Global Cement News

Portugal: Portuguese cement producer Cimpor has appointed Luiz Roberto Ortiz Nascimento and André Pires Oliveira Dias as members of the board of directors. The move follows the resignations of Erik Madsen and Walter Schalka.

Ortiz Nascimento, aged 62 from Brazil, holds a degree in economics from Mackenzie University in São Paulo. He became the chief executive officer of construction and trade at Camargo Corrêa, the owner of Cimpor, in 1992.

Oliveira Dias, aged 31 and also from Brazil, holds a degree in Business Administration and International Business from the American Intercontinental University in London. He has worked for Camargo Corrêa since joining its trainee program in 2005. Most recently he was the strategy and planning department manager since 2009.

Lithuania: Concretus Materials is planning to buy up to 51% of shares in the cement manufacturer Akmene Cement. According to the regulator Concretus Materials applied to the Lithuanian Competition Council on 27 December 2012 for approval of the deal.

The Mexican cement giant Cemex owns a 33.95% stake in Akmenes Cementas. Other shareholders included Simonas Vytis Anuzis with 13.67%, Olius Danyla with 13.55%, Arnoldas Mituzas with 12.76% and Edmundas Montvila with 9.8%.

Akmenes Cementas is currently implementing a modernisation project, worth Euro101m, moving to a dry production process. The company expects to complete its new production line in mid-2013. The producer's annual revenue rose year-on-year by 37% in 2011 to Euro63.1m as cement sales increased by 19% to nearly 984,000t/yr. in 2011 Lithuania remained its biggest market, accounting for 55% of the total sales. Akmenes Cementas's cement plant is located in Naujoji Akmene, in north-western Lithuania.

Nigeria: Two major Nigerian cement producers, Dangote and Lafarge WAPCO, have ended the 2012 calendar year with 1.47Mt of unsold cement and clinker. Figures obtained from the two manufacturers show that Dangote had unsold stock of 950,000t while Lafarge had 520,000t.

"At Lafarge, the situation is so bad. We have 300,000t of unsold cement and 220,000t of clinker in our silos across our three plants (Sagamu, Ewekoro I and Ewekoro II). Before these pileups, we used to load 10 trucks per day but now that there are no sales and loaded trucks have nowhere to go. As a result we are losing 800t/day," said Lanre Opakunle, plant manager at Lafarge Ewekoro II.

Commenting on why the price of cement remained high in Nigeria despite the glut, Opakunle said that manufacturers are coping with rising energy inputs and high haulage costs. Fuel costs account for 31% of production cost in Nigeria compared to less than 10% in China.

In early December 2012 Dangote Cement announced that it was going to shut its 4Mt/yr Dangote Cement plant in Gboko, Benue State due to a glut of cement in the market.

China: The chairman of West China Cement, Zhang Jimin, has said that West China's production capacity reached 23Mt/yr in 2012. Zhang added that the group plans to invest US$321m through mergers and acquisitions to increase production capacity to 30Mt/yr by 2015.

Hebei Province-based cement producer, Tangshan Jidong Cement has said that the company plans to set up a joint-venture (JV) with two cement firms in Mizhi County, Shaanxi-province. The JV will build a 2000t/day cement-clinker production line to expand the local cement market. Jidong Cement will pay US$15.7m for a 61% stake in the JV, which will have a registered capital of US$25.7m.

China Resources Cement Holdings, the largest cement producer in South China, said that its investment subsidiary will set up a JV with a local cement company in An'shun City, Guizhou province. The JV will have a registered capital of US$45m. China Resources Cement will invest US$28.1m in cash to hold a 62.5% stake in the JV while in the first phase, the An'shun company will take a 37.5% stake by providing properties and other assets worth US$17m. After completion, China Resources Cement will spend US$7.86m buying a 17.5% stake in the JV from the An'shun company, increasing its stake in the JV to 80%.

India: Ambuja Cements has announced investments of US$365m in India, of which US$100m is targeted for Bengal. The Indian cement producer intends to try to maintain its market share at 10% until 2018.

The subsidiary of Holcim announced it would invest US$59.2m at a grinding unit in Sankrail to expand its capacity to 2.4Mt/yr from 1.5Mt/yr by 2015. It has also proposed to invest US$41m in another grinding unit in the state at Bandel, according to Bengal industries minister Partha Chatterjee.

"This plant (Sankrail) is working at a capacity of 1.5Mt/yr and we will go up to 2.4Mt/yr. We also have a unit in Farakka with a 1.25Mt/yr capacity. So, with this, we will be one of the largest cement players in Bengal," said Ajay Kapur, CEO of Ambuja Cements.

Ambua Cements also announced that it is yet to gain clearance for the construction of a 3Mt/yr greenfield integrated cement plant in Rajasthan. Ambuja Cements holds a total capacity of 27.25Mt/yr in Rajasthan. A 1.5Mt/yr grinding unit at Sanand, Gujarat, is also being considered.