Displaying items by tag: market

India: RCCPL, a subsidiary of Birla Corporation, has commenced cement despatches from its 2.7M/yr Mukutban cement plant in Maharashtra. The plant has a further grinding capacity of 1.2Mt/yr and a 40MW captive power plant. Switzerland-based ABB previously delivered electrification and automation systems to the site of the new plant in June 2020.

Canada: Lafarge Canada has converted its Richmond, British Colombia, cement plant to 100% OneCem Portland limestone cement (PLC) production. OneCem cement’s CO₂ emissions per tonne are 13% below the Canadian PLC average. The Richmond plant has supplied OneCem cement to the Western Canada and US Pacific Northwest customers since 2011. Since that time, it has eliminated 1.18Mt of CO₂ emissions, according to the producer.

President and CEO Brad Kohl said "Collaborating with local government and stakeholders was key to ensuring OneCem PLC’s uptake in the market, and conversion away from traditional high-intensity cement products. As industry leaders, we want to facilitate access to low carbon cements across Canada, and starting with Richmond is a big step towards making that happen."

Russia: Switzerland-based Holcim has announced its upcoming exit from the Russian cement market in line with its corporate value ‘to operate in the most responsible manner.’ The Global Cement Directory 2022 records a total of four Holcim cement plants in the country, commanding a capacity of 9.2Mt/yr.

Holcim’s board of directors thanked all employees currently mobilising to provide shelter, essential goods and medical supplies and other support to Ukrainians.

The group had previously suspended new capital investments into the market on 15 March 2022.

Australia: James Hardie Industries says that it has acquired land in Melbourne, Victoria, on which it plans to establish a fibre cement board plant.

Interim CEO Harold Wiens said "Adding a manufacturing site in the State of Victoria enables James Hardie to continue to meet the strong demand for our high-value building solutions in the Asia Pacific region. As we continue our strategic focus on marketing directly to the homeowner and commercialising market-led innovations, this site will help us not only meet this demand but enable the manufacturing of new innovations and existing high-value products."

France: Hoffmann Green Cement Technologies recorded sales of Euro2.38m in 2021, more than four times its 2020 figure of Euro504m. The company’s losses before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (LBITDA) declined by 27% to Euro5.23m from Euro4.13m, while its net loss fell by 9.1% to Euro5.56m from Euro6.12m.

The producer confirmed its global sales target of Euro130m and EBITDA margin target of 40% by 2026, by which time it expects to have achieved sales of 550,000t/yr of its clinker-free cement in France. This would correspond to 3% of the domestic cement market. By 2026, it aims to operate four plants abroad.

Finland: Betolar has signed a letter of intent with Australia-based RISAB and the Vanadium Recovery Project to research the use of steel slag from which vanadium has been extracted in concrete production. Dow Jones Institutional News has reported that the company says that, through it Geoprime alkali-activated additive technology, the new slag source could replace 10% of the cement used in concrete production in Finland.

CEO Matti Löppönen said "We see a huge opportunity for Betolar here. If successful, we would be able to offer our customers a specific, currently unused slag of the steel industry to replace cement in concrete. Our customers already have experience in utilising other types of slag in the production of concrete using Geoprime. Utilising new side streams will expand the reach of our solution as planned.”

Betolar launched Geoprime in September 2021. It is currently developing a recipe-optimising artificial intelligence (AI) and data platform to bring together concrete producers and suppliers of slag, ash and other materials.

World: Market Research Future has forecast a 15% composite annual growth rate (CAGR) in global green cement demand between 2018 and 2023, where green cement is defined as fly ash cement, slag cement, geopolymer cement and other cements produced using alternative raw materials. Market Research Future predicts that fly ash cement’s global growth will be the sharpest due to its abundant availability. Its report concluded that cement sector strategies in response to the growth would include mergers, joint ventures and acquisitions.

Thailand: Siam Cement Group (SCG) has secured a contract with Denmark-based COBOD to provide Thai distribution services for the company’s COBOD 3D construction printers. SCG says that it will help the supplier to launch a construction sector transformation. It says that it chose COBOD’s printer as the option with the most in-market experience.

SCG International managing director Abhijit Datta said “3D construction printers have been widely used in many parts of the world with excellent results. The technology helps reduce waste and increase construction times with foolproof simulation and minimal numbers of labourers.” He continued “Together with COBOD, we will improve Thailand’s construction market with the future expectation of extending cooperation in the ASEAN. With our regional expertise and domestic solid business alliance relationship, we are ready to assist our partner in achieving long-term success.”

Ireland: CRH says that it completed another phase in its on-going share buyback programme on 16 March 2022. The group purchased US$300m-worth of shares, bringing its total cash returned since the beginning of the programme in May 2018 to US$3.2bn. On 17 March 2022, it concluded an agreement to begin the purchase of a further US$300m-worth of its shares by 27 June 2022. The producer instructed investors that any decision in relation to any future buyback programmes will be based on an ongoing assessment of the capital needs of the business and general market conditions.

