20 May 2015
UniCem to suffer US$45.2m losses in 2015 20 May 2015
Nigeria: The management of United Cement Company of Nigeria (UniCem) has disclosed that the company will suffer losses totalling US$45.2m in 2015 due to the economic downturn currently affecting Nigeria, including devaluation of the Naira.
"The devaluation of the Naira impacts negatively on our business because most of our transactions, like procurement of spares and materials, payment of some of contractors (Macmahon and CBMI), energy cost and servicing of foreign creditors, are basically US$-denominated. Cumulatively, we will have a revenue loss of US$45.2m in 2015 due the devaluation of the Naira," said managing director Olivier Lenoir.
The construction of the line II project at Mfamosing, Akamkpa in Cross River State is on course and will provide employment for hundreds of workers. "This project will at peak employ a total manpower of 1915. At this moment the manpower working in the project is 1290. The operations will determine what the manpower need will be when we handover the project," said Lenoir. "The captive power plant is 85% complete and the civil construction of the second line is at 38%." He added that the major challenges in the project are non-technical and include high level of malaria infection, heavy rainfall and customs clearance problems. Lenoir said that, despite these hitches, UniCem is optimistic that the project will be completed on schedule by September 2016.
Eurocement Ukraine cuts cement production by 22% 20 May 2015
Ukraine: Eurocement Ukraine cut its cement production by 21.9% year-on-year to 1.09Mt in 2014. Its sales volumes decreased by 24.7% year-on-year to 1.09Mt, while its sales fell by 19.5% to Euro34.1m. Eurocement Ukraine has reported a loss of Euro11.7m for 2014, having decreased its net revenues by 23.6% to Euro34.3m.
India: UltraTech Cement plans to buy Jaiprakash Associates' Bhilai plant for US$330 – 345m. The plant has US$87.5m of debt.
Lafarge’s Indian divestments receive six bids 20 May 2015
India: Six foreign and domestic cement companies, along with one private equity firm, have expressed interest in buying the assets that Lafarge is divesting in India before it closes its merger with Holcim. The bids were in excess of US$627m.
The deadline for submitting non-binding bids for the assets expired on 16 May 2015. Ahead of that deadline, local media reported that bids came from Shree Cement, Chettinad Cement, HeidelbergCement India, The Ramco Cements, CRH and Blackstone Group.
As a precondition to clearing Indian leg of the LafargeHolcim, the Competition Commission of India (CCI) directed Lafarge to sell two of its assets in Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand. These are a cement plant at Sonadih, Chhattisgarh and a grinding plant at Jojobera, Jharkhand, with a total capacity of approximately 5Mt/yr. In its directions, the CCI said that Lafarge should sell its assets 'to relatively smaller players, having an installed capacity of less than 5% of their total capacity in the relevant geographic market.'
With the non-binding bids in, Lafarge is likely to shortlist bidders by the middle of June 2015. The deal is likely to be concluded in July 2015.
UK: Saxlund International has collaborated with Hope Construction Materials to install and commission a new waste-derived fuel solution for Hope Construction Materials' cement plant in Derbyshire, UK. The solution has been designed to provide storage, transportation, weighing and injection of solid waste fuel (SWF) to the two kilns. The goal is to increase the rate at which Hope can replace fossil fuels with waste-derived alternatives to more than 50%, a key part of its long-term sustainability targets.
The project incorporates a fuel reception and push-floor storage solution, reclaim conveyors, process tower with drum magnet and star screen, together with a weighing and pneumatic injection system to the main burners. The system facilitates stable and reliable process conditions to help minimise build-up in the pre-heater tower. It also offers a 'future-proof' solution with the flexibility to handle changing fuel characteristics and different types of waste-derived fuels, should suppliers change in the future.
"This is a flagship project for us. Once fully operational, the new solid waste fuel (SWF) system will run on a 24/7 basis delivering fuel at a rate of up to 5t/hr to each kiln," said Matt Drew, managing director Saxlund International. "It means that Hope Works will soon be operating with a significantly larger proportion of waste-derived fuels, in the process diverting up to 80,000t/yr of bulk solid waste from landfill and representing significant carbon savings to the business."
Switzerland: Holcim is preparing the reorganisation of group functions in the context of the proposed merger with Lafarge. The objective is to create a lean organisation with empowered countries, regional management platforms and group functions for the combined company.
Group functions are designed to increase the competitiveness of the group at global, regional and local levels, to implement best practices and to support and enable LafargeHolcim to achieve the highest possible performance. The proposed new organisation would result in a net reduction of approximately 120 positions in Holcim group functions in Switzerland.
The social consultation process to reduce the impact on roles that are affected by reductions will now be launched with the employee representatives in Switzerland. In parallel, Lafarge is presenting to its social bodies' representatives the proposed organisation of central functions in the context of the creation of LafargeHolcim.
The merger project is expected to close in July 2015, subject to the acceptance of Holcim's public exchange offer by the shareholders of Lafarge. The implementation of the new organisation is expected for early 2016 after completion of all relevant social consultations in Switzerland and France.