23 August 2016
BASF opens admixtures plant in Sri Lanka 23 August 2016
Sri Lanka: BASF has opened its first production plant for admixtures at Sapugaskande near Colombo. The plant will produce standard and custom-made performance-based construction chemicals under the Master Builders Solutions brand. These include concrete admixtures product ranges such as MasterGlenium, MasterPolyheed, MasterRheobuild and MasterPozzolith. The site is supported by an office, warehouse and testing laboratory.
“Asia Pacific is one of the fastest growing markets globally and South Asia is a strategic growth engine of this market. With the new admixture plant in Colombo, we will now be able to rapidly supply our customers with admixtures for all cement and aggregate types, whether their construction projects are located in the capital or in remote areas,” said Himanshu Kapadia, Vice President, Market Management, Construction Chemicals Asia Pacific, BASF, at the inauguration of the new plant on 19 August 2016.
India: Reliance Infrastructure has completed the sale of its 100% shareholding in Reliance Cement to Birla Corporation, part of MP Birla Group. The US$715m deal, valued at US$140/t of cement production capacity, was announced in February 2016. The transaction has now completed following the transfer of shares and receipt of sale consideration. Proceeds of the sale will be used by Reliance Infrastructure to pay off its debts.
Anhui Conch focuses on overseas markets as profits fall 23 August 2016
China: Anhui Conch’s net profit has fallen by 29% year-on-year to US$506m in the first half of 2016 from US$710m in the same period in 2015. Its revenue fell slightly to US$3.61bn from US$3.65bn. It sold 128Mt of cement in the period, a rise of 11% year-on-year, but falling prices reduced its revenue. By region the sales were up overseas and in Central China but they fell in East China and South China. The group blamed the fall in profit on an economic downturn and intense market competition.
During the reporting period three clinker production lines at PT Conch South Kalimantan Cement, Myanmar Conch Cement and Yingjiang Yunhan Cement and seven cement-grinding units at Ganzhou Conch Cement and Guangxi Sihegongmao were put into operation. The group’s clinker and cement production capacities have increased by 4.6Mt/yr to 240Mt/yr and by 8.1Mt/yr to 300Mt/yr respectively. Four waste heat recovery systems have also been commissioned, adding 25.5MW capacity.
International projects in Indonesia and Myanmar have completed construction and started operation during the reporting period. The group’s Merak grinding mill project in Indonesia is continuing as scheduled with trial operation planned for the second half of 2016. Preliminary work on projects in Laos and Cambodia and research for future projects in Russia and Turkey is also continuing.
CNBM and Sinoma start merger preparations 23 August 2016
China: The Assets Supervision and Administration Commission has announced the reorganisation of the China National Building Materials Group Corporation (CNBM) and China National Materials Group Corporation (Sinoma). The commission did not provide further details on the merger.
CNBM is the world's major non-metal materials manufacturer, and cement equipment and engineering service provider, with total assets over US$64.5bn. Sinoma is also an industry leader in the construction materials industry. China has started accelerating the reorganisation of its SOEs to improve their competitiveness.