Displaying items by tag: Heidelberg
Germany: HeidelbergCement (HC) has released its financial results for the first quarter of 2012, which show a mixed overall performance. Group revenue improved by 8% to Euro2.8bn, with a 5% increase in cement sales volumes despite colder winter weather in mainland Europe.
HC reported strong growth in its North American operation, where it described the early signs of an economic recovery that had been helped by a relatively warm winter. It also highlighted strong developments and further potential in Asia, especially in Indonesia.
The group's operating income before depreciation (OIBD) decreased by 16% to Euro214m, adversely impacted by increased energy, freight and maintenance costs. It partly recovered some of its margin by the implementation of price increases.
The company reported that its three-year FOX 2013 programme for financial and operational excellence led to an improvement in cash flow of Euro39m in the first quarter of 2012. The company says that it is well on track to achieving the targeted improvement of Euro850m over three years, saving Euro384m in 2011 alone.
"The development of demand in the first quarter confirmed our outlook for the 2012 financial year," said Dr Bernd Scheifele, chairman of HC's board. "In view of high energy costs, we will unabatedly continue our efforts to reduce costs and improve efficiency under the FOX 2013 programme and increase prices in our markets in a consistent way."
"Deleveraging remains the highest priority for us in order to regain our investment grade rating," continued Scheifele. "Thanks to our advantageous geographical positioning in attractive markets in both emerging and industrialised countries... HeidelbergCement is excellently positioned to benefit over-proportionally from the continued economic growth."
Ukraine: HeidelbergCement incurred losses of Euro6.7m in the first quarter of 2012, according to a company report. The loss is nearly three times the amount that the company lost in the whole of 2011, when it lost Euro2.3m. HeidelbergCement Ukraine reported a net revenue of Euro14.2m for the first quarter of 2012.
US: Henrik Wesseling, the plant manager at the Lehigh Cement Permanente Plant in Cupertino, California, is returning to Germany. Lehigh Cement announced that Wesseling will be leading the global fuel optimisation strategy for its parent company HeidelbergCement. His last day at the Lehigh facility will be on 26 April 2012.
Wesseling took on the plant manager role at Permanente in 2008. In his time there, he worked toward helping the company install emission-reducing technology to meet new environmental regulations. Over the past two years, he led an initiative to install an activated carbon injection system that aims to reduce mercury emissions by more than 90%.
"Henrik has performed admirably as plant manager and I commend him for all he has achieved," Kari Saragusa, Lehigh Western Regional President, said in a statement. Axel Conrads, Lehigh's region west vice president of cement operations, will lead plant operations on an interim basis while a new plant manager is sought. A new plant manager is expected to be in place within the coming months.
Bangladesh: HeidelbergCement officially inaugurated a new cement mill at its plant in the seaport of Chittagong on 12 January 2012. The ball mill, which cost approximately US$16m to construct, has a grinding capacity of about 0.8Mt/yr. Test runs of the new mill were conducted successfully at the end of 2011 and production started in the first week of January 2012.
"We are very pleased that we are able to officially inaugurate our state-of-the-art cement mill today," said Dr Bernd Scheifele, Chairman of the Managing Board at HeidelbergCement. "Bangladesh is an interesting market for HeidelbergCement. We expect the need for high quality cement to increase significantly in the coming years, especially due to new government infrastructure projects. With the new mill we are very well prepared for this growth in demand. The investment in Bangladesh is part of our long-term strategy to expand our cement capacities in attractive emerging markets by brownfield or greenfield projects."
The IMF forecasts a GDP growth of 6.1% for Bangladesh in 2012. The country currently has one of the lowest per capita cement consumption ratios in the world, but it is also one of the fastest growing markets.
US: The German cement maker HeidelbergCement has said that it will not place a counter bid for US competitor Vulcan after US Martin Marietta offered US$4.8bn for Vulcan.
HeidelbergCement's CEO Bernd Scheifele said that HeidelbergCement would wait until the deal was closed and then see if any assets are put up for sale. He said that he does not expect any big consolidation moves in the industry in the short term, because companies are currently preoccupied with reducing their debts.
