Global Cement News

Indonesia: Indonesia's cement sales in November 2012 rose by 17% compared to November 2011, a faster pace than the previous month, according to data from the country's biggest cement firm Semen Gresik.

The sales of 5.23Mt were up by 0.9% compared to October 2012. More than 55% were on the main island Java, with the Molucca islands and Papua posting the highest annual sales growth at 95%.

Between 1 January 2012 and 30 November 2012 sales surged by 15% year-on-year, according to data from the Indonesian Cement Association (ASI). In the first 11 months of 2012 sales rose to 49.9Mt, compared to 43.4Mt in same period of 2011. Over the 11 months, Java consumed 55% of the Indonesian cement total, Sumatra consumed 22% and Sulawesi and Kalimantan each consumed 7.4% of the total.

Peru: Cement production in Peru reached 8.98Mt in the first 11 months of 2012, growing by 16.7% compared to the same period in 2011, according to figures from the national cement association Asocem. Production in October 2012 alone reached a record 926,623t.

Cement shipments within the country reached 8.76Mt to the end of November 2012, growing by 16.6% compared to the same period of 2012. Meanwhile, cement exports in the January-November 2012 period grew by 200% year-on-year to 173,198t.

Cement producers active in the country are making the most of the current demand in the market. Cemento Andino and Cementos Lima agreed to merge in July 2012, giving rise to the largest player in the local market, with an installed capacity of some 7.6Mt/yr of cement. At the same time, Mexican cement producer Cemex is building a new US$230m, 1Mt/yr production facility in the country.

China: The Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in north west China produced 35.1Mt of cement in the first 10 months of 2012, a year-on-year increase of 24.8%, according to the local statistics bureau.

From 1 January 2012 to 31 October 2012, Xinjiang saw the output value of its cement industry output come to US$1.93bn, a year-on-year increase of 0.9%. However, the industry earned just US$170m in profit, a year-on-year decline of 58.6%.

The region's government says that the region's cement production capacity is likely to exceed 90Mt/yr in 2013.

Meanwhile, Japan's Taiheiyo Cement Corp. has announced that it has agreed with a Chinese chemical maker to set up a 1.2Mt/yr cement plant in Xinjiang. The joint venture, to be known as Xinjiang Tianye Taiheiyo Building Material Company, will start cement production in November 2014.

The new company will be owned 40% by Taiheiyo Cement (China) Investment Corp., a Beijing-based unit of Taiheiyo Cement and 60% by the Chinese partner, Xinjiang Tianye (Group) Co.

India: McNally Bharat Engineering Company Ltd (MBEL), a Williamson Magor group company, has booked an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract worth US$133.5m from ACC Ltd to set up a 9000t/day (~2.9Mt/yr) brownfield cement facility at its existing plant at Jamul, Chhattisgarh. The deal was announced by Deepak Khaitan, chairman of MBEL, at a press conference in the city on 17 December 2012. The plant will be set up with technology from Germany's KHD Humboldt Wedag.

"This order is a major milestone for us as it flags off MBEL's entry into the cement plant construction business," said Khaitan. "This will open up opportunities for MBEL as an EPC contractor for the Indian cement industry."

The company has also opened offices in South Africa to carry out engineering contracts in Africa. "Our emphasis will be to expand our footprint globally," said Khaitan.

Egypt: Suez Cement has announced that it may have to halt production at two of its production lines due to an increase in the price of mazut, a heavy, low-quality fuel oil. The Egyptian government has raised the price of the fuel by 130% to US$372/t, effective 15 December 2012. Both of the threatened lines use mazut as their main energy source. The group has a domestic market share of around 20%.