Displaying items by tag: Infrastructure
PCA backs INVEST in America infrastructure bill
05 June 2020US: The Portland Cement Association (PCA) has lauded the introduction of a bill to reauthorise infrastructure spending until 2025 in the legislative assembly. Called the INVEST in America Act, the Democratic bill proposes to increase investment and shift towards more sustainable infrastructure and transport.
PCA president and chief executive officer (CEO) Mike Ireland said the boosts to funding, “are critically important as our nation deals with high unemployment and economic stagnation as result of the Covid-19 pandemic.” He added, “The PCA stands ready to work with Democrats and Republicans in the House and Senate in delivering a robust and bipartisan surface transportation reauthorisation bill.”
Egypt: The Ministry of Local Development has announced the start of a six-month period in which it will issue no construction licences for private buildings in Greater Cairo, governorate capitals and major cities from 27 May 2020. Egypt Today has reported that the suspension also affects licences for building modifications and extensions.
President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi has ordered that mega-infrastructure projects should continue, subject to additional protective measures against the COVID-19 outbreak. Al-Sisi postponed the inauguration ceremonies for the newly constructed New Administrative Capital and Grand Egyptian Museum.
Update on the UK
27 May 2020The Construction Products Association (CPA) has just forecast a 25% drop in construction output for 2020 in the UK due to Covid-19. And this is the optimistic prediction! It blamed the decline, which is said to be the sharpest ever recorded, on the country’s coronavirus-related lockdown. 60% of planned construction output was lost in April 2020 due to social distancing measures. This compares to a 6.5% decline in gross domestic product (GDP) forecast for 2020 by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in April 2020 for the UK. OneStone Consulting’s Joe Harder in his Covid-19 Impact Analysis CIC 2025 report has forecast a 12.7% decrease in European cement production. Readers should keep in mind that construction output, GDP and cement production are all connected but not necessarily directly related.
Further details of note from the CPA include a direct link between the strength of lockdown measures and work lost, as well as differences between types of activity. So, for example, more construction output (in percentage terms) was reported lost in Scotland, where tighter lockdown measures were implemented. On the latter point, more output was lost in residential construction compared to non-residential with a similar trend reported in the repair, maintenance and improvement sector, again worsened in the residential part of this market. The sector that suffered the least was non-residential repair and maintenance as work on, currently, mostly deserted buildings and infrastructure was prioritised. One example of this may have been Aggregate Industries, the UK subsidiary of LafargeHolcim, which said this week that it had completed major works on the A14, a major regional trunk road, ahead of schedule. It didn’t directly make the link in its press release but quiet roads would have helped.
The CPA is touting the now-familiar range of letter-shaped economic recession shapes in the report, including ‘V’, ‘W’ and the dreaded ‘U’. However, the CPA’s Economics Director Noble Francis was more confident that infrastructure projects would bounce back fastest due to favourable investment cycles in utilities, government support for its high-speed railway scheme HS2 and, “greater ability to implement safe distancing for workers on larger sites.”
That last point ties in nicely with the operational guidance that the Mineral Product Association (MPA), the UK’s trade association for the heavy building material sector in the UK, released last week. This is all crucial information on a comprehensive and detailed scale along the lines released in other countries.
Much of this will be becoming second nature to cement industry workers and/or will be familiar to anyone who has watched US consultant John Kline discuss these issues on Global Cement Live. Yet there are some points worth discussing here such as ‘Avoid Distraction.’ This one’s all about remembering to keep in mind existing health and safety practices alongside all the coronavirus-related ones. All the usual health and safety regulations and advice remain in place and in some ways become even more important as there may be fewer staff working on socially-distanced sites, or first responders may be otherwise busy elsewhere. Another point from the MPA’s guidance is to ‘Provide More Time,’ which acknowledges that working with coronavirus measures will require more time. Other implications from a business changed by coronavirus are things like notifying the police when sites are closed and considering further security for such sites to minimise risk of theft. A lot of this stuff seems obvious but it’s easy to miss things.
For a recent review of the UK cement industry readers should refer to Edwin Trout’s feature in the June 2020 issue of Global Cement Magazine. One change since it was published has been Cemex’s proposal to mothball its 0.8Mt/yr South Ferriby integrated plant in Lincolnshire. The cement producer says it is not related to coronavirus but if the CPA’s predictions are accurate then it will make it that much harder to keep the plant open.
Everyone’s hoping for a ‘V’ shaped recovery from the coronavirus downturn in the UK and everywhere else around the world. Boots on the ground operating advice like that issued by the MPA and others is part of how the construction materials industries can work towards achieving this.
