Global Cement News

Philippines: The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) has asked cement producers in the Philippines to justify recent price hikes that led prices to exceed the suggested levels set by the agency.

Trade Undersecretary Zenaida C Maglaya said the three largest cement firms in the country - Holcim Philippines, Lafarge Republic, Cemex Philippines - have started submitting documents to support adjustments in their prices. Eagle Cement is set to meet with DTI and Board of Investment (BOI) officials to explain its pricing scheme. Maglaya said one of the large cement manufacturers had made a submission but had yet to complete all requested data due to 'antitrust issues', referring to laws addressing anti-competitive behavior among corporations.

In April 2013, Maglaya said that cement companies had increased their prices due to the higher cost of coal, a raw material that accounted for about 25% of the cement industry's manufacturing costs. Holcim reportedly raised its price by 11%, Lafarge by 7%, Cemex by 15% and Eagle Cement by 5%.

In 2012, the Cement Manufacturers' Association of the Philippines (Cemap) reported record-high sales of 18.4Mt, up by 17.5% from 15.6Mt in 2011. This was due to the boom in public and private construction projects. In the fourth quarter of 2012, 4.4Mt of cement were sold compared to 4Mt in the fourth quarter of 2011.

Portugal: Cimpor has seen its turnover and earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) grow in the first quarter of 2013, due to the assets brought in from an asset swap with InterCement.

Turnover grew by 22% to Euro636m from the same quarter in 2012. EBITDA rose by 15.2% to Euro147m from Euro128m. The Portugal-based cement producer gained new operations in Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay from the asset swap while it lost assets in Spain, Morocco, Tunisia, Turkey, China and Peru.

Total cement and clinker sales increased by 5.9% to 6.4Mt from 6.1Mt. However, operations that remained with Cimpor suffered a 4.6% drop in sales due to continued demand retraction in Portugal and increased competition from imports in South Africa.

National: China's cement output grew by 8.7% year-on-year in April 2013, rising from a 4% increase in the same month of last year, according to the latest statistics released by the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC). In the first four months of 2013, the country's total cement output reached 641Mt, an increase of 8.4% year-on-year from the same period in 2012. Profits for the cement industry fell by 29.4% for the first quarter of 2013 to US$606m.

Regional: In southwest China, Chongqing Municipality produced 17.7Mt of cement over the first four months of 2013, a year-on-year increase of 11.2%, according to the local statistics bureau. Yunnan Province produced 28.4Mt of cement in the first four months of 2013, a year-on-year increase of 27.8%.

The central Hubei Province saw cement output slide by 2.6% year-on-year to 31Mt for the first four months of 2013. Hunan Province saw its cement output rise by 8.3% year-on-year to 9.33Mt in April 2013.

Eastern China's Jiangsu Province saw cement output grow by 15.1% year-on-year to 55.5Mt for the first four months of 2013.

Government: China has confirmed that it intends to release a blueprint for urbanisation in 2013, the state-run Xinhua News Agency has reported, citing officials with China's top economic planner. Officials with the NDRC said the urbanisation development plan is 'very important' and that the NDRC was leading the drafting. Shares in cement suppliers and other construction-related companies have already benefited from expectations of more housing and infrastructure projects.

Corporate: Chinares Cement has announced it is in discussion with Fujian Cement about setting up a joint-venture to build cement grinding lines, and to coordinate marketing and sales. No agreement has been reached yet.

Saudi Arabia: Saudi cement producer Southern Province Cement (SPC), the nation's largest cement firm by market value, posted a US$71.6m net profit for the first quarter of 2013, down from US$75.8m a year ago. Without providing exact figures, the company attributed the decrease to lower cement prices.

The cement manufacturer registered an operating profit of US$72.7m for the first three months of 2013, down from US$76.8m in the first quarter of 2012.

Saudi Arabia: Hail Cement has booked a US$3.7m net loss for the first quarter of 2013, more than double the loss of US$1.7m suffered in the first quarter of 2012. Without providing any exact figures, the company attributed the loss to higher expenses related to launching production, coupled with higher salary costs due to the growing number of employees.

Hail Cement, established in 2010, is yet to start commercial production. According to the current plans, this is expected by the end of the second quarter of 2013. In February 2013 Hail Cement said that its rotary cement kiln had started trial production and that the trial operations were expected to take three months.