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Southern Province profit slides 29 May 2013
Saudi Arabia: Saudi cement producer Southern Province Cement (SPC), the nation's largest cement firm by market value, posted a US$71.6m net profit for the first quarter of 2013, down from US$75.8m a year ago. Without providing exact figures, the company attributed the decrease to lower cement prices.
The cement manufacturer registered an operating profit of US$72.7m for the first three months of 2013, down from US$76.8m in the first quarter of 2012.
Hail Cement loss deepens in 2013 29 May 2013
Saudi Arabia: Hail Cement has booked a US$3.7m net loss for the first quarter of 2013, more than double the loss of US$1.7m suffered in the first quarter of 2012. Without providing any exact figures, the company attributed the loss to higher expenses related to launching production, coupled with higher salary costs due to the growing number of employees.
Hail Cement, established in 2010, is yet to start commercial production. According to the current plans, this is expected by the end of the second quarter of 2013. In February 2013 Hail Cement said that its rotary cement kiln had started trial production and that the trial operations were expected to take three months.
San Miguel has big plans for Northern Cement 29 May 2013
Philippines: San Miguel Corporation has purchased a 35% stake in Northern Cement Corporation for US$72.1m and plans to finance the aggressive expansion of the company. San Miguel president Ramon Ang said the conglomerate would spend US$750m for the construction of new cement plants for Northern Cement, a company that is controlled by San Miguel chairman Eduardo Cojuangco.
Ang, who is also the chief of operations of San Miguel, said the company plans to expand the operation of Northern Cement by building three more plants at a cost of US$250m each.
Ang said that one plant would be built in the existing site in Pangasinan, another in Southern Luzon and a third in Cebu. Each plant will have a capacity of 2Mt/yr.
"All of these projects will happen within 2013 and are likely to be completed within two years," said Ang. "Eventually, San Miguel wants to build more plants to become the dominant cement manufacturing company in the Philippines." He added that Northern Cement aims to secure at least a 30% share of the cement market, which had 'huge potential.' "The revenue potential for each 2Mt/yr plant is estimated at US$200m/yr," he said.
Oman Cement admits probe on cement quality 29 May 2013
Oman: On 23 May 2012 Oman Cement Company (OCC) said that the Public Authority for Consumer Protection (PACP) has initiated an investigation on the quality of cement imported by the company. A team from PACP visited the company to inspect the cement imported and locally purchased for blending with its own cement, which the team considered to be a violation.
However, the company assured the team that the cement purchased after tender process is manufactured by reputable local and foreign cement companies according to the specifications better than the British-European and Omani standards and conform to high quality standard followed by OCC.
The clarification was in response to a newspaper report on deceptive commercial practices carried out by a company in importing 30,000t of 'inferior' quality cement, which was allegedly re-packed and sold as high quality product at a high price.
OCC also assured the authority that the cement purchased has been subjected to laboratory test and harmonising it with OCC-manufactured cement is undertaken with adherence to high quality standards.
"The purchase of cement, which amounts to about 30,000t and is hardly 1% of the annual capacity of the firm, had been necessitated due to breakdown of one of the cement mills of the company in April 2013," added OCC in a statement.
In a separate statement Raysut Cement sought to distance itself from the communication between OCC and the PACP.
Mexico: Grupo Cementos de Chihuahua has reported that it made a net loss of US$8.0m in the three months to 31 March 2013. While representing a loss, the loss was 9.9% lower than in the same period of 2012.
Its revenue was down by 2.7% year-on-year from US$116.5, to US$115.2m, while earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation took a 36.5% hit, falling from US$16.5m in the first quarter of 2012 to US$11.0m in the first quarter of 2013.