HeidelbergCement reports ‘good start to 2020’
07 May 2020Germany: HeidelbergCement has reported a fall in first quarter revenues by 7% year-on-year in 2020, to Euro3.93bn from Euro4.24bn. Revenues fell by 6% in Western and Southern Europe and by 10% in the Asia-Pacific region, but rose by 11% in North America, by 2% in Northern and Eastern Europe and Central Asia and by 3% in Africa-Eastern Mediterranean Basin.
HeidelbergCement Managing Board Chair Dominik von Achten said that, after year-on-year sales increases across all business lines, “from mid-March our sales volumes were significantly impaired by the effects of the coronavirus pandemic, such as state-imposed production downtimes and construction stoppages on major infrastructure projects.” Total cement and clinker sales over the period were 27.7Mt, down by 3.0% year-on-year from 28.6Mt.
Thanks to its COPE coronavirus action plan, HeidelbergCement says that it has reduced 2020 spending by Euro1.0bn. It says that it has Euro5.7bn of financial liquidity.
Hanson team makes sign to thank National Health Service
27 April 2020UK: A team of Hanson employees has produced a sign from recycled materials from around the company’s 1.0Mt/yr Purfleet slag cement grinding plant. The 6m-long luminous sign, which reads ‘NHS Thank You,’ has been installed at the plant on the mill three tower overlooking the QE2 Dartford Crossing. Hanson Purfleet plant manager Warren Scott said, “The team wanted to show their appreciation for the NHS and key workers and came up with and executed this idea in their own time.”
Hanson has kept ‘a number of key sites’ open through the coronavirus outbreak in order ‘to supply key national infrastructure projects or to provide maintenance materials to critical sectors.’ Hanson has furloughed part of its staff under the government’s Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme.
Cemex resumes Colombian production
14 April 2020Colombia: Mexico-based Cemex has announced the resumption of operations at its 2.8Mt/yr Caracolito plant in Ibagué, Tolima Department on 13 April 2020. Noticias Financieras News has reported that Cemex Colombia will resume the supply of its products to ‘infrastructure and public works that cannot be suspended, as well as for emergency care projects and road projects.
Cemex will have to wait for the Colombian government to lift its coronavirus lockdown to restart supplies to customers.
Titan Group strengthens sales as profit drops
20 March 2020Greece: Titan Group’s profit dropped by 5.5% year-on-year to Euro50.9m in 2019, from Euro53.8m in 2018. The group said that it ‘demonstrated strength’ in ‘sustaining a growth performance’ despite challenges in Southeastern Europe and the Eastern Mediterranean. Sales were Euro1.61bn, up by 8.0% from Euro1.49bn in 2018, led by Titan Group’s US subsidiary Titan America’s sales growth of 10.7%, to Euro952m from Euro860m. Titan Group’s Greece and Western Europe sales grew to Euro245m, up by 3.3% from Euro237m in 2018, with sales gains from the private sector offsetting the decreased revenue from delays in public infrastructure projects. Cement exports, especially to the US, were also a major regional sales contributor, while clinker exports fell.
Group volumes of cement, including clinker and cementitious materials, were 17.0Mt, down by 7% from 18.2Mt.
China: Hebei province-based Tangshan Jidong Cement’s net 2019 profit was US$298m, up by 42% year-on-year from US$210m in 2018. Cement and clinker sales remained flat. Tangshan Jidong Cement attributed the growth to increased prices due to a 9.9% year-on-year increase in infrastructure spending to US$1.86tn. Throughout the year, the company said, it completed energy-saving optimisation and upgrades to improve efficiency, implemented strategic marketing and reduced the cost of material procurement.
India: Representatives from Aditya Birla subsidiary UltraTech, Ramco Cements, India Cements, JSW Cement and KCP have met with Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Jaganmohan Reddy and other state officials to negotiate the sale of their products to construction companies working on public projects ‘at lower prices.’ The Hindu newspaper has reported that the state forecasts a year-on-year rise in its annual cement consumption of 67%, to 30Mt in 2020 from 18Mt in 2019. India Cements’ vice chair and managing director Narendra Srinavasan said that all planned infrastructure projects ‘ought to be implemented in order to bail out the industry from the turmoil it has been undergoing.’
Progreso publishes Panama plans
10 March 2020Panama: Guatemala-based Cemento Progreso, which acquired Cemento Interoceanico on 21 November 2019, has shared plans to expand its 0.25Mt/yr La Chorrera plant to 0.3Mt/yr production capacity. Noticias Financieras News has reported that the company will also establish three new concrete plants, in David, Chiriquí province, Columbus, Columbus province, and Tocumen, Panama province. Through these it hopes to serve major infrastructure projects such as the construction of a fourth Panama canal bridge and to increase its cement market share from 10%.