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Displaying items by tag: Australia
Boral removes CEO Mark Selway
22 May 2012Australia: The board of Australian building products firm Boral Ltd has removed the company's chief executive Mark Selway saying that a new leader was needed who could 'harmonise' the company after a two-year restructuring process.
Selway, who has headed Boral since January 2010, oversaw a turnaround involving the sale of about US$986m in assets and cutting capacity in manufacturing plants as the company battled weak housing and construction markets both in Australia and the United States. In April 2012 Boral posted net profit below its own forecast and made an unexpected cut in full-year profit guidance because of heavy rain and wet weather across eastern Australia.
"The board has decided that the stewardship of the company going forward requires a chief executive with a leadership style suited to harmonising the changes that have occurred over the last two years throughout the company," Boral said in a statement. The board said Selway would step down from his role effective immediately, although he would remain employed until 31 July 2012 to help with the transition.
Australian-born Selway, aged 52, started his career in the automotive sector before becoming the international marketing director of Britax International plc at the age of 28. After working for the company in different postings around the world he later joined the board. In 2001, Selway was appointed chief executive of Weir Group plc, a Scottish based engineering equipment company for the oil, gas, mining and power and industrial sectors.
Cockburn Cement charged with two environmental offences
23 September 2011Australia: The Australian Department of Environment and Conservation (DEC) has charged Cockburn Cement with causing pollution in a southern Perth neighbourhood and contravening conditions of its environmental licence after lime kiln dust escaped from its Perth plant on 28 April 2010. The company also allegedly failed to adhere to its environmental licence by not disposing of its lime kiln dust in a wet state.
Cockburn faces a fine of up to USD486,650 for the pollution charge while it could be slapped with a USD121,300 fine for contravening its environmental licence. The company will appear in Fremantle Magistrates Court on 21 October 2011.
Adelaide Brighton reveals first half profit
18 August 2011Australia: Cement and lime manufacturer Adelaide Brighton Ltd (AB) has announced that its half-year profit for the first six months of 2011 declined by 10.6% amid weakness in the housing sector. The company stressed, however, that it was confident with regard to its future earnings. AB's net profit fell to USD64.67m for the six months to 30 June 2011 from USD72.0m in the first half of 2010. Its revenue declined by 2.2% USD531.5m.
While outlining a mixed to steady outlook of demand for its building products, AB said that it was, "confident on future earnings due to its strong exposure to infrastructure and resources."
Covering off the furore over Australia's potential CO2 tax, AB said that it had, "already significantly reduced its carbon footprint by using alternative fuels and sourcing alternative raw materials." It added that it had already closed inefficient clinker facilities and was now the largest importer of cement and clinker into Australia. This, it said, has helped to reinforce a strong position for the company relative to domestic cement and clinker competitors.
AB's apparent stance is distinctly opposed to those of the members of the public (who came out in protest in the capital Canberra on 16 August 2011), Opposition politicians, BCG Cement and the Cement Industry Federation, which have variously warned of massive job losses in the cement industry, price increases and emission leakage to countries with weaker environmental regulations.
Chris Harris from AB said that the company believed that the carbon tax, as proposed, would not have any significant impact on the continuation of AB's successful growth strategy of the past decade and that AB would continue its successful long-term strategy of operational improvement, growth in the lime business and vertical integration into downstream markets.
Australian CO2 tax plans 'threaten 1800 cement jobs'
26 July 2011Australia: The Federal Opposition has claimed that 1800 cement industry jobs will be at risk from Labour's carbon tax and proposed new shipping rules. Nationals leader Warren Truss says the USD2.2bn-a-year industry is facing a 'double-whammy' under the Gillard government, saying that domestic cement manufacturers could be killed off by 'dirtier' imports, made cheaper under the carbon tax.
"The paradox is Australian cement production is a leader in low-emission technology and any shift to imports will force global CO2 emissions to rise," said Truss. He added that the Australian cement industry has the world's second lowest greenhouse gas emissions behind Japan. "The carbon tax will price Australia's cleaner cement out of the market, giving the green light to our international competitors to boost their higher CO2-emitting production and flood Australia with dirty cement. The Australian cement industry will be crushed by competitors who will not be paying a carbon tax."
Mr Truss said Labor was also rewriting the Navigation Act to force businesses that ship products around Australia to use domestic union-dominated vessels. He said 'unionised shipping' in Australia cost significantly more than current international market rates and would be another blow to the cement industry.
"Right now it costs about the same to ship cement from China to Australia as it does to ship it from Adelaide to Port Kembla," he said. "Under the Gillard government's sop to the maritime union, our biggest competitors in cement - China, Indonesia, Taiwan and Thailand - will dramatically undercut Australian suppliers on shipping costs alone."
The Cement Industry Federation (CIF) backed Truss's claims, saying the shipping reforms would impose new cost burdens on the sector. "Australian manufacturing cannot afford adding further cost imposts as a result of regulatory changes to coastal shipping," said a CIF spokeswoman in a statement. "While improving job security and conditions for Australian-based shipping crew is important, this must be weighed against the job security for manufacturing workers in primary production and manufacturing industries."
Meanwhile, Truss said a large section of the cement manufacturing sector would not be compensated under the carbon tax plan. The compensation package would apply only to producing clinker, the first stage of making cement. "The milling stage to make cement receives no compensation," he said.
Truss dismissed federal Treasurer Wayne Swan's comments that predictions of job losses in the manufacturing industry as a result of the carbon tax were 'doom and gloom.' "It is simply a nonsense for Mr Swan to suggest that his tax on Australian industry is not going to affect the competitiveness of Australian producers," he said. "We will be the only cement producers in the world and the only manufacturing industry in the world that pays a carbon tax. It naturally makes Australian products less competitive and will cost Australian jobs."