Global Cement News

Ireland/UK: Breedon Aggregates is reportedly in talks to buy a part or all of Ireland’s Lagan Group, according to the Sunday Times newspaper. Breedon Aggregates and Lagan’s subsidiary Whitemountain operate an asphalt joint venture at present. However, Lagan Group did not respond to a request for comment on the talks.

Breedon Aggregates purchased Hope Construction Materials in 2016, which included the Hope cement plant. The acquisition boosted Breedon’s financial results in 2017 giving it a revenue of Euro523m and it described the year as the, “…most eventful year in the group’s history.”

Lagan Cement operates a 0.7Mt/yr plant in Kinnegad in Ireland. In late 2012 it proposed a joint venture with Quinn Building Products. However, the deal fell through in early 2013 following the receipt of a package containing a bullet which was sent in the post to the Lagan's chief executive, Kevin Lagan. The bullet, which was sent to Lagan at his Belfast office, was accompanied by a message stating, "Quinn ... is this what you want".

Russia: AlfiGroup has revived a cement plant in Dorogobuzh, Smolensk region that was closed a decade ago. The relaunch is scheduled for March 2018, according to the Beton Russia news website. The company has spent Euro6.3m on the reopening. The plant will produce up to 0.3Mt/yr of clinker by the third quarter of 2018 and production will be developed until 2020. Around 200 jobs will be created.

Russia: Tattsement plans to complete the construction of its new cement plant in the Alabuga special economic zone in the Republic of Tatarstan before the end of 2018. The 0.6Mt/yr unit will produce nanomodified cement, according to Nezavisimy Stroitelny. Drying machines and a mill have been purchased for the project.

Chile: Cementos Melon financial results for 2017 have been hit by a contraction in the local construction market. Both cement and concrete sales volumes were reduced, according to the Diario Financiero newspaper. Its sales fell by 14% year-on-year to US$298m in 2017 from US$345m in 2016. Its profit dropped by 54% to US$14m from US$30m. The company says that it has constrained fixed costs, logistics and administration to compensate.

Mexico: Grupo Cementos de Chihuahua’s (GCC) sales grew by 23.6% year-on-year to US$925m in 2017 from US$749m in 2016. The group attributed this to strong demand in both the US and Mexico, as well as the integration of the operations acquired in Texas and New Mexico at the end of 2016. Its earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBIDA) rose by 32.3% to US$250m from US$189m.

In the US sales rose by 29.8% year-on-year to US$180m in the fourth quarter of 2017, representing 76% of the group’s consolidated net sales. The growth reflected higher cement sales volumes in the states of Texas, South Dakota, Minnesota, New Mexico and Colorado. Fourth quarter sales volumes also benefitted from favourable weather conditions throughout GCC’s area of operations. The most dynamic segments in the regions where GCC operates were oil well drilling, residential real estate and public-sector construction. For the year as a whole, excluding the operations acquired in 2016, cement volumes increased 2.1% in 2017.

In Mexico sales rose by 22.6% to US$58.4m in the fourth quarter of 2017. This was attributed to rising cement prices with growth in the mining and self construction sectors and the final stages of several industrial projects. For the year as a whole sales rose by 11.4%.