Cement producers in the north of Pakistan have started to increase their use of coal from Afghanistan in response to the ongoing volatility in energy markets. Research from a report by Darson Securities found that companies were already using up to 70% Afghan coal in their fuel mix with a further 20% being considered. Most of the northern producers are reported to have secured the cheaper Afghan coal for about two months of inventory, although Maple Leaf Cement was said to have four to five months of inventory. Meanwhile in the south of the country, producers were reported to be facing a tougher situation as Afghan coal costs more for them due to higher logistics charges and export orders were being reduced due to the low cost of clinker internationally. So they are focusing on the domestic market instead.

Graph 1: Cement despatches in Pakistan, 2015 – 2021. Source: All Pakistan Cement Manufacturers Association.

Data from the All Pakistan Cement Manufacturers Association (APCMA) shows that cement despatches have been steadily growing since the mid-2010s with a blip in 2020 caused by the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. The upward trend has been driven by local sales. Exports have generally grown at the same time, with more variance, but they are yet to regain the high of nearly 11Mt reported in 2009. On a rolling annual basis, local sales have remained steady since mid-2021 but exports have been slowly falling. In April 2021 they were 9.17Mt but by February 2022 they were 7.33Mt. For the February 2022 figures APCMA blamed this on the growing cost of production, rising international freight rates, mounting coal prices and a trade ban with India. On that last point for example, Pakistan-based producers exported 1.21Mt of cement to India in the 2017 – 2018 financial year before exports stopped after February 2019. Despite a brief respite in the spring of 2021 talks are still ongoing to resume trade with India.

On the corporate side the country’s largest cement producer by capacity, Lucky Cement, drew the same conclusion as the APCMA with its half-year results to 31 December 2021. Its local sales volumes were down a little but its exports were down a lot. It noted that the reason its local sales were falling but national industry local sales were up slightly was due to some competitor plants being non-operational in the previous year. However, the company managed to keep sales revenue and earnings increasing year-on-year by successfully combating growing input costs with price rises. Bestway Cement, the country’s other large producer, reported a tougher situation in the second half of 2021, with both local sales and export volumes down. This was attributed to a boom in construction activity in the second half of 2020 as Covid-19 lockdowns were eased. Demand for cement since then was said to be ‘sluggish’ due to inflation and high commodity prices. It also pinned its marked fall in exports on political and economic instability in Afghanistan. However, turnover and operating profit were both up due to higher selling prices.

Elsewhere in the sector news since the start of 2021, Pakistan’s exports to South Africa remained stymied in early 2020 due to a review of ongoing tariffs and the government decision to restrict infrastructure projects to only using locally produced cement. On the sustainability front the APCMA started to set out its decarbonisation strategy in November 2021. It may have a long way to go given that a think tank reported earlier in the year that the cement sector was the largest emitter of coal-related CO₂ emissions in the country, even more than power generation. Alongside this plenty of capacity additions have been announced. Lucky Cement started commercial cement production at its 1.2Mt/yr integrated Samawah cement plant in March 2021. Various new cement plants and upgrades to existing plants have been proposed by Bestway Cement, Cherat Cement, Fauji Cement, Kohat Cement Company, Lucky Cement and Maple Leaf Cement. Finally of note to a sector troubled by energy prices, in September 2021 the Pakistan International Bulk Terminal said it was going to upgrade its coal handling capacity to around 17Mt/yr by 2024.

Last week’s Global Cement Weekly covered Turkey. The contrasts are interesting because both of these countries have high cement exports and have raised energy concerns recently. This leads to the question of whether other cement exporters may be vulnerable to the current situation. Pakistan isn’t the only country where the cement industry is facing the negative effects of growing energy costs. This week in the sector news, Spain-based Tudela Veguín has shut down the kiln at its La Robla plant down for 10 days due to high electricity prices, Thailand-based Siam Cement Group (SCG) announced it was reviewing its investment plans and the UK-based Mineral Products Association lobbied the government on the issue.

The shift to Afghan coal by Pakistan’s cement producers is rational given the current situation. No doubt fuel buyers all over the world are doing similar things. In January 2022 the International Monetary Fund (IMF) forecast that Pakistan’s gross domestic product would grow by around 4% for 2021, 2022 and 2023 but current geopolitical events may test these estimates. Over the last year domestic cement demand has remained strong but inflation, growing input costs and the impetus to further rise prices may change this. Meanwhile, lots of new production capacity is in the pipeline and, if or when it is built, it may add additional competition pressure. This may present a problem in Pakistan if capacity utilisation levels drop but input costs keep on going up.