Global Cement News

Switzerland: Holcim Ltd said that falling demand in key markets, including India and Brazil, weighed on third quarter sales, but the Zurich-based cement maker still posted earnings ahead of expectations as business picked up in Europe and the Americas.

In the three months to the end of September 2013 Holcim's net income rose to Euro381m from Euro319m for the same period of 2012. Revenue fell to Euro4284m from Euro4668m year-on-year, as demand in India and Mexico fell.

Holcim said that cost cutting helped boost earnings but cautioned that the volume of cement it sells will likely slip below its expectations for the whole of 2013. Holcim gets the vast majority of its sales outside of Switzerland, with its biggest market, India, generating around a third of its revenue. The company still expects to post a rise in operating profit in 2013.

Saudi Arabia: The volume of cement exports fell by 55% to 245,000t in the first nine months of 2013, compared to 547,000t of exports in the same period of 2012. The Saudi cement firms imported around 39,000t of cement and 1,925,000t of clinker in the same period. During the first nine months of 2012, 399,000t of clinker was imported.

In April 2013 King Abdullah ordered 10Mt of cement imported to meet the growing demand due to the expansion of development projects and government-led infrastructure projects. Cement was exclusively exported by Saudi Cement Co. (SCC), the Eastern Province Cement Co. (EPCC) and Riyadh Cement Co. (RCC), whose exports reached 123,000t, 82,000t and 40,000t, respectively.

Nigeria: FLSmidth and its affiliated companies have signed contracts with Nigerian cement producer Dangote Cement plc for the operation and maintenance of certain production lines at its cement plants in Nigeria for five years. The parties have agreed not to disclose the value of the contracts.

The contracts, which together constitute the largest operation and maintenance contract awarded to FLSmidth to date, are for the operation and maintenance of the plant from crusher to packaging, including a full upgrade of the automation control systems. FLSmidth will start the operation and maintenance at one of the plants around April 2014. The operation and maintenance of the other lines will follow subsequently.

"These orders underline FLSmidth's abilities and growing role as operator of cement plants. In choosing FLSmidth for the operation and maintenance of its cement plants, the Dangote Group placed great emphasis on our focus on the use of local manpower and training, including our proven ability to train large numbers of staff through FLSmidth Institute - the current contracts include a workforce of around 1000 people," said Bjarne Moltke Hansen, FLSmidth Group Executive Vice President.

Dangote Cement is the largest cement producer in Nigeria, with more than 60% of the market share. Currently the fastest growing cement producer in Africa, Dangote Cement is projected to have a production capacity of around 50Mt/yr by 2016.

Belarus/Kazakhstan: Kazakhstan is interested in buying a 'large' batch of Belarus-built wagons for cement transportation, according to Nigmatzhan Isingarin, President of the Association of National Forwarding Agencies of Kazakhstan and the Kazakhstani Association of Freight Carriers and Wagon (Container) Operators. Isingarin met with the Prime Minister of Belarus, Mikhail Myasnikovich, on 31 October 2013. The wagons will be manufactured by the Mogilev railway car building plant.

In addition to negotiating a purchase, Isingarin and Myasnikovich discussed a contract for manufacturing and supplying wagons via international leasing. Isingarin said he was satisfied with the progress in the project's implementation. So far 425 wagons have been delivered.

Russia: Novorostsement has ordered its 12th Jenbacher J624 gas engine from US multinational GE (General Electric). The south-western 2.3Mt/yr Russian cement plant in Novorossiysk is expanding its 33.3MW captive gas power plant.

"In order to increase production capacity, we chose GE's technology since we have already had a successful operating experience with the J624 gas engines. The use of GE's gas engines has allowed us to improve the economic performance of our facility," said Anatoly Ziskel, managing director of the JSC Verhnebakanskiy Cement Plant.

Novorostsement originally installed 11 of GE's 4-MW Jenbacher J624 units in 2011. At the time, the project marked the largest single order of Jenbacher gas engines in Russia and also represents GE's largest J624 power plant project worldwide. Max Motors LLC of Sochi will supply the latest J624 unit for the power plant, which Max Motors designed, built and maintains. The on-site power station uses natural gas provided by a local pipeline.