05 August 2015
Dangote opens Masaiti, Zambia cement plant 05 August 2015
Zambia: Nigeria's Dangote Cement opened its US$400m cement plant in Masaiti, Zambia on 4 August 2015, signalling its increasingly international ambitions as it plans new investments across Africa. The plant is expected to produce 1.5Mt/yr of cement per year once it is fully operational, creating at least 1000 direct jobs and 6000 indirectly.
"We hope to commission four other cement plants in Senegal, South Africa, Cameroon and Tanzania before the end of 2015," said Aiko Dangote, Dangote Group president. "We have decided to invest in 16 countries across the continent because we believe that Africa's future is linked to cement."
Asia Cement’s first half 2015 revenue down by 23% 05 August 2015
China: Asia Cement said that its profit attributable to owners for the first half of 2015 plunged by 97.4% year-on-year to US$1.59m in the first half of 2015. The decrease in net profit was attributed primarily to the fall in average cement sales price. Its revenue fell by 23.1% to US$484m and its gross profit margin on revenue dropped to 14% from 24% in the same period of 2014. No interim dividend will be distributed.
India: Orient Cement has reported a 20% year-on-year decline in its net profit to US$4.37m for the first quarter of its 2016 fiscal year, which ended 30 June 2015, on the back of fall in revenues. Total income from operations decreased by 8.69% to US$54.8m. However, its earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) margin was stable at 17%, mainly due to lower raw material and power and fuel expenses. Orient Cement also announced that it has appointed Swapan Dasgupta as additional director in the category of Independent Director.
Cement antitrust case ‘not conclusive’ 05 August 2015
Europe: The European Commission has decided to close an antitrust investigation opened in December 2010 against a number of European cement manufacturers including Cemex, Holcim and HeidelbergCement, according to Construction Europe.
Originally the cement companies were suspected by the EC of colluding with rivals to fix prices in Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Spain and the UK. The commission said that there had been indications suggesting possible import/export restrictions, market sharing, price co-ordination and information exchanges in the markets for cement and related products. It said that inspections had been carried out in November 2008 and September 2009 at the premises of companies in Germany, France, the UK, Belgium, the Netherlands, Italy, Luxembourg and Spain.
The EC has now said that the evidence obtained in its investigation 'was not sufficiently conclusive to confirm these initial concerns,' adding 'the commission will continue to monitor closely developments in the European cement markets.'
The alleged cartel was said to have colluded in market sharing and price fixing in the markets for cement and cement-based materials such as ready-mix concrete, clinker, aggregates, blast-furnace slag, granulated blast-furnace slag, ground granulated blast-furnace slag and fly ash.