Global Cement News

Vietnam: Vissai Ninh Binh Group has signed a contract with a French partner to export 1.5Mt of clinker to Ciment de Bourbon to serve to expressway road project on the French island of Réunion. This is the biggest contract that Vietnamese cement producers have secured to date, said Vissai Ninh Binh Group's deputy director Nguyen Tien Dat.

The clinker will be shipped at a price of US$42/t under the contract that will be effective for five years, the deputy director said. He noted that the firm has carefully considered the prices to avoid the negative impact driven by the fluctuations in prices of transportation.

Indonesia: PT Indocement Tunggal Prakarsa Tbk is preparing to invest US$150m towards building two greenfield cement plants in North Sumatra and in Pati, Central Java respectively. Each plant will have a cement production capacity of 2.5Mt/yr. The company is currently conducting a feasibility study, said Indocement's president director Christian Kartawijaya. The investment is intended to boost the company's production by 2018 in reaction to decreasing market share.

Indocement aims to boost its production capacity by about 45% to 30Mt/yr in 2018 when the two greenfield plants are expected to have begun operations. Currently the company produces 20.6Mt/yr of cement. The new plants will maintain the company's market share in Indonesia at 31%. The company will source the funding internally.

Indocement has allocated US$385m for capital expenditure in 2014 to boost cement production. In October 2013 the company started work on its 4.4Mt/yr cement plant at Citeureup. This plant is planned to start operation in the fourth quarter of 2015.

India: Delhi Government's Revenue Department has fined Holcim India US$11m for evasion of stamp duty. It also directed the company to pay stamp duty of US$36m and a penalty of US$11m within 30 days for violation of stamp duty. Collector of Stamps (HQ) Lalit Mohan told local media that Holcim India had violated the payment of stamp duty with the merger of Ambuja Cement.

"The stamp duty on the merger order is payable at the rate of 3% on the total amount of US$1.2bn which comes out to be US$36m... The company is required to adjudicate or pay stamp duty within a period of one month which it failed to do," said Lalit Mohan in the order.

In its submission to the Revenue Department, Holcim India stated that there was no transfer of movable and immovable assets from transferor company (Ambuja Cement) with transferee company (Holcim) except shares held by transferor company in other companies have been transferred to transferee company. Subsequently the company did not see itself as liable for stamp duty.

Indonesia: Claudius Peters has received an order from Semen Indonesia to supply three new cement storage silos for their new integrated cement plant in Rembang, Central Java.

Claudius Peters will supply three Expansion Chamber (EC type) storage silos, with a diameter of 24m and a volume of 20,000t each. Cement will be discharged to two mobile VME-type bulk loading stations underneath each silo. Separate aeroslide transport to the packing plant is also included. These three new cement storage silos will be integrated with the four new packing plants which Semen Indonesia ordered at the start of 2014 from Claudius Peters.

Kenya: The profit of Lafarge-controlled Bamburi Cement slumped by 28% to US$26.2m in the first half of 2014, as the company outlined plans to profit from Kenya's ambitious infrastructure spending plans. It said that its profit took a hit due to the higher cost of both power and imported clinker. However, its revenue increased to US$197m from US$180m in the first half of 2013.

Bamburi is the biggest cement maker in east Africa's largest economy, where a construction boom driven by infrastructure projects and real estate has helped boost demand for cement. "We are optimistic that the business environment will progressively improve in the second half of the year," said the firm.

In June 2014 the Kenyan government raised US$2bn through a debut Eurobond and said most of the proceeds would be used to finance infrastructure projects. Bamburi said it expects Kenya's planned infrastructure projects, including roads, railways and a new Indian Ocean port in Lamu, to improve sales.