23 July 2015
Emami Cement to build cement plant in West Bengal 23 July 2015
India: Emami Cement plans to build a 1.5 – Mt/yr capacity cement plant in Panagarh, Bardhaman, West Bengal, according to the Palestine News Agency. The plan also includes a 10MW captive coal-fired power plant. Land has been allotted by the West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation (WBIDC). The estimated cost of the project is US$65.7m.
UNACEM posts market growth in the first half of 2015 23 July 2015
Peru: UNACEM has boosted its first half net income by 23% on higher prices and lower costs, according to Business News Americas.
UNACEM posted a US$47.8m profit and its sales rose by 6% year-on-year to US$896m in the first half of 2015. The company cut its operating costs by 8% in the first half of 2015 and its sales costs by 2.1%. Cement production fell by 1.6% to 2.71Mt in the first half of 2015, while clinker production fell by 6.3% to 2.58Mt. Exports jumped by 36.6% to 590,863t during the period.
UNACEM, which competes in Peru with companies including Cementos Pacasmayo and Gloria Group's Cementos Yura, said that it increased its domestic market share to 51.2% in the first half of 2015 from 49.9%. UNACEM expects to benefit from a growing contribution from its US$553m acquisition in 2014 from Lafarge Ecuador.
UNACEM has 7.6Mt/yr of installed cement capacity. Peru's cement production rose by 1.4% to 10.7Mt in 2014, according to cement producers' association Asocem. Exports from Peru rose by 37.4% to 306,277t in the same period.
Colombia: Cemex Latam Holdings' consolidated net sales fell by 11% year-on-year US$394m during the second quarter of 2015. The decline was attributed to currency fluctuations and lower sales. Operating earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA), also adjusted for the currency fluctuations, increased by 2% year-on-year during the second quarter of 2015.
Operating EBITDA in Colombia decreased by 23% year-on-year to US$68m in the second quarter of 2015, with a 24% decline in net sales to US$198m. Adjusting for currency fluctuations, EBITDA in Colombia grew by 2% year-on-year. Consolidated cement volumes decreased by 3%, while ready-mix and aggregates volumes increased by 6% and 3%, respectively. In Panama, operating EBITDA fell by 3% to US$33m during the quarter and net sales grew by 9% to US$79m. Cement, ready-mix and aggregates volumes increased by 4%, 10% and 21%, respectively, year-on-year. In Costa Rica, operating EBITDA grew by 5% year-on-year to US$20m and net sales increased by 15% to US$46m. Volumes for the three main products grew at double-digit rates during both the second quarter and the first half of 2015. In the rest of Cemex Latam Holdings' region, net sales during the quarter reached US$76m and operating EBITDA fell by 7% year-on-year to US$20m.
In the first six months of 2015, Cemex Latam Holdings'cement volumes declined by 11%, while ready-mix and aggregates volumes increased by 4% and 2%, respectively. Compared with the first quarter of 2015, cement, ready-mix and aggregates volumes increased by 11%, 8% and 6%, respectively.
"We are pleased with the continued positive volume performance of our operations in Panama, Costa Rica and Nicaragua, where we are improving our volume guidance for the year. Additionally, our cement volumes in Colombia increased by 11% during the quarter compared with the first quarter of 2015," said Carlos Jacks, CEO of Cemex Latam Holdings.
"This year our priority is to continue working persistently towards improving our profitability, which has been affected by the depreciation of the Colombian Peso. Additionally, we continue to evolve as a company into a more customer-centric organisation, offering differentiated construction solutions to our specific customer segments."
Peru: Cementos Pacasmayo has announced that, its consolidated earnings before income, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) increased by 6.4% to US$28m in the second quarter of 2015. Its net income rose by 8% to US$13.9m, but its revenues fell by 8.8%. The company said that its second quarter results were impacted by continued weakness in cement demand from the public sector. This led to a 9.4% reduction in cement sales volumes and also reduced its EBITDA, excluding US$2.76m of income from the sale of a real estate asset.
