France/Switzerland: LafargeHolcim plans to close its headquarters in Paris. The decision to move the company’s head office solely to Switzerland follows a cost cutting review at the building materials company. It will also close its corporate office in Zurich. Remaining jobs in Switzerland will be moved to the company’s Holderbank site and a new corporate office in Zug. In Paris, remaining positions will be moved to Clamart. The plan is expected to be completed by the end of 2018. Around 200 jobs will be affected.

“This painful but necessary simplification step is key to creating a leaner, faster and more competitive LafargeHolcim,” said chief executive officer Jan Jenisch. The move follows decisions to close offices in Singapore and Miami.

The decision to close its headquarters in Paris marks a further move away from the ‘merger of equals’ announced when France’s Lafarge merged with Switzerland’s Holcim in 2015. Since the merger LafargeHolcim has underperformed reporting a loss of Euro1.46bn in 2017. Former senior executives from Lafarge have become embroiled in a legal investigation looking at the company’s conduct in Syria. LafargeHolcim’s first chief executive officer Eric Olsen resigned from the company in mid-2017 following fallout from a review into the Syria affair.

Argentina: The National Commission for Protection of Competition (CNDC) has hastened an investigation into alleged collusion and coordinated behaviour in the cement industry. Cement prices increased by 13% in May 2018, according to La Nacion newspaper. So far in 2018 the price of cement has risen by 23% and the cement companies say that further price rises are expected in June 2018.

The local industry has blamed rising input prices of up to 50% due to local currency devaluation but the Argentine Peso has only fallen by 30% so far in 2018. The companies under investigation include Loma Negra, LafargeHolcim, Petroquimica Comodoro Rivadavia and others.

Bolivia: Fábrica Nacional de Cemento (Fancesa) has increased its monthly sales target following local strikes in Chuquisaca. The company estimates that it lost US$6.95m in sales during the unrest, according to the Correo del Sur newspaper. It doesn’t intend to cut the cost of cement in Santa Cruz but it will give away a limited amount of free cement bags. Fancesa also plans to start selling bulk cement through concrete firms in the city.

Venezuela: Production at FMC Venezolana’s Pertigalete plant has dropped to 30% while repair work is being unertaken on its line 6. The production line was orignally shut down in February 2018 for upgrades to its filters, according to the El Tiempo newspaper. However the maintenance work has been delayed while the plant waits for a crane. At present only line 7 is operational at the site.

France: Eqiom plans to spend Euro8m on an upgrade to its kiln at its Lumbres cement plant. The subsidiary of Ireland’s CRH is installing a new clinker cooler on Kiln 5 at the site, according to the Nord Éclair newspaper. In February 2018 Fives FCB said it had won the contract to replace the kiln at the plant. The upgrade is expected to start in December 2018.

Cameroon: Cement exports from Cameroon came to 57,459t in 2017, a 191% rise year-on-year compared to 19,700t in 2016, according to figures released by the Ministry of Economy, Planning and Spatial Planning (MINEPAT). Most of these exports to the countries of the Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa (CEMAC).

Imports pale in comparison to exports at just 1282t in 2017, mainly coming from China and Turkey. They were, however, up on the 900t imported in 2017.

This increase in exports is explained by the increase in local cement production. Cameroon now has a cement production capacity of 3.7Mt/yr.

Vietnam: At a recent working session with the authorities of Vietnam’s northern province of Ha Nam, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc asked the region not to grant an investment license for any new cement plants. He also urged the provincial authorities to take a closer look at environmental protection.

At present, Ha Nam province has 11 rotary kilns making cement that share a combined capacity of 21Mt/yr, including the Xuan Thanh 2, the Vissai Ha Nam, and the Thanh Thang cement plants. The province has the largest production capacity in the country, according to data from the Ministry of Construction.

Vietnam: State-owned Vietnam Cement Industry Corporation (Vicem), the country’s leading cement producer, sold 9.2Mt of cement and clinker in the first four months of 2018, a 6.7% year-on-year rise from the same period in 2017. The corporation’s clinker and cement output also increased by 5% and 1.5% to 6.49Mt and 7.24Mt, respectively. Vicem aims to produce 1.8Mt of clinker and 2.5Mt of cement in May 2018. Its cement and clinker sales are expected to reach 2.7Mt in May 2018.

