Displaying items by tag: Peru
UNACEM Chile and UNICON Chile acquire Conovia
23 November 2022Chile: UNACEM Chile and its ready-mix concrete partner UNICON Chile are set to acquire aggregates company Constructora de Obras y Viales Limitada (Conovia). Peru-based UNACEM Group concluded an agreement to buy Conovia's parent companies Inversiones Befeld Limitada and Inversiones Majas Limitada for US$3.7m on 21 November 2021. Gestión News has reported that Conovia has 180,000t/yr of aggregates production capacity in Valparaíso Region. At present, UNACEM Chile has 600,000t/yr in cement grinding capacity, while UNICON Chile has 1.2Mm3/yr in ready-mix concrete capacity.
UNACEM Group aims to grow its Chilean cement market share to 10 - 15% in 2025, from 8% during 2021. The market is reportedly valued at US$350m/yr.
UNACEM updates branding for 10th anniversary
16 November 2022Peru: UNACEM (Unión Andina de Cementos) has updated its branding, including its logo, for its 10th anniversary following the merger of Cemento Andino and Cementos Lima. The new logo is intended to convey its essence, origin and its commitment to union and sustainable construction, according to the Ojo newspaper. It is based around the letter ‘U’ and is also meant to be reminiscent of a quarry seen from above. The rebranding exercise is also being run at the same time as the company’s 'Co-building Peru' campaign, where it seeks to promote the message that, “...the infrastructure of a country is built with cement, a homeland is built by all of us, working together.”
Update on Peru, October 2022
05 October 2022Cemento Yura said it was considering expanding cement and lime production this week. The announcement, made in an interview to business newspaper Gestión, follows a strong second quarter for the subsidiary of Grupo Gloria with clinker production volumes jumping up by 36% year-on-year to 0.51Mt. Overall for the half-year its clinker and cement production rose by 12.8% year-on-year to 0.86Mt and 12.7% to 1.47Mt. The success was attributed to consistent demand from the domestic sector as well as various large-scale mining projects. Julio Cáceres, the commercial director for its Cement, Concrete and Lime Division in Peru, Chile and Bolivia, wouldn’t say where the company was considering heading next, other than that remarking that it was attentive to new markets.
As Cáceres’ job title implies Cemento Yura also operates cement plants outside of Peru. At home it runs one integrated plant in the south of the country near to Arequipa as well as a lime plant at Juliaca. Outside of Peru though it also runs two integrated plants and a grinding unit in Bolivia, via its Sociedad Boliviana de Cemento (SOBOCE) subsidiary, and two integrated plants in Ecuador, via its Union Cementera Nacional (UCEM) subsidiary. The company also has assorted concrete assets. The international aspect to Cemento Yura’s business is interesting given that the larger cement producers in Peru are dominant in different parts of the country with Cementos Pacasmayo in the north, UNACEM (Unión Andina de Cementos) in the centre around Lima and Cemento Yura in the south. Notably, UNACEM also runs a plant in Ecuador and one in Arizona, US. It is also worth mentioning that competition issues have been reported in the local market previously. In mid-2021 Peru’s competition authority, the National Institute of the Defense of Competition and Intellectual Property Protection (INDECOPI), investigated Cemento Yura.
Cemento Yura’s rise in clinker production in the second quarter of 2022 is worth considering because in a previous interview with the local press Humberto Nadal, the chief executive officer of Cementos Pacasmayo, said that importing clinker had become more expensive in 2021. Subsequently, the company started a US$70m upgrade at its Pacasmayo plant to increase its production capacity by 0.6Mt/yr. In its second quarter financial results for 2022 Cementos Pacasmayo directly credited a 27% increase in its earnings on higher operating profits arising from decreasing costs by using less imported clinker. Sure enough data from Association of Cement Producers (ASOCEM) shows that both cement and clinker imports started to fall in October 2021 and have mostly followed a downward trend since then. Clinker imports fell by 41% year-on-year to 0.66Mt from January to August 2022 compared to the same period in 2021.
Graph 1: Cement production in Peru, 2014 – present. Source. Association of Cement Producers (ASOCEM).
Looking at the wider picture in Peru, cement production has stayed fairly consistent since 2014 at around 10Mt/yr. An upward trend probably started in 2019 but then the Covid-19 pandemic cut it off in the first half of 2022 before the market surged back in the second half of that year. 2021 was a good year with production peaking at 12.9Mt. So far the first eight months of 2022 have seen production rise by 5.3% year-on-year to 8.64Mt.
In summary, cement production is rising in Peru, importing clinker appears to have become more expensive for at least one of the producers and some of the larger local companies are investing in new production capacity, considering it or thinking about acquisitions elsewhere. Local clinker producers appear to be in a good place; clinker importers, or those reliant on it, not so much.
