Global Cement News

Germany: The Dyckerhoff Group has reported that its sales in 2012 met its 'expectations'. Preliminary sales were Euro1.6bn in 2012, the same as in 2011.

Cement and concrete volumes decreased by a total of 2% and 7%, respectively. Cement prices were higher than the previous year in Germany, Ukraine, Russia, and the USA, fairly stable in the Czech Republic and on a downward trend in Luxembourg and Poland. The sales proportion generated outside of Germany, 63%, exceeded the 2011 by 1%.

"As expected, Dyckerhoff Group's earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) for the fiscal year 2012 will be at a similar level as in the previous year. Earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) as well as results before and after taxes will be below the previous year's level. Here, an impairment of around Euro26m against the carrying amount of fixed assets already acquired for the planned plant in Akbulak in Russia has an effect," said Wolfgang Bauer, CEO of Dyckerhoff.

Bauer added that the result after income taxes was affected by a write-down of deferred tax assets of around Euro13m.

China: China National Building Material Group (CNBM) has reported that its operations revenue in 2012 grew by 14% year-on-year to US$35.5bn. The Chinese state-owned building materials manufacturer saw its profit reach US$1.81bn, while its net profit for the year hit US$1.38bn. As the end of 2012, CMBM had US$46bn in total assets, 38% more than at the end of 2011.

Production in 2012: China built 124 new dry-process cement production lines and added 160Mt of cement clinker production capacity in 2012, according to the China Cement association. China had 1637 dry-process cement production lines with a production capacity of 1.6Bnt/yr of clinker by the end of 2012.

Sichuan Province in south-western China has seen its cement output climb by 2.02% year-on-year to 130Mt in 2012, according to the local Statistics Bureau. In 2012, Sichuan's cement industry recorded US$7.68bn in total output value, a year-on-year increase of 1.87%. Meanwhile, the industry's profit rose by 0.81% year-on-year to US$0.44bn.

North China's Hebei Province's cement output reached 128.1Mt in 2012. The province's building materials industry recorded US$1.7bn in profit in 2012, a year-on-year decrease of 21.8%.

East China's Jiangxi Province saw its cement output increase by 10.2% to 76.4Mt in 2012, according to the local branch of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

Sinoma: Sinoma International Engineering has announced that the company plans to invest US$25.2m to set up a subsidiary in Hong Kong. The Hong Kong unit will acquire a 68% stake in the India-based cement firm, LNV Technology. Sinoma International said that the acquisition will increase its competitiveness in India's cement engineering market.

Separately, Sinoma estimated that the company's net profit for 2012 will decrease by 50% year-on-year in 2012, compared with a profit of US$247m in 2011.

Company news: Shanghai-listed cement and clinker producer, Xishui Strong Year Co Ltd Inner Mongolia, has estimated that the company's net profit will surge by 590% on-year in 2012, compared with a profit of US$1.51m in 2011.

Fujian Cement Inc expects to earn US$4.17m to US$4.98m in net profit in 2012, a year-on-year decrease of 79.2% to 75.27%.

Henan Tongli Cement Co Ltd, a Shenzhen-listed cement producer, has estimated that its net profit for 2012 will be between US$23.9m and US$28.6m, a year-on-year decrease of 26.1% to 38.1%. Tongli Cement earned US$38.7m in net profit in 2011.

Kyrgyzstan: During the visit of Kyrgyz Deputy Prime Minister for Economy and Investment Tayirbek Sarpashev's to China, an agreement has been reached with Chinese investors to build a cement plant in Kemin.

The plant's capacity will be 1.8Mt/yr or 2500t/day. The construction period of the plant should take from one year to 18 months. Investments are expected of more than US$50m. It is planned that construction will begin in April 2012.

"It covers our volume and will lead to lower prices in the market and will substantially reduce the cost of construction in the north of Kyrgyzstan," said Sarpashev.

India: Four officials at Ambuja Cement have been arrested following an accident with five fatalities at the company's cement plant at Rawan in Chhattisgarh.

"Vice President of Ambuja Cement Sanjay Kumar Badopadhyay, DGM Production K Venkat Stayanarayan Murty, DGM Mechanical Rajendra Singh Kurmi and GM electrical Sanjay Kumar Mishra have been arrested in connection to the Ambuja cement factory (incident)," said a police officer to the Press Trust of India. They were booked under IPC sections 287 (negligence with machinery), 337 (endangering life or personal safety) and 304A (causing death by negligence).

Five workers were killed on 31 January 2013 when a fly ash container crashed into the mixing unit of the plant at Rawan village. A case has been registered against Ambuja Cement management and the labour department has ordered a halt to factory operations until an investigation into the incident has been completed.

Chief Minister Raman Singh has directed the factory management to provide compensation of US$18,800 to the kin of each victim and a job to one member of their families. A six-member panel headed by additional collector of Balodabazar district has also been formed to conduct magisterial probe into the incident, which has been asked to submit its report in one week.