Global Cement News

Burkina Faso: Cim Metal Group has ordered an upgrade to its Cimasso cement grinding plant in Bobo Dioulasso from Germany-based Intercem Engineering. The cement producer has decided to double the plant’s production capacity to at least 4Mt/yr by ordering an extension production line and upgrading the original line. The plant, which was also supplied by Intercem, was originally commissioned in 2018.

The new order includes: three truck unloading stations; raw material handling systems; a raw material hopper station; a cement grinding unit with a vertical roller mill; four 5400t cement silos; five 12 spout rotary packers; ten truck loading stations; ten truck weighing bridges; and one upgrade to the existing cement grinding plant. Intercem is in charge of the engineering, all mechanical and electrical plant components, project management and is also responsible for the supervision activities for the civil, mechanical and electrical assembly works and the commissioning of the plant. No date for commissioning has been announced.

A great question was asked at yesterday’s Virtual Global CemTrans Seminar: what impact did the recent blockage of the Suez Canal cause to the cement industry? Luckily, Rahul Sharan from Drewry was on hand discussing freight costs following the start of the coronavirus pandemic.

As most readers will know, the Suez Canal was blocked in late March 2021 when the 200,000dwt Ever Given ran aground, at around six nautical miles from the southern entry of the canal. The ultra large container vessel was subsequently refloated and towed away just under a week later. While this was happening the fate of the ship became a global news story with business analysts totting up the cost of the obstruction. 40 bulk carriers were reported as waiting to transit the waterway the day after the blockage started and some of these were carrying cement. Reporting by the BBC noted that 369 ships were stuck waiting on either side of the blockage on the day before the ship was finally freed. The Suez Canal Authority (SCA) estimated their loss of revenue from the incident at US$14 – 15m/day. Analysts like Allianz placed the cost to the global economy at US$6 - 10bn/day.

In Sharan’s view the blockage of the Suez Canal happened at a potentially risky moment for cement and clinker shipping because there was already congestion in shipping lanes built up on the east coast of South America and around Australia. However, a delay of a week around the canal, followed by the resulting congestion dispersing quickly over the following days, does not seem to have had any major impact so far.

Sharan’s presentation at Global CemTrans also included a summary of cement shipping. The key takeaways were that clinker shipping overtook cement shipping in 2019 with a connected increase in fleets investing in handymax-sized vessels. He also pointed out the key cement and clinker importing countries in 2019, before the coronavirus pandemic started causing market disruption. For cement: the US, the Philippines and Singapore. For clinker: China, Bangladesh and the Philippines. Turkey and Vietnam were the biggest exporters for both in that year.

The Ever Given incident has highlighted the continued importance of the Suez Canal for global trade for commodities. Goods still need to be physically moved around, however much stuff we digitise. It also contrasts with the issues that the Egyptian cement sector has faced in recent years such as production overcapacity. While domestic cement plants have struggled to maintain their profits, plenty of cement carriers have been transiting through the Isthmus of Suez. Local producers may well have gazed at them and wondered where they were going.

One of them, Al-Arish Cement Company, took action in this direction this week with its first export shipment of clinker. The Clipper Isadora ship disembarked East Port Said port for Ivory Coast. Future shipments are planned for West Africa, Canada, the US and Europe. Ship tracking reveals that the Clipper Isadora has not taken the Suez Canal on this occasion.

The proceedings pack for the Virtual CemTrans Seminar 2 2021 is available to buy now

Switzerland: Oscar Fanjul has decided to step down as the vice-chairman of LafargeHolcim. The group said that in line with the its commitment to continuity of leadership, the board of directors has proposed the appointment of chief executive officer (CEO) Jan Jenisch as a member of the board of directors in addition to his CEO role.

Fanjul was elected to the board of directors of LafargeHolcim in 2015. He began his career working for the industrial holding INI in Spain and later became the chairman founder and CEO of Repsol. He has been chairman of Hidroeléctrica del Cantábrico and of Deoleo. He has also been a board member of the London Stock Exchange, Unilever, Areva, and BBVA. He holds a PhD in Economics.

Brazil: Votorantim Cimentos’ consolidated net sales were US$6.41bn in 2020, up by 19% year-on-year from US$5.41bn in 2019. Its adjusted earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) also rose, by 35% to US$1.21bn from US$899m. The group attributed the growth to increased cement volumes sold in Brazil, Canada and the US. Total global cement sales increased by 8% to 32.4Mt. Net revenue grew in all regions, but the sharpest growth was reported in North America at 43% to US$945m.

Chief financial officer Osvaldo Ayres Filho said, “The past year has been extremely challenging due to the pandemic and its impacts across the planet. We have implemented a contingency plan to protect people's lives and preserve operations. This allowed us to respond with agility both in Brazil and in the other markets in which we have operations, ending the year with increased sales, cash generation growth and the lowest leverage in the past ten years.”

During the year, the group unified its joint-venture in Uruguay, with Cementos Molins, at a single site and merged its Canadian and US businesses under a new 83% owned subsidiary. It suspended its Pecém grinding plant expansion in Brazil due to the coronavirus pandemic and resumed it in September 2020. Completion of the project is scheduled for the first half of 2021. The producer also released its Sustainability Commitments for 2030 in November 2020.

Nigeria: Dangote Cement says that the price of cement from its plants in Nigeria is the same as from plants in other countries in Africa or cheaper. The cement producer made the announcement in response to local media reports that its prices were allegedly lower in Ghana or Zambia, according to the Vanguard newspaper. It added that it had control over its ex-factory prices but that it could not set the end market price.

Dangote Group Executive Director, Strategy, Portfolio Development and Capital Projects Devakumar Edwin explained that Dangote Cement has a 60% share of the local cement market at present. Demand for cement has risen following the coronavirus pandemic and the company has had to suspend exports from its recently commissioned export terminals in order to meet local demand. He added that it has also reactivated its 4.5Mt/yr Gboko plant in Benue State, which was closed in 2018, to cope with the situation.