Global Cement News

Poland: Cement sales rose by 7% year-on-year to around 18Mt in 2017, according to the Polish Cement Association. The country has a cement production capacity of 24Mt/yr and the capacity utilisation rate is approximately 75%. The Institute of Economic Forecasting and Analysis forecasts that sales will grow by 8% in 2018 to 17.9Mt.

Dominican Republic: Cement sales fell slightly by 1.5% year-on-year to 4.18Mt in 2017 from 4.24Mt in 2018. Adocem, the Dominican Portland Cement Producers Association, blamed the slowdown on a slowdown of the general economy. It also reported that exports grew in 2017 to 20.1% of production from 17.3% in 2016.

Ireland: Liam McCaffrey, the chief executive officer of Quinn Industrial Holdings does not expect Brexit to slow growth. He said that the most damage could arise from a prolonged recession in the UK, although he though it was unlikely, as reported bythe Irish Times newspaper. He added that the UK has a housing shortage and it relies on imports for building materials. In his estimation the worst-case scenario would be a tariffs on building materials but these, if they happened at all, are expected to be low.

The building materials producer and owner of Quinn Building Products reported that its turnover grew by 7.4% year-on-year to Euro209m in 2017. Its earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBTIDA) increased by 31% to Euro23.9m.

“Despite the significant macro-economic challenges posed by Brexit, we continue to invest, grow sales, innovate and drive margin growth. Encouragingly, volume growth trends from 2017 are continuing year to date in 2018 and, at this point, we are firmly on track to deliver our fourth successive year of strong earnings growth,” said McCaffrey.

Poland: The court of appeal has supported a decision by the Office for Competition and Consumer Protection (UOKiK) in 2009 to fine six cement producers for cartel-like behaviour. However, the total fine has been reduced by one third to Euro67m from Euro98.3m, according to the Polish News Bulletin.

Grupa Ozarow is to pay Euro22.1m, Cemex Polska Euro16.6m, Gorazdze Cement Euro12.3m, Dyckerhoff Polska Euro7.51m, Cementownia Warta Euro5.55m and Cementownia Odra Euro2.87m. Some companies had their fines reduced by the court of appeal. Dyckerhoff will pay Euro7.5m instead of Euro13m and Cemex Polska will pay Euro5.88 less than the original fine. Some of the companies involved are considering appealing to the Supreme Court.

UK: Cemex has launched its digital customer integration platform, Cemex Go, in the UK. The system allows the company and its customers to will be used in real time to manage order placement, live tracking of shipments and invoices and payments for the company’s main products, including bagged and bulk cement. Cemex Go was introduced in Mexico and the US in late 2017.