Global Cement News

If you have any spare cement this week – send it to Ghana!

First, HeidelbergCement announced plans for a new cement mill on the coast at Takoradi. Then, Dangote officially started to export cement to the west African nation.

HeidelbergCement's strategy in the region is telling because it is starting to head inland. The press release on Ghana indicated that the German-based cement producer intends to expand its capacity to 4.4Mt/yr by late 2014. This follows a recent announcement that HeidelbergCement are building their first grinding plant in Burkina Faso, directly north of Ghana. Previously the producer imported cement there. Now it intends to build a US$50m plant with a production capacity of 0.65Mt/yr.

Since most of HeidelbergCement's existing infrastructure in the region is based on the coast, building a plant in a landlocked nation - Burkina Faso - is a huge vote of investor confidence in west Africa. "In particular the countries of sub-Saharan Africa have a very high growth potential due to their early stage of industrialisation and rich natural resources," said Dr Bernd Scheifele, chairman of the managing board of HeidelbergCement in the statement accompanying the Ghana expansion.

The move also provides a clue as to how competitive the cement market is becoming in territories near the coast in Africa. Currently HeidelbergCement holds a mostly coastal presence in western Africa, in Benin, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Gabon, Ghana, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Togo. It has four cement plants and nine grinding plants. Its cement business made a year-on-year increase in revenue of 12% to Euro612m in 2012.

Roughly calculated, HeidelbergCement is paying US$77/t in Burkina Faso compared to US$38/t in Ghana to build its new production capacity. HeidelbergCement must be paying double for a reason.

Meanwhile, Dangote Cement announced on the same day (11 March 2013) that a fleet of cement trucks were heading to Ghana. Already the Nigerian cement producer holds a cement terminal with a bagging capacity of 1.5Mt/yr in the country. Dangote intends to start exporting 5000t/week of cement. Its eventual target is 5000t/day when the logistics are in place, or up to 1.8Mt/yr. Not a bad start in unloading Dangote's self-declared overcapacity of 20Mt/yr in Nigeria upon the neighbouring nations in the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).

Ethiopia: Tamiru Wondimagegn has been appointed as board chairman of Habesha Cement. He is a prominent lawyer and board member of Habesha Cement. He succeeds Gizaw Teklemariam, who previously worked in the oldest state owned cement factory, Mugher.

Habesha held elections for its board in late January 2013, following a reduction in board places from 12 to nine. The Ethiopian cement producer has also given three board of directors seats to two South African companies, International Development Corporation and Pretoria Portland Cement, which are credited for bringing in 49% equity to Habesha.

China: Demand for cement in China will increase amid tightening supply in 2013, according to the vice-president of China Resources Cement. Yu Zhongliang, the vice-chairman of China Resources Cement, said that mainland China would not suffer from overcapacity because obsolete production capacity will be eliminated, in an article in the South China Morning Post.

An estimated 150Mt of new production capacity of cement will be added in 2013, but 100Mt of obsolete capacity will be eliminated, leaving a net increase in production capacity of 50Mt. Yu predicts that production will rise by 8% at most, but demand will grow by 8% to 10%.

"Over the past year, lots of metro railway and airport projects were approved in China. This will drive cement demand," said Pan Yonghong, the chief executive of China Resources Cement.

Government-led investment in infrastructure and urbanisation will support growth of 5% to 8% annually until 2015, according to a Macquarie Group report. Macquarie expects cement prices to jump 13% by 2015 due to tighter supply and increased demand, giving the sector a surge of 60% to 80% in earnings.

In January 2013, the central government stipulated that the country's ten largest cement producers should increase their national market share to 35% by 2015 from 30% currently. "We are in the top five by production capacity. We hope to rise in rank by 2015," Yu said. Beijing aims to create three or four mega-sized cement companies each with a production capacity exceeding 100Mt/yr by 2015.

Indonesia: PT Indocement Tunggal Prakarsa has reported that its net income rose by 32% to US$491m in 2012 from US$372m in 2011. The cement producer attributed its success to Indonesia's growing middle class, strong demand in the domestic residential market and an increase in the domestic price of cement of 7%.

The rise follows the highest domestic sales volumes of cement recorded for Indocement of 17.9Mt in 2012, a 16% rise compared to 16Mt in 2011.

Its earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation rose by 30% to US$686m in 2012 from US$524m in 2011. Although national sales growth of cement in Indonesia slowed to 14.5% in 2012, Indocement grew its market share to 32%.

In its outlook for 2013 Indocement commented that it believes that domestic demand will continue to grow following new national infrastructure projects. The producer has a 4.4Mt/yr brownfield plant in Citeureup ready for completion in the third quarter of 2015. It has signed a preliminary agreement with Sinoma Group for the construction of a new US$671m plant in Citeureup. It is also considering plans to build two new greenfield 2.5Mt/yr cement plants.

Russia: Eurocement has announced the completion of its 3Mt/yr Podgorensky cement plant in the Voronezh Region. The Russian cement producer invested Euro424m in the project that it expects to make back within 12 years. Construction took three years with completion in December 2012. The plant has generated 1000 jobs for local residents. Equipment for the plant was supplied by FLSmidth.

Commissioning and start-up work has been conducted on the plant's production facilities since the start of 2013. When the Podgorensky cement plant reaches its full operational capacity, the portion of Eurocement Group's total cement output produced by dry production will increase from 13% to 25%.