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Irish financier reported to have stake in Ecocem 05 June 2017
Ireland: The Times has reported that financier Dermot Desmond is believed to have taken a stake in Ecocem Materials, the fast-growing low-carbon cement maker founded by Irishman Donal O'Riain and backed by French construction materials giant Saint-Gobain. It is understood that IIU, Desmond's private equity company, moved in recent weeks to acquire as much as 11% of the company.
Founded in 2003, Ecocem manufactures cement from granulated blast-furnace slag, a byproduct of steel production. The company had sales of Euro63m in 2015, according to its most recent accounts.
Ada completes US$100m upgrade 05 June 2017
US: The Holcim US Ada plant in Oklahoma, a member of LafargeHolcim, has seen the completion of its three-year, US$100m new kiln and modernisation project. The project has boosted the plant’s capacity by 20%, raising its clinker capacity to 0.68Mt/yr from 0.62Mt/yr. The upgrades allow the plant to conform to the US National Emissions Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants (NESHAP) regulations.
Mike Langan, Ada plant manager, said, "NESHAP is one performance standard that's fairly restrictive. New Source Performance Standards are the most restrictive environmental regulations in our industry and this plant meets that. So it is much cleaner environmentally (than before)."
The upgrades made it possible for the plant to increase its use of fuel derived from scrap tires, replacing at least 20% of the fossil fuel used in the new kiln line. That change will make the operation cleaner and more efficient, supporting LafargeHolcim's sustainable-development goals.
Pakistan’s exports fall, while domestic sales rise 05 June 2017
Pakistan: Cement exports have continued to decline year-on-year for the fourth consecutive month in May 2017, registering a fall of 44.6% according to the All Pakistan Cement Manufacturers Association (APCMA). The decline follows a 45.7% year-on-year fall in exports in February 2017, a 60.4% year-on-year fall in March 2017 and a 50.8% year-on-year fall in April 2017.
However domestic sales were up by 10.9% year-on-year for May 2017, reaching 3.4Mt, as compared to 3.1Mt in May 2016. Total dispatches during May 2017 were 3.7Mt, as compared to 3.6Mt in May 2016, an increase of 2.4%.
So far in Pakistan’s fiscal year, which runs from 1 July to 30 June, domestic cement consumption has increased by a healthy 10.8% to 37.6Mt against 35.5Mt for 1 July 2015 to 31 May 2016. Over the same period exports have declined by 21.3% to 4.3Mt. A year earlier the figure was 5.5Mt. Exports to Afghanistan more than halved from 206,000t in May 2016 to 97,000t in May 2017. Exports to India also declined, from 135,000t in May 2016 to 114,000t in May 2017.
Industry experts have appealed to the government to take steps to boost housing, as the sector is currently dependent on infrastructure projects. They said that sustained growth in housing construction is essential to absorb the additional capacities that will come online in the next two years.
India: Members of the Cement Manufacturers Association (CMA) have met with Nitin Gadkari, the Minister for Road, Transport and Highways, to discuss price concerns around the country’s road building campaign. Local producers stand accused of increasing prices despite no rise in input costs amidst a national plan to build more roads, according to the Hindu newspaper. Producers dismissed these concerns, saying that price were lower than they had been in 2015. Instead they bashed discrepancies in export taxes between India and Pakistan.
Delegates from the cement producers at the meeting included N Srinivasan, managing director of India Cements, HM Bangur, managing director of Shree Cement, KK Maheshwari, managing director of UltraTech Cement, Ajay Kapur, managing director of Ambuja Cement, Mahendra Singhi, Group chief executive officer and wholetime director of Dalmia Cement, Ujjwal Batria, country chief executive officer and managing director of Nuvoco Vistas Corp and Aparna Dutt Sharma, Secretary General of the CMA.
France: The Syndicat Français de l'industrie Cimentière (SFIC) forecasts that cement consumption will grow faster in the second half of 2017 due to an increase in domestic house building. Association president Raoul de Parisot, said that he expected growth of 3 – 4% in the second half of the year, according to La Croix newspaper. Cement sales grew by 1 – 2% in the first quarter of 2017. The association expects cement consumption to reach 17.9 – 18.1Mt in 2017.