Global Cement News

Kenya: The East African Portland Cement Company (EAPCC) has asked the Kenyan government to renew the term of its CEO, Kephar Tande, whose current three year term is set to end in October 2013. Tande's re-appointment presents a test to the new Kenyan government, elected in March 2013, which may follow its predecessors and attempt to influence the composition of the cement producer's management board.

"The board is satisfied with Tande's work and we have asked the Cabinet secretary to offer him another term," said the chairman of EAPCC, Mark ole Karbolo, in an interview with Kenyan newspaper Business Daily. He added that the EAPCC will announce a profit of nearly US$12m for the year ending June 2013.

In 2012 the government unsuccessfully attempted to oust eight EAPCC directors including the chief executive, accusing them of poor governance. The directors, including Karbolo, Kenya Airways CEO Titus Naikuni and lawyer Hamish Keith, moved to court to block the move following the state's directive to disband the cement maker's board. The court reinstated them in a legal battle that also saw former President Kibaki's appointment of Karbolo's replacement revoked.

Cement production took an unnecessarily harsh rap from the latest assessment by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The cause? Misleading wording.

In its summary for policymakers from Working Group I contribution to the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report (WGI AR5), every time CO₂ emissions were mentioned, cement was also mentioned. Typically this was along the lines of: "annual CO₂ emissions from fossil fuel combustion and cement production". Energy supply or transport industries were not mentioned. Only cement was. Subsequently in some general press reports covering the IPCC report, cement was duly parroted as the major industrial source of CO₂ emissions.

Digging into the data revealed that this particular wording derived from one of the data sources that the IPCC used that examined global CO₂ emissions from fossil-fuel burning, cement manufacture and gas flaring from 1751 - 2008 from the US Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center. Here cement production was grouped along with different type of fossil fuels, such as gas, liquids and solids, and gas flaring. Deeper into the IPCC draft report it was revealed (using this research) that total cumulative emissions between 1750 and 2011 amounted to 365 ± 30 PgC (1 PgC = 10¹⁵ grams of carbon), of which only 8 PgC (2%) came from the production of cement.

Undoubtedly the cement industry's carbon emissions are huge but ambiguous wording in a release targeted for policymakers is not helpful.

Thankfully at about the same time as the IPCC made headlines last week European Cement Association, Cembureau, followed the UK's Mineral Products Association (MPA) in releasing its own lobbying document for the industry. This consisted of five parallel routes to lowering emissions related to cement production. Unfortunately Cembureau's press release didn't receive the global media coverage that the IPCC did.

The bottom line is this: cement is essential for modern industrial societies.

With or without climate change caused by human behaviour, we will all need somewhere to live and work. For the moment such structures will be built from cement and concrete. Organisations like Cembureau offer a way forward. Global policymakers should pay attention.

Democratic Republic of Congo: PPC (formerly Pretoria Portland Cement) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Democratic Republic of Congo's Barnet Group to build a US$230m greenfield cement plant. The project will involve building a 1Mt/yr plant and an associated quarry 20km from Kimpese in western Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

"This investment is another of PPC's commitments to invest in sub-Saharan Africa and we are very confident about DRC. 22% of PPC's revenue comes from outside South Africa, at present, but the target is to increase this to 40% by our 2016 financial year. We look forward to a growing contribution and partnership with the DRC in the years ahead," said CEO of PPC, Ketso Gordhan.

In its press release announcing the project, PPC noted that the existing cement market in DRC was 'severely' undersupplied. At present, the DRC has 16kg/capita annual cement consumption, the lowest in Africa, compared with the South African average of 240kg and the global average of 400kg.

For the project PPC has partnered with Jean Saidi Bamanisa, Chairman of the Barnet Group, who is also the Honorary Secretary of the Federation of Congolese Companies. He was elected Governor of the Oriental Province of the DRC. The project will take advantage of DRC's first special economic zone.

Vietnam: The Vietnam Cement Association (VNCA) has said that three more cement plants will open later in 2013 – X18, Quang Phuc and Dong Lam - despite the country's current cement surplus.

According to reporting by the Tuoi Tre newspaper, the new plants will raise national cement production capacity to around 70Mt/yr. Domestic cement demand is estimated at up to 46Mt/yr in 2013. The opening of the new plants will lead to a surplus of up to 25Mt/yr.

Local cement producers in Vietnam face rising debts and high stock inventories due to inaccurate demand forecasts and massive investment. The country's cement sales are expected to rise by 4 - 5% year-on-year to up to 57Mt in 2013, including 49Mt of domestic sales and 8Mt of export.

Thailand: Asia Cement, the Thai subsidiary of Italcementi Group, has projected slower growth in revenue in 2014 due to a likely weaker domestic market and uncertainty over the government's US$64bn infrastructure investment.

Co-managing director of Asia Cement, Nopadol Ramyarupa, said that Thailand's fourth-largest cement maker expects revenue growth of only 4% in 2014, according to the Bangkok Post. The company's revenue for 2013 is predicted to rise by 17.6% year-on-year to US$319m from US$271m in 2012.

"The economic slowdown and revised gross domestic product figures have affected our projection," said Nopadol, adding that growth in the overall cement industry is heavily tied to the country's economy and to the construction sector in particular. Co-managing director Roberto Callieri added that he hoped that the Thai government's US$64bn infrastructure investment would stimulate the construction sector sufficiently to meet Asia Cement's 'optimistic' growth projection of 4% over five years. Asia Cement has not been affected by labour shortages in the country or by an increase in the daily minimum wage to around US$9.50/day.

Asia Cement has a 14% share of Thailand's 33Mt/yr cement market. The company is operating at 80% of its combined annual capacity of 7.3Mt/yr its cement plants in Saraburi, Nakhon Sawan and Phetchaburi provinces.