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Lafarge suspends construction of Rostov cement plant 23 June 2015
Russia: According to Esmerk Russian News, Lafarge has suspended the construction of a Euro710m cement plant in Rostov. The plant was scheduled to launch in 2016. The planned capacity of the first phase was 2Mt/yr of cement.
Colombia: Cemex Latam Holdings, the Latin American arm of Mexico's Cemex, has reported unfavourable results in the first quarter of 2015 in Colombia and said that its stocks have been affected, despite the fact that the region turned towards infrastructure improvement projects. As the company's share value in Pesos has dropped by 30% and it has recorded another 35% decline due to depreciation, Cemex Latam Holdings' value in US Dollars is 70% lower.
Company president Carlos Jacks has attributed the poor results in January - March 2015 to the 25% depreciation against the US Dollar, as well as the fact that its 31% growth in 2014 was far higher than the industry average. Another factor was the decision that Colombia should return or generate the same cash flow or the same amount of US Dollars before the depreciation and so it raised its prices, thinking that there would not be a reversal of the exchange rate.
Cemex Latam Holdings will work to recover the price in June 2015 and Jacks feels more confident about the second half of the year. Better sales volumes are expected if its efforts are successful. The company hopes that its local division will return to levels prior to the depreciation of the exchange rate in terms of its cash flow in US Dollars as a result. The business anticipates some momentum in housing programmes over 2016, as well as participation in the first wave of 4G motorway projects and possibly the second wave towards the close of 2015. It projects that around US$5bn/yr will be spent on cement, or US$500m each, while the projects will require some 3.50Mt of cement. The entire market consumes 13Mt/yr of cement. Cemex Latam Holdings will invest around US$180m in 2015 and the funds will mainly be used to expand the production capacity at its plant in Maceo, Colombia or premises in Monterrey, Mexico.
New CEO for Lafarge’s French unit 22 June 2015
France: Lafarge Group has appointed Benedicte de Bonnechose as CEO in charge of operations of its French unit. She will succeed Pascal Casanova, who was appointed as head of Latin American operations at the future combined group LafargeHolcim.
Bonnechose has been a member of Lafarge's board since 2012.
She has played a key role at the group's reorganisation in France and was in charge of its strategy, public affairs and environment businesses. Since 2013 Bonnechose has been CEO of Lafarge's aggregates unit.
Eurocement asks for US$634m loan from Sberbank 22 June 2015
Russia: Eurocement Group has asked the country's biggest bank Sberbank for a US$634m of project financing, according to company President Mikhail Skorokhod. "We expect that in the last 10 days of June 2015, we will be able to receive approval on this request from an interdepartmental commission," he said.
Sberbank has already approved US$248m from the total request, which will be spent on construction of its 10,000t/day (~4Mt/yr) Mikhailovsky plant in the Ryazan Region.
Eurocement also plans to attract US$300m of financing from Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and Bank of China to upgrade its plants. The request has been submitted to China's Sinosure, and is currently being reviewed.
Lafarge opens Maldives’ largest terminal 22 June 2015
Maldives: Lafarge Maldives has opened a 4000t cement silo at its Thilafushi silo terminal. It is the largest single cement silo in the Maldives. The facility now has a total capacity of 9000t due to other silos at the same site.
The expansion was opened by the Minister of Economic Development Mohamed Saeed, Lafarge Cement Managing Director Breece Orden Reece and State Trading Organisation Managing Director Ahmed Shaheer.