Displaying items by tag: HeidelbergCement
Central Asia cement roundup
02 July 2014A group of news stories from Central Asia and Azerbaijan this week present a good opportunity to look at the cement industry in this part of the world.
Uzbekistan
Eurocement has announced that it plans to build a 2.4Mt/yr cement plant near to Tashkent. Chinese contractors have been signed for the work in line with the Russia-based cement producer's other plant builds in 2014. Eurocement also operate a subsidiary in the country, the 1.6Mt/yr Akhangarancement cement plant, that reported a criminal investigation and financial audit following various misdemeanours in April 2014.
Also in April 2014 the Almalyk Mining-Metallurgical Combine (AMMC) proposed building a 1.5Mt/yr cement plant in the south of the country and then commissioning of a white cement plant in the central Jizzakh Province. Both the Eurocement and AMMC projects show that organisations are investing in the local market of the region's most populous country at around 30m.
Turkmenistan
In neighbouring Turkmenistan the TurkmenCement Production Association has issued a tender this week for the construction of a 1Mt/yr clinker plant in the central-south of the country in the Baharly District of the Akhal Region. If realised, the new plant will raise Turkemistan's cement production capacity to 4Mt/yr. Currently the country has three state-operated plants. The most recent, the 1.4Mt/yr Garlyk plant, was commissioned in February 2013.
Kazakhstan
An investor has stepped forward to finance the completion of the delayed Khantau cement plant in Zhambyl region in southern Kazakhstan. The 0.5Mt/yr plant was originally started in 2007 before being mothballed part-way through construction.
The reignition of this project follows a couple of stories from Kazakhstan including a report on testing at the HeidelbergCement Caspi cement plant in Mangistau region and the start of operation on Line 5 of Steppe Cement's Karaganda Cement. Kazakhstan has more western international cement producers, unlike the generally state-run companies in Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan. HeidelbergCement will join plants run by Italcementi and Vicat.
Azerbaijan
Finally, on the other side of the Caspian Sea, Azerbaijani local media has reported that cement production for the first half of 2014 has risen by 40% year-on-year to 1.1Mt. Following the opening of the Gazakh cement plant in mid-2013 the country has three cement plants with a combined cement production capacity of nearly 5Mt/yr.
Australian and New Zealand cement industry shrinks
25 June 2014Bad news for both cement workers and local clinker production in Australia and New Zealand this week with the announcement of job cuts and planned closures of clinker plants. Holcim New Zealand has confirmed that around 120 jobs will go when its Westport cement plant closes in 2016 along with the rationalisation of a few management jobs when the company integrates its Australian and New Zealand businesses. Meanwhile, Boral announced that it will cut 28 jobs from its Maldon Cement plant in Australia when it ceases clinker production at the end of 2014.
With these planned closures cement production capacity in the antipodes will shrink by just over 1.5Mt/yr to around 7.5Mt/yr, a reduction of over 15% Alongside the drop in native cement production players are re-focusing on an import market.
The trend is highlighted by the fact that Boral's Maldon site will retain its grinding mill. Earlier in June 2014 it was reported that Vue Australia is planning to convert a brownfield site on Kooragang Island, New South Wales into a cement storage and transfer plant. In February 2014 Cockburn Cement cut 44 jobs at its Munster cement plant as it started to restructure its operation for grinding using imported clinker. Also in February 2014 Cement Australia, the joint-owned company between Holcim and HeidelbergCement, had a US$17m expansion of its cement loading and storage facility for processing at Osborne approved by local authorities.
Following its restructuring in 2013, which has seen clinker production cease at Waurn Ponds and soon to cease at Maldon, Boral reported that its cement revenues grew in its 2012 – 2013 financial year. This is likely to continue when the 2013 – 2014 year is reported in August 2014. Likewise, Adelaide Brighton reported growing revenues in 2013. Cement Australia reported growing cement sales year-on-year in the first quarter of 2014 following reduced sales in 2013.
All in all the local cement industry in Australia and New Zealand has taken quite a knock in recent years. Reasons for this have included a poor recovery for the local building materials market, high-energy costs, the Carbon Tax in Australia, competition concerns and the spectre of cheap clinker imports from East Asia undercutting everything. However the return to revenue and then profit suggest that the worst of the job cuts and clinker production shrinkage is over.
In this business environment, revelations such as a China Resources spending upwards of US$300,000 on golf are unlikely to garner sympathy for any measures that appear to reduce international competiveness for Australian industry. The current Australian government led by Tony Abbott is set to make good on its promise to repeal the Carbon Tax from July 2014. The environmental effects will be unclear given that the tax may have cut emissions from participating companies by 7%, falling from 342Mt in 2011 – 2012 to 321Mt in 2012 – 2013, according to the Investor Group on Climate Change. As is usual with localised carbon taxation or legislation, whether global emissions fell during this period or whether emissions grew in looser jurisdictions to compensate is hard to calculate. The trend towards clinker imports suggests that there may be a significant contribution from the latter.
