named as the engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) contractor for the project. It planned to install a hydraulic roller press supplied by FLSmidth. IAC also said it was providing instrumentation equipment, hoppers, bins, belt conveyors, bucket elevators and dust collectors amongst other kit and services.

Other recent US slag cement-related news stories have concerned terminals. In late August 2022 Royal White Cement said it had leased a site on the Houston Ship Channel in Houston, Texas to handle and store approximately 100,000t of multiple cementitous products such as slag, ordinary Portland cement and white Cement. In May 2022 Titan America announced plans to spend US$37m on an upgrade to its Norfolk terminal in Chesapeake, Virginia. The major improvement was to add a 70,000t storage dome, with enlarged truck and railway capacity, to allow the site to import and distribute raw materials such as fly ash, slag and aggregates. Completion on this one was scheduled for some point in 2023. Titan added that the project was similar to the addition of a 70,000t dome under construction at the time at Titan's import terminal in Tampa, Florida.

The United States Geological Survey (USGS) estimates that domestic sales of iron and steel (ferrous) slags in the US amounted to 15Mt in 2022. Sales were around 20Mt in the 2000s but this fell to current levels in the 2010s as blast furnaces closed. In 2022 the USGS noted that, “domestic ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBFS) remained in limited supply because granulation cooling was known to be available at only two active US blast furnaces while, elsewhere, only one domestic plant produced pelletised slag in limited supply.” It added that the grinding of granulated blast furnace slag was only being carried out domestically by cement companies. Imports of slag were 2Mt in 2022. This is a decline from a peak of 2.6Mt in 2018 but higher than the period 2000 – 2015. The price of slag, meanwhile, hit a high of US$53/t in 2022. This is the highest price recorded by the USGS since at least 2000. It is double that of 2017.

Charles Zeynel of ZAG International noted in the June 2023 issue of Global Cement Magazine that cement producers in Florida, California, Texas, Georgia and the Carolinas are far from steel mills, so they import granulated blast furnace slag (GBFS) and other secondary cementitious materials (SCM). This certainly fits with Heidelberg Materials’ plan to upgrade its slag cement plant and terminal at Cape Canaveral. Also on the US market, Zeynel added that due to rising global demand for SCMs more of the available share of GBFS was being purchased by ‘richer’ markets such as Europe, North America and Australia. He continued that GBFS and GGBFS producers had also started increasing the price of their wares internationally. This too is apparent in the prices published by the USGS.

One final story with links to slag to note this week concerns the launch of the Alliance for Low-Carbon Cement & Concrete (ALCC) in Europe. The group brings together companies producing products or services intended to decarbonise the cement and concrete sectors. Two of the members – Ecocem and Hoffman Green Cement Technologies – are Europe-based slag cement producers. Two other members – Fortera and TerraCO₂ – are companies based in North America that are marketing and selling low-carbon SCMs.

Various start-up companies have been emerging on a regular basis in both North America and Europe with the aim of decarbonising cement and concrete in various different ways. The formation of the ALCC can be seen as part of this trend as the more successful non-traditional cement-concrete-aggregate companies establish themselves. One point that cement producers in North America are likely to be well aware of is that concrete is becoming less linked to clinker as the cost of carbon mounts and the clinker factor of cement lowers. Slag supplies may be finite but Heidelberg Materials North America’s latest investment in Florida is further acceptance that one doesn’t just need clinker to make concrete.

Read Charles Zeynel’s interview on SCM Trends in 2023 in the June 2023 issue of Global Cement Magazine

The 15th Global Slag Conference, Exhibition & Awards take place on 6 - 7 June 2023 in Düsseldorf, Germany

India: The India Cements recorded full-year consolidated sales of US$678m during the 2023 financial year, up by 15% year-on-year from 2022 financial year levels. The Economic Times newspaper has reported that the company increased its cement sales volumes by 9%, in line with overall volumes growth in the cement industry in India. It reported a net loss of US$205m, compared with a US$7.97m net profit in the previous financial year.

