21 July 2015
US: Construction materials company Summit Materials has completed its previously announced acquisition of a 1.2Mt/yr capacity cement plant in Davenport, Iowa along with seven cement distribution terminals from Lafarge North America for US$450m in cash, plus an exchange of Summit's Bettendorf, Iowa cement distribution terminal.
The newly acquired cement operations will compliment Summit's existing cement plant in Hannibal, Missouri and cement distribution terminal in St Louis, Missouri. The combined business will operate as Continental Cement, an existing wholly-owned subsidiary of Summit.
Following completion of the transaction, Summit owns 2.4Mt/yr of cement production capacity across the two cement plants plus eight cement distribution terminals along the Mississippi River system ranging from Minneapolis, Minnesota to New Orleans, Louisiana.
CRH submits bid for LafargeHolcim’s Indian assets 21 July 2015
India: CRH has reportedly submitted a binding bid for the Indian assets of the newly formed LafargeHolcim, according to the Irish Examiner.
CRH is already paying Euro6.5bn for certain assets in the Americas, Europe and Asia that needed to be offloaded to enable the LafargeHolcim merger. The transaction, which will make CRH the third-largest building materials business in the world, is set to formally conclude by the end of July 2015, although it will take slightly longer to finalise the takeover of the Asian assets.
HeidelbergCement and Barings Private Equity (Asia) have also reportedly submitted bids for LafargeHolcim assets in India. The reports have suggested a price of US$600 - 800m for the Indian assets, which include Lafarge's Sonadih cement plant and the Jojobera grinding station in the east of the country.
UltraTech Cement profit falls by 6% 21 July 2015
India: UltraTech Cement has reported a 6% fall in its consolidated net profit to US$92.9m for the first quarter of its 2015 – 2016 fiscal year, which ended on 30 June 2015. The Aditya Birla Group company had posted net profit of US$98.8m in the same period of 2014. Its consolidated net sales rose by 6% year-on-year to US$1bn from US$942m in the same quarter of 2014. Cement and clinker sales rose to 12.1Mt from 11.7Mt in the same period of 2014.
"Energy costs improved by 7%. The reduction in fuel prices was partially offset by the increase in railway freight. Input prices remained stable, except for the rise in royalty for limestone and levies under the Mines and Minerals (Development & Regulation) (MMDR) Amendment Act 2015," said UltraTech Cement in a statement.
New Zealand: The third-largest lime producer in the world, US-based Graymont, has bought the Makareao lime plant in Otago from Holcim and took over the facility on 1 July 2015. Graymont, which has extensive interests in Canada, the US and Mexico, has also bought the McDonald's lime plant at Te Kuiti, Waikato, New Zealand.
Graymont Makareao's operations manager Craig Porter said that the lime plants' output had grown over the last two or three years and that he was excited about the new ownership. Staffing at the plant will not be affected.
Holcim's Weston cement plant project was put on hold in 2013 after it decided to import cement into New Zealand and build two new terminals, including one at Timaru, about four months from the completion of the plant. Waitaki Mayor Gary Kircher said that Holcim still owns the Weston site, associated quarries for limestone, coal and sand and consent for the cement plant that could be established there.