HeidelbergCement to sell building products business
18 June 2014Germany: HeidelbergCement intends to sell its building products business and has already contacted several banks about the deal. The division is expected to be sold for Euro1.1 – 1.5bn, according to the Financial Times. CEO Bernd Scheifele has been reportedly planning on conducting the sale for a long period. In the 2013 financial year the company's building products business saw its revenue fall by a tenth to Euro1.1bn.
Cooper takes charge at HeidelbergCement India
11 June 2014India: Jamshed Naval Cooper, HeidelbergCement India's director of sales and marketing, has taken over as the chief operating officer from 4 June 2014. Cementrum I BV of the Netherlands, the holding company of HeidelbergCement India, proposed the appointment. The position is subject to the approval of the board of directors.
Cooper succeeds Ashish Guha, who had resigned from the position of chief executive and managing director, but acceded to continue in office until the appointment of a successor at the request of the board of directors.
Kaspi cement plant nears launch
11 June 2014Kazakhstan: HeidelbergCement will soon launch a new 800,000t/yr cement plant in Mangystau Province following a US$273m investment. The plant will use dry chalk as a raw material. So far more than 70,000t of cement has been produced in test mode.
"Our company is included in the programme of forced industrial innovative development," said Evgeny Kholodnyakov, chief technologist of Kaspi cement plant. The plant will supply cement to the local and export markets.
Germany: KHD has reported that it has started two modernisation projects for HeidelbergCement's cement plant in Lengfurt, Germany. These projects include the modernisation of the raw meal grinding unit with KHD SKS VC 3000 dynamic separator and the modernisation of an existing preheater with KHD's new PH5835 cyclones.
KHD's responsibility includes manufacturing, erection and commissioning for both projects. The raw meal grinding unit has been in operation since its successful installation in April 2014 and the installation of the new preheater cyclones is scheduled to begin in the winter of 2015.
HeidelbergCement India’s net profit rises
27 May 2014India: HeidelbergCement India's net profits rose to US$8.12m during the quarter that ended in March 2014, compared with US$373,296 of profit during the same period of 2013. Net sales were US$67.0m during the quarter, up by 7.6% year-on-year from US$62.3m.
HeidelbergCement India’s CEO quits
07 May 2014India: Ashish Guha, chief executive officer (CEO) and managing director (MD) of HeidelbergCement India has resigned.
"Ashish Guha, CEO and MD of the company has notified the board at its meeting held on 2 May 2014 that he had tendered his resignation to HeidelbergCement Group," said HeidelbergCement.
Germany: HeidelbergCement has announced that its revenue and sales volumes increased in the first quarter of 2014, although it still made a loss for the period.
Revenue was up by 5.7% year-on-year for the quarter at Euro2.75bn, compared to Euro2.60bn in the first quarter of 2013. Operating income before depreciation (OIBD) was Euro229m, a 15.6% increase from Euro198m. The German multinational reported successful price increases and improved cost control as reasons behind the improved takings. Despite this, the group still reported a net loss of Euro108m for the period, although this constituted an improvement on the Euro187m that it lost in the first quarter of 2013.
HeidelbergCement reported that sales benefitted from warmer than usual weather in Europe. In North America sales volumes were adversely affected by the extremely low temperatures seen as the result of the polar vortex weather phenomenon. Elsewhere, the group reported that Asian and African markets 'continued to develop positively.' Across all of its markets, cement and clinker sales volumes rose by an average of 10% with Europe and Central Asia both reporting double-digit growth.
"Business development in the first quarter has strengthened our confidence in the outlook for the 2014 financial year," said HeidelbergCement's CEO Dr Bernd Scheifele. "Deleveraging in order to regain investment grade rating remains the highest priority for us. To this end, we will continue to be very disciplined in our spending in 2014 and focus more intensively on the sale of the building products business line in the United Kingdom and North America as well as other assets that do not belong to our core business. At the same time, we will remain on course with our successful strategy of targeted expansion of our cement capacities in growth markets."
Going forward, HeidelbergCement expects that North America will see a continuation of its economic recovery and some stabilisation in Eastern Europe. Further rises in demand are expected in Central Asia. In Western Europe, the group expects healthy growth in demand based on the strong fundamentals in Germany, the UK and Benelux.
Ukraine: HeidelbergCement Ukraine has appointed Wolfram Gaertner and Robert Breyer as supervisory board members for three years. In addition, Andrzej Balcerek, Klaus Schwind and Andreas Kern were re-elected as supervisory board members. At the same time, Ernest Jelito was removed from the supervisory board.