Yura considering cement capacity growth
03 October 2022Peru: Grupo Gloria subsidiary Yura says that it is contemplating a cement production capacity expansion. The producer says that process optimisation across its Arequipa and Southern Peruvian cement footprint might go some way towards achieving the envisioned growth. It added that any such projects would go hand in hand with a reform of its customer service practices. Yura is also evaluating possible new limestone mining projects at Pampas del Pongo and Zafranal, and an expansion of its lime production.
DF Sud News has reported that Yura expects to increase its Peruvian cement deliveries by 8 – 10% year-on-year in 2022. Its cement, concrete and lime director for Peru, Chile and Bolivia, Julio Cáceres, forecasts that Peru’s construction demand will continue to grow at twice the rate of gross domestic product. He acknowledged that the company’s 2023 results will likely reflect the country’s expected muted growth compared to 2022. Cáceres said that US$700m-worth of private investment across 30 residential projects in Arequipa is currently suspended, pending the publication of the city’s revised metropolitan development plan.
UNACEM profit rises steeply in second quarter
23 August 2022Peru: UNACEM reported a consolidated net profit of US$285m in the second quarter of 2022, a 25.8% year-on-year rise compared to the second quarter of 2022. The increase was explained by higher revenues, coupled to a drop in interest expenses. However, the quarter was characterised by a higher-than-expected cost of sales.
UNACEM's consolidated revenues for the quarter reached US$367.4m, up 19.8% year-on-year. This was due to higher cement sales volumes in Peru (+13.8%) and the US (+15.7%) and higher ready-mix concrete sales in the US (+34.0%) and Chile (+54.0%), as well as higher energy sales in Peru. This was complemented by higher sales prices in all markets.
Algeria: Groupe des Ciments d'Algérie (GICA) has obtained a certificate of conformity with European standards (CE) for three types of cement. The certification should allow the company to export more products to Europe, according to the Expression newspaper. It applies to its Gica Moudhad and Gica Béton products. The move follows similar certification of products with the Association Française de Normalisation (AFNOR) from the company’s Aïn El Kebira plant in July 2021. At the same time the Minister of Industry said it was helping the group with its export strategy.
In 2021 GICA exported 2.25Mt of cement to countries including the Ivory Coast, Gambia, Ghana, Mauritania, Senegal , Cameroon, Benin, Guinea, Brazil, Peru, the Dominican Republic, Haiti and a number of European countries.
Peru: Cement production grew by 7% year-on-year to 6.4Mt in the first half of 2022 from 6Mt in the same period in 2020. Data from the Association of Cement Producers (ASOCEM) shows that cement exports rose by 15% to 98,000t and clinker exports fell by 8% to 289,000t. Cement and clinker imports fell by 69% to 150,000t and 40% to 549,000t respectively.
Holcim Ecuador exports cement to Peru
07 June 2022Ecuador: Holcim Ecuador has despatched its first export shipment of bulk cement to the Peruvian market. The volume of this shipment was 32,700t and it was loaded in 2t Big Bags. Holcim Ecuador says that it invested US$2.2m in establishing the infrastructure to realise this achievement.
Peru: Cementos Pacasmayo recorded consolidated sales of US$140m in the first quarter of 2022, up by 13% year-on-year from US$124m in the first quarter of 2021. Its earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) also rose, by 21% year-on-year to US$128m from US$105m. The company said that its strong revenue generation enabled earnings growth despite cost increases. Its reliance on imported clinker to meet growing demand increased Cementos Pacasmayo’s exposure to the effects of inflation.
During the quarter, Cementos Pacasmayo produced 882,000t of cement across its three facilities, down by 4.4% year-on-year. The plants’ clinker production rose by 6.7% to 568Mt from 532Mt in the first quarter of 2021.
Unacem boosts sales in 2021
31 March 2022Peru: Unacem’s sales were US$655m in 2021, up by 43% year-on-year from US$458m in 2020. It sold US$598m-worth of cement, up by 41% year-on-year from US$425m-worth, and exported US$30.3m of clinker, up by 35% year-on-year from US$22.5m-worth.
The producer said “2020 and 2021 have been years of great challenges for the world and our country because of the Covid-19 pandemic. In this context, the company implemented a plan of measures that has allowed it to cope with this crisis, having as a fundamental pillar ensuring the safety and health of its employees, the sustainability of the company and all its shareholders. Likewise, the Peruvian government continues to take the necessary actions to mitigate the effects of the third wave of Covid-19 as well as to safeguard the payment chain of companies.”