Global Cement News

Sri Lanka: Nepali entrepreneur Binod Chaudhary has submitted a US$75m proposal to the Sri Lanka government to build a cement plant on the Jaffna Peninsula in northern Sri Lanka. According to Daily News, a Sri Lankan online news portal, Chaudhary has invested an estimated US$200m in several projects in Sri Lanka. He has been investing substantially in Sri Lanka ever since he acquired a substantial stake in the Taj Lanka Hotels of the island nation in 2000.

US: Texas Industries (TXI) has announced that the second kiln at its Hunter cement plant has achieved operational status. The 1.4Mt/yr kiln line started in November 2012 and has realised its design performance capabilities and is producing efficiently.

"The success of this process is the direct result of the hard work of a dedicated team. The challenges faced when starting up a new kiln line are many and the teamwork and communication of our people made all the difference," said Jamie Rogers, TXI's Vice President and Chief Operating Officer.

The company also announced that it will accelerate maintenance and upgrade projects on the original production line, Kiln 1. Pending successful completion of plant maintenance and equipment upgrades, TXI expects to bring Kiln 1 back online during the first quarter of 2014. Combined with the newly-added capacity of Kiln 2, the upgrades will double TXI Hunter's cement production capacity to 2.3Mt/yr.

TXI is the largest producer of cement in Texas and a major cement producer in California. TXI is also a major supplier of construction aggregate, ready-mix concrete and concrete products.

Denmark: FLSmidth has reported a 86% drop in its profit year-on-year to Euro5.77m for the first quarter of 2013, compared to Euro32.3m in 2012. The Danish engineering group blamed increased customer hesitation, market uncertainty and a lack of efficiency.

Its revenue increased by 17% to Euro758m in the first quarter of 2013 from Euro648m in 2012. However, order intake fell by 22% to Euro675m from Euro862m. Fewer large orders were signed in the fist quarter of 2013, while unannounced orders were stable. Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation fell by 28% to Euro43.9m from Euro61.2m.

In its interim results FLSmidth stated that corrective actions were being developed and would be publicised in its second quarter report along with measures from the new CEO.

Saudi Arabia: Commercial ports in Saudi Arabia are ready to process more cement and clinker, according to a Ports Authority (PA) spokesman quoted by Arab News. The move supports a command issued by the King of the country in April 2013 that ordered 10Mt of cement to cope with local shortage.

The PA has set up 17 docking stations for handling and storage of cement and clinker. Jeddah, Dammam and Jubail have four stations each. Yanbu, Dhuba and Jazan are equipped with one site each. The authority has agreed with Saudi Arabia-based Southern Province Cement Company to import cement and clinker through the Jazan Port, as well as with Yanbu Cement Company for clinker imports. All the ports are required to support the cement companies in providing enough space for storage and loading.

Indonesia: Indocement Tunggal Prakarsa, a leading Indonesian cement producer, saw its market share fall from 32.5% to 30.6% in the first three months of 2013. A report by the Jakarta Globe attributed the decline due to other cement producers raising their production levels to match growing infrastructure development programs in the country. However, Indocement said that it actually believed in protecting margins rather than increasing its sales.

The HeidelbergCement subsidiary saw its domestic sales increase year-on-year by 2.1% to 4.2Mt for the first three months of 2013. However, the Indonesian cement industry as a whole saw sales volumes of cement rise by 8.6% to 13.6Mt for the quarter.

"Our competitors have managed to add to their cement production capacity, thus resulting in our sales volume being not quite as high as expected," said Indocement's Finance Director Tju Lie Sukanto.