Displaying items by tag: Votorantim Cimentos
Spain: Cementos Cosmos and the Cooperativa Apícola del Bierzo have installed 25 bee hives at the Corullón quarry, which supports the integrated Toral de los Vados plant in Leon. The collaboration agreement aims to promote the production of honey, propolis and pollen. The hives will be cared for by the Bierzo Beekeeping Cooperative and the adaptation and maintenance of the land where they will be located will be carried out by Cementos Cosmos. The cement company will also become the preferred customer for the production of the beehives located in the quarry. Following the signing of the agreement plant director Jaime Santoalla said, "we are convinced of the coexistence and synergies between our industry and other sectors of Bierzo, such as the agricultural-food sector.”
Brazil: Votorantim Cimentos’ consolidated net sales were US$6.41bn in 2020, up by 19% year-on-year from US$5.41bn in 2019. Its adjusted earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) also rose, by 35% to US$1.21bn from US$899m. The group attributed the growth to increased cement volumes sold in Brazil, Canada and the US. Total global cement sales increased by 8% to 32.4Mt. Net revenue grew in all regions, but the sharpest growth was reported in North America at 43% to US$945m.
Chief financial officer Osvaldo Ayres Filho said, “The past year has been extremely challenging due to the pandemic and its impacts across the planet. We have implemented a contingency plan to protect people's lives and preserve operations. This allowed us to respond with agility both in Brazil and in the other markets in which we have operations, ending the year with increased sales, cash generation growth and the lowest leverage in the past ten years.”
During the year, the group unified its joint-venture in Uruguay, with Cementos Molins, at a single site and merged its Canadian and US businesses under a new 83% owned subsidiary. It suspended its Pecém grinding plant expansion in Brazil due to the coronavirus pandemic and resumed it in September 2020. Completion of the project is scheduled for the first half of 2021. The producer also released its Sustainability Commitments for 2030 in November 2020.
Canada: St Marys Cement, part of Brazil-based Votoronatim Cimentos, has installed a US$19.9m wet scrubber at its Bowmanville cement plant in Ontario. The installation will reduce the plant’s sulphur dioxide (SO2) emissions by 90%. The producer says it is the first wet scrubber installed at a cement plant in Canada.
Operations Manager Jim Storey said “This investment in technology to improve the plant’s environmental performance has proven to be effective in removing SO2 produced in the cement manufacturing process. We are also pleased that the scrubber was assembled on-site and installed by local Ontario contractors and crews during our annual scheduled plant shutdown.”
Votorantim Cimentos to upgrade Corumbá cement plant
16 March 2021Brazil: Votorantim Cimentos has announced plans to upgrade cement production at its 0.2Mt/yr integrated Corumbá cement plant in Mato Grosso do Sul. The Correio de Corumbá newspaper has reported the value of the planned work as US$2.85m. The investment is intended to improve the plant’s grinding line, modernise an electrical substation system, make changes to its mining operations and generally focus on optimising energy consumption. It also plans to train employees and work on community outreach activities.
Turkey: Brazil-based Votorantim Cimentos has leased three ready-mixed concrete plants from Polat Beton. Dunya News has reported that the facilities are all located in Ankara, Sincan, Kayaş and Gölbaşı respectively.
Cementos Cosmos cleared of environmental crime charges
02 February 2021Spain: A regional court has ruled in favour of Cementos Cosmos in a case brought by local environmental group Bierzo Aire Limpio. The protestors alleged that the company had violated regulations at its Toral de los Vados cement plant in El Bierzo, León. The court ruled that the producer had acted correctly and in continuous communication with the administration.
Brazil: Votorantim Cimentos is testing using dissolvable cement bags in a pilot project with paper and bag manufacturer Klabin. Following development, the new bag type will be tested in a pilot project in the south of the country based around the Rio Branco do Sul cement plant in Paraná state. The bags can be dissolved directly in a mixer when making concrete to speed up the process.
Brazil: Votorantim Cimentos has built a new distribution centre in Campos Novos, Santa Catarina. When it opens in January 2021, the facility will supply a ‘complete portfolio for the civil construction market’ in Santa Catarina, Paraná and Rio Grande do Sul. It will receive goods from six cement and building materials plants in the company’s South Brazil region.