In the first six months of 2015, Cementos Pacasmayo's consolidated EBITDA increased by 8.4% to US$55.9m, its net income grew by 19.4% to US$30.3m and its revenues fell by 6%. Despite lower year-on-year cement volumes, its gross margin was 43.1%, up from 40.5% in the first half of 2014, thanks to an increased focus on efficiency and cost reductions.
Cementos Pacasmayo announced that its US$386m Piura plant had reached the final stage of construction, with cement production set to begin in the third quarter of 2015 and clinker production in the fourth quarter of 2015. The plant will reach 60% capacity by the end of 2015, a level which the company has established as the optimal capacity utilisation given the current conditions in the Peruvian cement market.
Looking ahead, independent forecasts point towards a recovery in Peruvian infrastructure spending. Local government spending improved slightly late in the second quarter of 2015, this trend is expected to continue through the second half of 2015, while the self-construction market is expected to remain at or near its current level. Cementos Pacasmayo expects its full-year cement volumes to be similar to those of 2014.
Cemex reports sales growth in 2015 23 July 2015
Mexico: Cemex's consolidated net sales in the second quarter of 2015 grew by 5% year-on-year on a like-for-like basis for ongoing operations and adjusting for currency fluctuations to US$3.8bn. Its operating earnings before income, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) increased by 1% during the quarter to US$744m. On a like-for-like basis, operating EBITDA increased by 13%.
The increase in consolidated net sales on a like-for-like basis was due to higher product prices in local currency terms in most of its operations, as well as improved volumes in most of its products in Mexico, the US, and the northern Europe and Asia regions.
Cemex's net sales in Mexico decreased by 9% in the second quarter of 2015 to US$745m while its operating EBITDA increased by 4% to US$256m. In the US, its net sales grew by 5% year-on-year to US$1.01bn and its operating EBITDA increased by 31% to US$156m. In northern Europe, net sales for the second quarter of 2015 fell by 21% to US$904m and its operating EBITDA fell by 8% year-on-year to US$111m. In the Mediterranean region its net sales fell by 9% to US$409m as its Operating EBITDA fell by 25% to US$75m. Cemex's net sales from operations in South, Central America and the Caribbean fell by 8% year-on-year to US$517m and its operating EBITDA fell by 10% to US$160m. In Asia, net sales grew by 11% year-on-year to US$177m and operating EBITDA was up by 34% year-on-year to US$45m.
"We are pleased with our results. Our controlling interest net income during the quarter was the highest in six years. In addition, our operating EBITDA grew by 13% on a like-fir-like basis. This is the third quarter with double-digit, like-for-like growth in EBITDA," said Fernando A Gonzalez, Cemex CEO.
Europe: In accordance with Article 20 of the Federal Act on Stock Exchanges and Securities Trading (Stock Exchange Act), LafargeHolcim Ltd was informed by Schweizerische Cement-Industrie-Gesellschaft (Thomas Schmidheiny), Groupe Bruxelles Lambert (Jacqueline Desmarais, André Desmarais, Paul Desmarais Jr, Albert Frère), Eurocement Holding AG (Filaret Galchev-Kaltsidis), NNS Jersey Trust (Nassef Sawiris), Dodge & Cox and Harbor Funds about their number of voting rights and of the registered share capital they hold in LafargeHolcim Ltd as of 15 July 2015. The data is as follows:
- Schweizerische Cement-Industrie-Gesellschaft (Thomas Schmidheiny): 11.872%;
- Groupe Bruxelles Lambert (Jacqueline Desmarais, André Desmarais, Paul Desmarais Jr, Albert Frère): 9.84%;
- Eurocement Holding AG (Filaret Galchev-Kaltsidis): 6.38%;
- NNS Jersey Trust (Nassef Sawiris): 4.97% (3.99% in reg. shares);
- Dodge & Cox: 3.41%;
- Harbor Funds: 1.8609%.