Global Cement News

Chile: Cementos Melon financial results for 2017 have been hit by a contraction in the local construction market. Both cement and concrete sales volumes were reduced, according to the Diario Financiero newspaper. Its sales fell by 14% year-on-year to US$298m in 2017 from US$345m in 2016. Its profit dropped by 54% to US$14m from US$30m. The company says that it has constrained fixed costs, logistics and administration to compensate.

Mexico: Grupo Cementos de Chihuahua’s (GCC) sales grew by 23.6% year-on-year to US$925m in 2017 from US$749m in 2016. The group attributed this to strong demand in both the US and Mexico, as well as the integration of the operations acquired in Texas and New Mexico at the end of 2016. Its earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBIDA) rose by 32.3% to US$250m from US$189m.

In the US sales rose by 29.8% year-on-year to US$180m in the fourth quarter of 2017, representing 76% of the group’s consolidated net sales. The growth reflected higher cement sales volumes in the states of Texas, South Dakota, Minnesota, New Mexico and Colorado. Fourth quarter sales volumes also benefitted from favourable weather conditions throughout GCC’s area of operations. The most dynamic segments in the regions where GCC operates were oil well drilling, residential real estate and public-sector construction. For the year as a whole, excluding the operations acquired in 2016, cement volumes increased 2.1% in 2017.

In Mexico sales rose by 22.6% to US$58.4m in the fourth quarter of 2017. This was attributed to rising cement prices with growth in the mining and self construction sectors and the final stages of several industrial projects. For the year as a whole sales rose by 11.4%.

Russia: Eurocement Group plans to spend Euro31m on upgrade work at two cement plants in the Leningrad region. It will allocate Euro14m towards work at Pikalyovskiy Cement and Euro17m at Peterburgcement, according to the Delovoy Peterburg newspaper. New milling equipment with additional filter will be installed at Pikalyovskiy Cement, and one of the plant’s two mills will be closed. This will allow the enterprise to raise the output of premium cement, decrease its production cost, and reduce emissions. A gas-piston thermal power with a capacity of 24.9MW will be built at the Peterburgcement plant.

France: Imerys has reorganised its Kerneos and Imerys Refractory Minerals businesses into one division: Imerys Aluminates. The new organisation will be managed by Jean-Marc Bianchi, Vice-President and General Manager, and it will become one of Imerys' 12 divisions.

Imerys Aluminates is expected to generate a yearly turnover of approximately Euro650m, it operates 23 industrial sites in seven countries, and is supported by a global commercial presence. It will offer customers a broad product portfolio across a range of segments, including refractories, building chemistry, civil engineering, investment casting industries and wastewater systems.

Italy: Cementir’s sales rose by 25% year-on-year to Euro1.29bn in 2017 from Euro1.03bn in 2016. The results benefited from Cementir’s acquisition of CCB Group and Cementir Sacci in 2016. Cementir subsequently agreed to sell Cementir Italia, including Cementir Sacci, to HeidelbergCement in late 2017.

Cementir’s earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) rose by 11.5% to Euro221m from Euro198m. Its total cement sales volumes rose by 26.6% to 12.8Mt from 10.1Mt. Sales volume increases were attributed to a change in the scope of consolidation in Belgium and Italy and ‘good’ performance in Denmark, Turkey, Egypt and Malaysia.

The Italian cement producer also announced with its financial results that it will expand its presence in the US by acquiring an additional 38.75% stake of Lehigh White Cement Company from HeidelbergCement, giving it a majority of 63%.