Regional commercial general manager Tony Noritake said, “We invested in this distribution centre to better meet customer demand in the South, expand our presence and optimise costs."
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16 December 2020Could the fairy tale of McInnis Cement have ended any other way? The saga of the frequently frozen cement plant in Quebec collided with reality this week when it emerged that the pension fund Caisse de depot et placement du Québec (CDPQ) and the provincial government are poised to let it go. The new buyer, Votorantim Cimentos, plans to form a new 83%-owned subsidiary based in Toronto to combine the assets of McInnis Cement and St Marys Cement. The proposed change in management marks a transition to a large multinational building materials producer.
Normally, Global Cement Weekly would end on a summary for its last outing of the year but the government involvement in the McInnis Cement’s ownership has created a very public tale of hope and hubris. Attempting to build a brand new integrated cement plant in rural Quebec might not seem exciting but this story has it all, from corporate competition to sustainability issues to clinker export markets. Readers looking for a global recap of 2020 should refer to the December 2020 issue of Global Cement Magazine with news and cement producer round-ups.
The McInnis story began in early 2014 when the Quebec provincial government announced that it would invest US$350m in a new 2.2Mt/yr cement plant and port facility to be operated by McInnis Cement at Port-Daniel. The project was championed by the Beaudoin-Bombardier family, which was to foot the larger share of the US$1bn total bill. Local press compared the gambit of entering a new market with established players as being similar to Bombardier's approach to its C Series airliner that was eventually bought out by Airbus: risky but potentially lucrative.
As the plan developed, competitors in both Canada and the US took exception to an export-focused cement plant being propped up by government money, political parties got involved over how public money was being spent and environmentalists became upset. The concerns of the latter were partially bypassed in order to get the project started. Then, when the cost over-ran by US$350m, the provincial government said it wasn’t spending any more and the CDPQ took over. The plant was inaugurated in September 2017 and the CDPQ started looking for a buyer or new investors at the start of 2018. It rowed back from this position in early 2019 when its chief executive officer told local press that the pension and insurance fund was ‘convinced’ of the potential of McInnis Cement. Votorantim was publicly linked to the company in September 2020 and the agreement followed this week.
It’s unknown how much Votorantim has paid to buy control of McInnis Cement but its presence in the Great Lakes region and the east coast will be augmented by this deal. Following the acquisition it will control two integrated plants and two grinding plants in the Midwest US, two integrated plants in Ontario, and now the McInnis integrated plant in Quebec. The combined integrated production capacity will rise to around 7Mt/yr. Things are looking up for the company with the Brazilian market recovering despite coronavirus and the US market holding steady so far in 2020.
The drama of McInnis Cement highlights the perils of state investment in heavy industry and the pitfalls of making a risky entry into a saturated market. The bit the Votorantim press release neglected to mention was the loss that the provincial government of Quebec is expected to make on its involvement with the cement plant. Instead it was left to Economy Minister Pierre Fitzgibbon to admit to journalists that the province is prepared to lose up to US$370m on the affair if it can’t recoup its costs after other creditors take their slices over the next decade or so. One consolation that was reported in the local press was that jobs and facilities at the McInnis plant would be supported until at least 2029. The story of the cement plant at Port-Daniel continues for now but it’s likely to be far less public as private companies take it into the unknown.
Global Cement Weekly will return on 6 January 2020
Votorantim Cimentos to merge McInnis Cement and St Mary’s Cement
11 December 2020Canada/US: Brazil-based Votorantim Cimentos says it has agreed to form a new 83%-owned subsidiary based in Toronto to combine the assets of McInnis Cement and St Mary’s Cement. Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ), the current owner of McInnis Cement, will hold a 17% stake in the joint-venture. The group says that it will manufacture, distribute and sell building materials in the companies’ existing regions in Canada and the US.
Votorantim Cimentos said, “The company believes this transaction will result in the creation of a competitive, nimble and highly efficient business that will be better able to supply cement to customers in Canada and the US. In addition to strengthening the company’s presence in North America by expanding its current cement production capacity by 2.2Mt/yr and combining the company’s Great Lakes-focused distribution network with McInnis Holding’s complementary distribution network in Eastern Canada and the Northeastern USA, the Company anticipates the Transaction will result in substantial synergies.”
The transaction is subject to approval by regulatory authorities in Brazil, the US and Canada.