18 October 2016
Italy: Italcementi will start temporary lay-offs for workers at its Scafa and Monselice cement plants when unemployment benefits end on 31 January 2017. The plans were announced at a meeting on 14 October 2016 following agreements signed in December 2015 at the Ministry of Labour by trade union representatives and Italcementi’s workers, according to the Il Sole 24 Ore newspaper. The cement producer has confirmed that the on-going reorganisation at its plants are related to poor market conditions and not the acquisition of Italcementi by HeidelbergCement.
Slovenia: LafargeHolcim will pay Euro270,000 in compensation to farmers in the Zasavje region, who claimed that pollution damaged their land. LafargeHolcim settled with the farmers before a long running court case ordered three other companies to pay up to Euro1.17m each, according to the Slovenian Press Agency. The farmers presented measurements showing permitted emissions had been exceeded by 10-fold or in some cases even 100-fold between 1991 and 2002, alongside evidence of declining yields and animal reproduction rates, as well as damage to orchards and forests. The other companies involved in the case were the Termoelektrarna Trbovlje (TET) thermal power plant, the Steklarna Hrastnik glassworks and the TKI chemicals factory.
Tajikistan starts to export cement to Uzbekistan in 2016 18 October 2016
Tajikistan: Tajikistan began to export cement to Uzbekistan in 2016, according to the Ministry of Industry of Tajikistan. 162,000t of cement were sent to the neighbouring country in the first nine months of the year. Cement has also been sold to Afghanistan. Previously Tajikistan exported cement only to Afghanistan and Kyrgyzstan with the majority going to the former. Cement production in Tajikistan has increased by 37% year-on-year to 1.51Mt in the first nine months of 2016.
Nigeria: A Federal High Court in Lagos has adjourned legal action by Dangote Cement against Ibeto Cement until 1 November 2016 pending a decision of the Court of Appeal. Dangote Cement is alleging that Ibeto Cement evaded paying taxes on imports of cement to give itself a ‘unfair’ advantage in 2008, 2009 and 2010, according to the National Mirror Newspaper. It is also seeking an injunction against the Ibeto Cement and other defendants in the case from importing cement into the country unless approved by the appropriate authority under the current tax rules.
However, the Federal Government is alleging that Dangote Cement is attempting to minimise its competition. Other defendants in the case also include: IBG Investments Limited, Derima Venture Limited, the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Attorney General of the Federation, Federal Ministry of Finance, the Federal Ministry of Trade and Investment, the Board of Customs and Excise, the Federal Inland Revenue Services and the Nigerian Port Authority.
India: UltraTech’s net profit has risen by 27% year-on-year to US$209m for the first half of its 2017 financial year from US$164m in the same period of the previous year. Its sales revenue grew slightly by 1% to US$2.08bn from US$2.06bn. However, its sales revenue fell by 13% year-on-year to US$967m for the quarter that ended on 30 September 2016 from US$1.11bn.
In a results presentation the cement producer said that the industry had been hit by low cement demand, low capacity utilisation rates and rising operating costs, including petcoke prices in the latest quarter. It added that its capacity utilisation had fallen by 6% to 70% in the first half of its financial year from 76% a year earlier as its production capacity grew to 66.25Mt/yr from 63.05Mt/yr. Its sales volumes grew by 4% to 24.4Mt from 23.5Mt, with a particular boost in exports.