Global Cement News

Germany: Loesche GmbH will be hosting its second 'Round Table' event in 2012 for customers from the Middle East on 15–17 October 2012 in Dubai.

More than 50 participants from the cement and other industries are expected to attend. Loesche Middle East FZE in Dubai, a subsidiary of Loesche GmbH in Duesseldorf, is a partner in planning and organising the event.

The conference will cover a range of industry topics, including a report on the development of the Arabic cement industry and a success story on a Loesche Mill in North Africa. Representatives from A TEC have been invited to present papers on pyroprocessing technology. In April 2012, Loesche entered into a close cooperation agreement with pyroprocess specialist A TEC Holding GmbH, Austria. Delegates will also receive news on the latest technical developments from Loesche.

On the second day of the conference delegates will be able to visit a Cemex cement plant in Jebel Ali, Dubai. The plant is running a LOESCHE Mill Type LM 56.3+3 C operating as a standalone solution.

India: Cement producers have suggested that the industry will be unable to 'absorb' increased freight charges caused by a rise in the price of diesel.

Following a US$0.10/l increase in the price of diesel, the All India Motor Transport Congress (AIMTC) increased freight charges across the country by 15%. The truck drivers' organisation claims to have around 8 million vehicles under its control.

"The increased freight charge is not going only to impact on the distribution of finished goods. Generally, it takes 2t of inputs to produce 1t of cement. So, the impact will be on a total of 3t freight. I don't think the industry is now in a position to absorb this," said, JK Lakshmi Cement whole-time director , Shailendra Chouksey.

Commenting on the impact of the rise in diesel prices, a major cement producer, which preferred not to be quoted, said the rise was high and that this would certainly push up the distribution cost for producers.

Currently, the Indian cement industry faces over-capacity with a utilisation of 76% of the total capacity of 330Mt/yr. According to UltraTech in its annual report the situation is unlikely to improve before 2015.

Ethiopia: National Cement SC plans to complete upgrades worth US$99.7m by the start of 2013 according to the company's chief executive, Busa Assefa.

"We will start clinker trial production in October 2012 and cement trial production in November 2012," said Busa. He added that the trial production phase at the compnay's new plant near Bajatu, Kebele, will begin at a 60% clinker and a 70% cement production rate, to become fully operational by the start of 2013.

National Cement SC was formed from a merger between Ethiopia's first cement plant, Dire Dawa, and the National Cement plant that is currently under construction. Dire Dawa has a capacity of 60,000t/yr with further upgrades scheduled. The new National Cement plant will have a capacity of up to 4500t/day. It is being built on a 40ha location in Bajatu, Kebele, within 3km of Dire Dawa.

National Cement SC's upgrades will increase Ethiopia's national capacity, from 18 operational plants, by 1.3Mt to 12.46Mt/yr. The company expects to rely on the eastern Ethiopian market and exports to Djibouti and Somalia. In addition, the city of Dire Dawa has licensed four cement factories with a combined capital of US$277m, of which three are under construction.

Lawlessness, strike action and increases in energy inputs are the three factors hindering Turkish investment in Egypt.

These concerns arose in a meeting held last week between the Minister of Industry and Foreign Trade Hatem Saleh and a Turkish trade delegation. It was also reported that Turkish investors have applied to build a cement plant in the Sinai region of Egypt.

Investing in Egypt by a cement company seems risky given that both Italcementi and Lafarge have shown problems in the country in their recent financial reports. Italcementi reported a loss in sales in its first half results for 2012 partly due to the Egyptian market. Lafarge saw volumes fall by 11% in its second quarter in Egypt due to limited gas supply.

Nationally cement demand fell by 8% in 2011 to 45.2Mt due to the political unrest of the 'Arab Spring'. In January 2012 the government cut energy subsidies to heavy industry, including cement, to narrow its budget deficit.

Lawlessness is certainly a concern. In August 2012 Suez Cement suspended construction of a plant expansion project amid civil unrest. It had also suffered from strikes at its plants earlier in the year. Earlier in the month Egypt launched air strikes in the Sinai region close to the border with Gaza killing 20 people. Previous to this a group of Chinese cement workers working in the Sinai were kidnapped in January 2012.

Yet Titan, despite its losses so far in 2012, reported in its first half results at the end of August 2012 that the construction sector maintained its positive momentum in the country. In addition, it said that demand for building materials grew absorbing production from new cement plants entering the market.

Recent developments supporting this optimistic trend have included Arabian Cement increasing its capacity to 5Mt/yr with the opening of its second production line. FLSmidth recently won a contract to operate and maintain two production lines for Egyptian National Cement. ASEC Cement expects full production of 1.9Mt/yr at Minya to begin by the first quarter of 2013.

With a mixed picture emerging, the cement industry in Egypt shows potential for those producers willing to take the risks, or those able to minimise them. Even at the proposal stage the new Turkish project in Sinai has been linked with the al-Maghara coal supplies of the northern Sinai.

Australia: Australian buildings materials company Boral has appointed the head of its US division, Mike Kane, as its new chief executive officer following the departure of Mark Selway in May 2012. Kane will assume the post on 1 October 2012.

Kane joined the company in February 2010 and has executive experience at four other materials companies including US Gypsum, Hanson Building Materials, Johns-Manville and Holcim

"He has spent the past two and a half years significantly realigning the US business to the changed market conditions and positioning Boral to take full advantage of the US market recovery," said chairman Bob Every.

Kane said Boral has an increasingly significant position in the global building materials industry and said its Asian plasterboard unit provides a growth opportunity in that region.