Global Cement News

Lithuania: Akmenes Cementas, Lithuania's only cement manufacturer, posted Euro47.5m in revenue for the nine months from 1 January 2011 to 30 September 2011, a rise of 38% from Euro37.8m litas in the same period of 2010. Its cement sales increased by 23% to 743,000t and production output was up by 21% to 740,000t, according to the company's public relations officer Richardas Sudaris.

Its sales in the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad rose by 21% to 133,000t and sales in Belarus were up by 8.6% to 63,000t but sales in Latvia remained weak, at a mere 1000t. Exports to other EU countries almost doubled, increasing to 144,000t.

The Americas: Cemex has announced its financial results for the third quarter of 2011. These show that its consolidated net sales increased by 5% compared to the same period of 2010 to approximately USD3.9bn. Operating earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) increased by 1% during the quarter to USD658m compared to 2010. Operating income in the third quarter increased by 7% to USD305m, from the comparable period in 2010.

Cemex attributed the increase in consolidated net sales to higher sales, mainly from its operations in northern Europe, the United States and South & Central America and the Caribbean. It said that the infrastructure and residential sectors were the main drivers of demand in those and other regional markets.

Cemex's net sales in Mexico decreased by 1% in the third quarter of 2011 to USD856m, compared with USD868m in the third quarter of 2010. Operating EBITDA of USD285m was unchanged.Operations in the US reported net sales of USD713m in the third quarter of 2011, up by 4% from the same period in 2010. Operating EBITDA was a loss of USD10m.

Cemex's operations in South & Central America and the Caribbean reported net sales of USD453m, a 24% increase. In this region, its operating EBITDA increased by 33% to USD144m, compared to USD108m in 2010.

Fernando A González, Executive Vice President of Finance and Administration, said, "This is the fourth consecutive quarter of top-line growth in our results. We also saw stable consolidated pricing on a quarter-on-quarter basis in local-currency terms. We are particularly pleased with the quarterly performance of our operations in the Northern Europe and the South, Central American and Caribbean regions."

"We have raised USD80m in asset sales during the first nine months of 2011 and expect to raise an additional USD100-200m during the fourth quarter. We estimate total proceeds from asset sales will reach USD1bn by the end of 2012."

"We also continue to be confident in our ability to meet all of our financial obligations. We have also prepaid all of maturities under our Financial Agreement until December 2013 and proactively bolstered our liquidity needs," he added.

UK: The head of the UK Mineral Products Association (MPA), Nigel Jackson, has backed a 3 October 2011 announcement by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, in which he said that environmental laws and regulations were 'piling costs' on to the energy bills of homeowners and business and that "we're not going to save the planet by putting our country out of business."

Commenting ahead of Osborne's Autumn Statement, which is expected to be on 29 November 2011, Jackson said, "I could not agree more with the sentiment and look forward to seeing how that welcome statement translates into positive action to reduce the complexity and plethora of energy related legislation that exists, as well as the actual amount of additional cost that this industry now faces."

Jackson additionally stressed the importance of keeping strategically important energy-intensive industries, such as cement and lime, in the UK. He warned against over-regulation of such industries, saying that it would not only threaten the UK's security of supply but would also export jobs and carbon for no environmental gain. Jackson said, "When the Chancellor announces the government's proposed package of help with energy costs for those energy-intensive industries at risk of 'carbon leakage' we need to see the cement and lime industries included. Government must act decisively to signal that it wants to retain viable domestic cement and lime industries in the UK." Jackson stressed, "This is the Chancellor's opportunity to put his words into practice and help protect British jobs, British manufacturing and British business. We need this Government to be the most enterprising ever."

Indonesia: Indonesia's largest cement producer PT Semen Gresik has reported income of USD1.28bn in the first nine months of 2011. This represents an increase of 12% over the same period of 2010. The net profit of the state company rose by 10% to USD305m, according to its president Dwi Soetjipto.

The rise in income and profit followed was attributed to a 10% increase in sales to 14.5Mt in the nine month period. This represents 74.3% of the company's sales target for the whole of 2011.

According to Dwi, the increase in net profit would have been even higher if it had not been for increased production costs. Dwi reported that the company had experienced a particular rise in fuel and electricity costs.

China: China's building materials industry recorded USD29bn in net profit in the first nine months of 2011, up by 59.5% compared to the same period of 2010 according to data from the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC). Of the total, the cement manufacturing industry contributed USD10.2bn, up by 150% on the year.

The NDRC also revealed that China's cement output in the first nine months of 2011 amounted to 1.51Bnt, up by 18.1% year-on-year. The output growth rate was up by 2.2% compared to that of 2010.