Scheifele stuck to the company's forecast to book US$15.3bn in revenue and US$1.82bn in operating profit in 2011, both above 2010's figures.
UK: Hanson UK has announced that it is preparing for a 'tough' 2012. Jon Morrish, managing director, said "We informed employees two weeks ago that we were carrying out a detailed review of the cement business to prepare us for what we expect to be a very tough market in 2012 and beyond."
Morrish's comments arose is the wake of rumours that jobs may be cut at the company's Castle Cement plant in Lancashire. The site currently meets 25% of the UK demand for cement and employs around 300 people. Hanson, a subsidiary of the HeidelbergCement Group, currently runs three plants in the UK including plants in Lincolnshire and Wales, with a workforce of over 1000.
Morrish added, "This review, which includes an assessment of recent changes to the European carbon trading rules, encompasses all three of our cement plants and covers all functions from production and sales to technical and distribution. The three plants are all vitally important to the long term future of the business and there is no intention to close any of them."
"However, it is likely that production levels will change, which will have an impact on jobs. We plan to table outline proposals to employee representatives and recognised trade unions early next week and begin a proper and effective consultation process."
India: Heidelberg and major Indian cement companies including UltraTech and Reliance Cements have shown interest as joint venture partners in state-run Rashtriya Ispat Nigam's (RINL) proposed USD204m cement plant at Vizag, in Andhra Pradesh.
"We are looking for a partner to set up a 3Mt/yr plant at Vizag. Heidelberg, Ultratech and Reliance Cements have shown interests to be our joint venture partner," RINL Chairman and Managing Director A P Choudhary said. Zuari Cements, Bhavya Cements, JP Cements and Binani Cements have also shown interests in the joint venture.
"The finalisation of the partner will not take more than 2-3 months from now. We will be able to establish the joint venture before the end of the current fiscal year," Choudhary said.
Asked how much of a stake the steel-maker would offer to its partner, Choudhary said that no decision has been taken yet. However RINL is willing to give up to 74% to the partner since cement making is not its core business. The proposed venture will use fly ash and slag generated from RINL's Vizag plant, where the capacity will shortly be increased from 3Mt/yr to 6.4Mt/yr.
Around USD204m in investment will be required to set up the cement plant, Choudhary said, adding that the cost would be borne by the two firms according to the shareholding pattern. Production at the plant is likely to commence two years from the start of construction.
Indonesia: HeidelbergCement plans to invest USD500m in a plant on Indonesia's Java island, Indonesia's trade minister Gita Wirjawan announced on 19 October 2011.
Indonesia's cement sales, an indicator of economic growth in Southeast Asia's largest economy, rose 52% in September 2011 year-on-year due to increasing property and infrastructure building.
Cement sales volumes reached 3.8Mt, from 2.5Mt in September 2010 according to Urip Trimuryono, chairman of the Indonesian Cement Association. Sales in August 2011 had dipped 0.3% year-on-year, due to slower activity during the Ramadan and Eid al-Fitr holiday. Trimuryono forecast full year 2011 cement sales would grow 14%, with growth moderating next year to 10%.
Romania: Cement production in Romania were up by 8.1% year-on-year in the first half of 2011 to 3.18Mt. Domestic cement sales increased by 2.4% to 2.95Mt according to data released by the Romanian Association of Cement Producers (CIROM). Romania's cement market is dominated by the local units of Lafarge, Holcim and HeidelbergCement.
Germany: HeidelbergCement (HC) has published its 2009-2010 Group Sustainability Report, which contains externally audited parameters for the first time. One of these independently verified parameters was HC's overall alternative fuels rate, which reached more than 20%.
The new report contains key performance indicators from HC's cement businesses that concern occupational health and safety and environmental protection that have been subjected to an independent review. In doing so, the company increases data quality and likewise complies with the obligations of the Cement Sustainability Initiative of the WBCSD (World Business Council for Sustainable Development).
"Sustainability is a management responsibility and part of our corporate strategy," said Dr Bernd Scheifele, Chairman of the Managing Board of HeidelbergCement. "By means of continuous reporting on our progress we aim at making our business activities transparent and binding so that all of our stakeholders can clearly see and understand the way in which we operate."