The India Cements said "The performance of the company during the year under review was adversely impacted by the record increase in the cost of fuel and power, which could not be compensated in the market due to supply overhang."

Sinoma International Engineering was revealed this week as the winner of a contract to build a new production line at Southern Province Cement’s Jizan plant. The China-based engineering firm said that the US$330m contract was to build a full line, from limestone crushing to bagging, with an output of 5000t/day. The construction period is expected to take just over two years, suggesting a commissioning date in mid-2025 if work starts now. The project has been in the pipeline for a while with an announcement in mid-2021. It was previously reported that the new line is intended to replace the two existing production lines at the site once completed.

Other recent projects in the country include Yamama Cement’s plans to move its cement plant near Riyadh to a new location. Sinoma International Engineering was also selected as the main contractor in November 2022 for the US$220m project. The relocated line – using both old and new equipment – will have a production capacity of 10,000t/yr. Project duration was estimated at around two-and-a half years following financial contractual commitments. So the earliest this one might be completed is also mid-2025. Eastern Province Cement also started making moves to build a new major upgrade in March 2023 when it started the tendering process for a planned 10,000t/day production line at its Al Khursaniyah Plant. The intention is to replace some of the obsolete lines at the unit. The project dates back to 2015, when it was first announced.

Graph 1: Domestic cement sales and clinker exports in Saudi Arabia, 2013 – 2022. Source: Yamama Cement

The timing of these new projects is compelling given that sales by the local industry peaked in 2015. They declined in 2018 to a low of around 40Mt before stabilising at around 50Mt for the last three years. However, one trend to note is how clinker exports reached 7.1Mt in 2022, the highest figure in a decade, since export rules were relaxed in 2017. They have grown year-on-year since 2018 with the exception of 2020. Cement exports have been lower since 2013 hitting a high of 1.9Mt in 2019, although 2022 was nearly as good at 1.8Mt.

The other big news story from the local sector in 2023 was the US$37m fine that the General Authority for Competition (GAC) levied for price fixing in April 2023. 14 of the 17 main cement companies in the country were found to have broken local competition law following an investigation. Detail on specifically what happened is light, but the GAC said that it took exception to companies “controlling prices of commodities and services meant for sale by increasing, decreasing, fixing their prices or in any other manner detrimental to lawful competition.”

As ever with the Saudi construction market, government spending is expected to keep things buoyant. Although input and logistic costs have risen like everywhere else, energy costs have also risen. This, no doubt, is useful to a government planning on building a bunch of so-called ‘Giga’ projects. Local sales of cement may have dipped slightly in 2022 but building all these big new projects will require plenty of cement. A report by the SICO Bank in January 2023 forecast that local cement demand was expected to remain ‘flat’ in 2023 but that it would grow by 5% year-on-year in 2024. Interestingly, it added that demand from the tourism and exhibition sector would also fuel demand in the run-up to 2030 as various schemes connected to the ‘Giga’ projects reached fruition.

Each of the three projects detailed above are intended to replace existing capacity. This suggests that none of these companies expect the market to grow significantly anytime soon. These cement producers are likely to be focusing on improving efficiencies from their existing market share. Alongside this, exports of cement and clinker have grown, giving combined local and export sales that are similar to the market peak in 2015. Efficiency savings and adapting to a mature market appear to be the way forward for Saudi cement producers in the near-term.

Vietnam: Nghi Son Cement Corporation has despatched its first batch of cement to customers in the US. The shipment consisted of 31,500t of cement produced at the company's Thanh Hoa cement plant. Việt Nam News has reported that the producer moved into the US market due to declining cement demand domestically.

Nghi Son Cement Corporation is a joint venture of Vietnam Cement Corporation (Vicem), Japan-based Taiheiyo Cement and Japan-based Mitsubishi Materials.