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India: JK Lakshmi Cement has reported an 88.6% fall in its net profit to US$0.95m for the quarter that ended on 31 March 2015. Total income fell by 11.4% year-on-year to US$93.8m for quarter.
For the year that ended on 31 March 2015, JK Lakshmi Cement posted a 2.8% rise in its net profit to US$15m. Its total income surged by 11.2% to US$367m for the year and its net profit after tax grew by 9.65% year-on-year to US$16.2m.
Cimpor reports 5.3% fall in cement sales 19 May 2015
Portugal: In the first quarter of 2015, Cimpor's cement and clinker sales fell by 5.3% year-on-year to 6.8Mt. Growth in Argentina, Paraguay, Portugal and South Africa was not enough to offset a downturn in Brazil and Egypt. Sales rose by 7.4% year-on-year to Euro637m, bolstered by an overall rise in average prices. However, Cimpor's earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) of Euro123m reflected the lower activity in the first quarter.
In the Brazilian market, Cimpor's cement sales were affected by the economic contraction. Local constraints on the water supply affected the construction market, which in turn hit cement demand and put pressure on energy costs. In Argentina, Cimpor outperformed growth in local consumption, which was robust. Cement consumption in Paraguay remained dynamic and Cimpor, which is now making use of all of its local production capacity, showed a marked improvement in its EBITDA margin.
In Portugal, after a long period of downturn in consumption, the market returned to growth in the first quarter of 2015. Cimpor said that its Portuguese business managed to capture the growth in domestic market demand while also maintaining its export capacity.
In South Africa, despite strong competition from a new operator in Cimpor's operating region, as well as from imported cement, its commercial policy and the launch of co-processing made it possible to take advantage of growth in local demand. Demand for cement in Egypt was expected to have fallen and was more pronounced in Cimpor's volumes because of an adjustment to its natural market share after posting an unusual level of sales in 2014. This was based on competitors' operations being negatively affected by fuel scarcity.
Cimpor said that a new commercial dynamic introduced into its activities in Mozambique had come to fruition in the first quarter of 2015. Despite a negative market trend over the previous year due to adverse weather and problems with local power supply and increased pressure from importers, cement sales fell only by 1.5% year-on-year.
France: Lafarge has proposed to cut 380 jobs as part of its pre-merger preparations ahead of its merger with Holcim to form LafaregHolcim. The new group, set to be the world's largest building materials group, will employ approximately 115,000 people.
The organisation of the new group will be balanced between a decentralised structure and strong central functions based on three organizational levels: Countries; Regions (Europe, North America, Middle East & Africa, Latin America, Asia-Pacific, and; Corporate functions, which will help define the Group's key strategies.
There will be an equivalent number of personnel in the central functions in France and Switzerland. The new group's research and development centre will be located in France.
Concerning Lafarge at worldwide level (i.e., in sites located in Atlanta (USA), Beijing (China), Cairo (Egypt), Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia), Lyon (France), Montreal (Canada), Paris (France) and Vienna (Austria)), the proposed new organisation of central functions will result in approximately 380 net job losses, with 166 of these in Paris and Lyon.
The social support measures that will be negotiated with employee representatives will mostly consist of solutions based on internal mobility, early retirement and (in France) voluntary departures. The proposed merger will not affect employment in Lafarge's operational functions in France, which employ more than 4500 people.
This procedure is a key phase in the preparation of the creation of the new LafargeHolcim Group. The completion of the proposed merger is expected to occur in July 2015. Before this can happen, the public exchange offer will have to be successful, with shareholders tendering at least two-thirds of Lafarge shares.
India: Orient Cement, a C K Birla Group company, has reported revenues of US$243m in its 2015 financial year, which ended on 31 March 2015. It also expects the demand cycle in the Indian cement industry to pick up within a couple of quarters and is ready to take up the opportunity with inorganic growth.
Orient Cement CEO Deepak Khetrapal said that the country is witnessing policy tweaking on the infrastructure front. "We can see that the GDP growth will happen on massive investment in infrastructure and this will pick up demand for cement in the country," said Khetrapal.
Orient Cement reported 225% growth in its fourth quarter 2015 net profit to US$13.4m. Its revenue, however, declined marginally to US$61.9m from US$63m in the same quarter of 2014. Orient Cement's revenue grew by 8% for the whole of its 2015 financial year, while its net profit was up by 93% to US$30.5m.
Orient Cement has already set a target of achieving 15Mt/yr production capacity by the end of 2020. "We are exploring all avenues to grow inorganically. We have already started investments in a greenfield project in Rajasthan. Also, we are looking at acquiring a few production plants with 2Mt/yr and 3Mt/yr production capacities in eastern India," said Khetrapal.
Orient Cement has invested US$236m at its soon-to-be-commissioned Kallaburgi plant to achieve 3Mt/yr of installed capacity. "We will make additional investments of US$78.6m by the end of the 2016 fiscal year. We have got all of the clearances for the project and the state government nod for limestone mining is expected within 8 - 10 weeks," said Khetrapal.
UAE: Fujairah Cement Industries (FCI) has reported a 51% surge in its net profits for the first quarter of 2015 to US$2.2m compared to US$1.47m in the corresponding period of 2014. FCI previously posted a net profit of US$7.02m for the entirety of 2014 against a net loss of US$3.32m in 2013.