Vicem sold about 26.6Mt of cement and clinker in 2017, a rise of 3% year-on-year. 23.6Mt was sold locally, a 4% rise, and 3Mt was exported, a fall of 3%.

UltraTech Cement’s deal to buy the cement business of Century Textiles & Industries could see it become the world’s third largest cement producer by production capacity outside of China.

It announced this week that it had entered into an acquisition agreement to buy the cement subsidiary of BK Birla Group for US$1.26bn. If the deal completes then it will gain three integrated plants in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra respectively with a combined production capacity of 11.4Mt/yr and a 1Mt/yr grinding plant in West Bengal. At this point UltraTech Cement will increase its production capacity to 106Mt/yr seeing it become the third largest cement producer in the world in Global Cement’s Top 100 Report.

This latest deal is subject to the usual regulatory approval from competition bodies and the like. Bustling past this step seems far from clear at this stage given that UltraTech Cement owns cement plants already in each of the four states the proposed purchases are in. It has described the purchase as giving it, …”the opportunity for further strengthening its presence in the highly fragmented, competitive and fast growing East and Central markets and extending its footprint in the Western and Southern markets.” Synergy savings from procurement and logistics are expected to follow with further benefits to be gained from the company’s distribution network. Local and national competitors may not see it the same way and the fallout from a price war could be damaging for smaller producers.

As covered previously, UltraTech Cement seems hell bent on winning its on-going fight against Dalmia Bharat to buy Binani Cement. Rightly or wrongly UltraTech Cement tried to muscle its way into buying Binani by making a bid directly to its owners after it lost an auction for it. Legal wrangling has followed as the insolvency process for Binani Cement has clashed against the auction process of the administrator. At the time of writing it is still far from clear which company will win.

Comparing the prices of the two latest acquisition targets by UltraTech Cement may offer some insight of its motivations. The Binani Cement assets roll in at just over US$125/t of production capacity. Although, as noted below, some of this is located outside of India. The Century Textiles & Industries assets are being purchased for a little over US$100/t. This is interesting as it is lower that the Binani cost, although the close links between BK Birla Group and UltraTech Cement’s owner Aditya Birla may help to explain this.

UltraTech Cement’s milestone as it surpasses the 100Mt/yr capacity level will mark a continuing change in the world’s cement industry as it moves away from Europe and North America to developing economies. As ever the classification is a bit of a fudge given that Global Cement’s top producers list excludes Chinese producers. Partly this arises from the difficulty obtaining reliable data on the Chinese industry. Partly this comes from top producer’s list looking at multinational companies over (extremely) large national ones. Due to this UltraTech Cement remains a regional player. Or it will at least until it (or if it) manages to buy Binani Cement. Some of the assets included in that sale include plants in both the UAE and China. At this point UltraTech Cement’s claim to be the third biggest cement producer in the world will be secure.

Australia: Martin Brydon plans to retire from Adelaide Brighton. No time scale has been specified but he intends to remain with the business while its finds a successor for him.

Brydon, aged 62 years, has been in post since 2014. He holds over 30 years of experience in the construction materials industry ranging from electrical engineering, operational and general management, sales and marketing and strategy and business development.

Others executive changes at the building materials producer include the appointment of Zlatko Todorcevski as chairman of the board. He succeeds Leslie Hosking, who has decided to retire. Todorcevski, aged 50 years, has been a non-executive director since March 2017 and he was named chairman elect in February 2018. A training accountant he holds 30 years experience in the oil and gas, logistics and manufacturing sectors gained in Australia and overseas with a background in finance, strategy and planning.

Graeme Pettigrew has also retired as a non-executive director of Adelaide Brighton after 14 years of service at the company. He had been a non-executive director since 2004. The former chief executive officer of CSR Building Products held experience in the building materials industry in South East Asia and the UK through former roles as the managing director of Chubb Australia and Wormald Security Australia.