Displaying items by tag: Algeria

Algeria: Biskria Cement has started the kiln on its second new production line at its plant in Biskra. The 6000t/day line was supplied by China’s Sinoma. The Chinese plant builder announced the US$267m order in 2015. It included two production lines from raw materials to despatch. The cement producer operates three cement production lines at its plant with a production capacity of 4Mt/yr.

Algeria: Entreprise des Ciments et Dérivés d’El Chellif (ECDE) plans to open a new 2Mt/yr production line at its plant in Chlef in June 2018. The project covers an area of 15ha and has been presented as a new cement plant, according to the El Watan newspaper. Overall the new line will increase the plants production capacity to 4Mt/yr. The company plans to increase its exports to make a return on its investment.

Algeria: Groupe des Ciments d’Algérie’s (GICA) cement production rose by 11% year-on-year to 14Mt in 2017 from 12.6Mt in 2016. The cement producer beat its own forecast of 13.2Mt for the year, according to the L’Expression newspaper. Production rose in 2017 due to the opening of its Aïn El Kebira, Sétif cement plant in the first quarter. Local production capacity is forecast to reach 40.6Mt/yr by 2020 with 20Mt/yr supplied by GICA, 11.1Mt/yr supplied by LafargeHolcim and the remainder from other companies.

Switzerland: LafargeHolcim has appointed Caroline Luscombe as the group’s new Head of Organisation and Human Resources and member of the Executive Committee. Her role starts from 1 July 2016 and she will be based in Zurich. She succeeds Jean-Jacques Gauthier.

Luscombe joins LafargeHolcim from Syngenta where she has been Head of Human Resources since January 2010 and a member of the Executive Committee since 2012. Prior to joining Syngenta, Luscombe held senior human resource roles in the financial and healthcare businesses of the GE Group, and in the speciality chemical company, Laporte.

Having led the human resource integration between Lafarge and Holcim, Jean-Jacques Gauthier will be appointed as the Country Chief Executive Officer in Algeria from 1 September 2016. On taking up his new role, Jean-Jacques will relinquish his position on the Executive Committee.

Algeria has been steadily building up cement industry interest over the past few months. In late 2013 Lafarge opened its fourth world research laboratory in Algiers. Then this week South African producer PPC confirmed its intention to enter the local market with a new plant and German construction firm ThyssenKrupp announced an order to build a cement plant for Groupe Industriel des Ciments d'Algérie.

According to United States Geological Survey (USGS) data, Algeria saw its cement production more than double from 9Mt/yr in 2002 to 20Mt/yr in 2011. At present Global Cement Directory 2014 figures places the country's cement production capacity from 21Mt/yr with 30Mt/yr a reasonable estimate for 2017. Throw in similarly rising gross domestic product per capita, US$7500 in 2013, with infrastructure investments of US$286bn planned and Algeria appears to be a promising investment for the cement market.

Lafarge, which holds minority stakes in two cement plants in the country, reported that market demand was high in 2012. Its cement sales rose by 9% year-on-year in 2013. The other major foreign player, ASEC Cement, reported in its 2012 financial report that Algeria consumed 21Mt of cement in 2012 but that it had to import 3Mt that year. ASEC was planning to build a 3.16Mt/yr plant at Djelfa to plug that market gap. Yet news reports in early 2013 reveal that the project was paused due to financial issues at ASEC with the suggestion of a possible downgrade to a 1.5Mt/yr production capacity instead.

The decision by PPC to build in Algeria is the first big project by one of Africa's international sub-Saharan cement producers north of the Sahara. It steps away from PPC's expansion strategy so far of building projects out from South Africa. Hodna in Algeria is a long way from Johannesburg! It will also cause tension between PPC and whoever is supplying imported cement to Algeria, most likely indebted southern European producers. Both PPC and its Nigerian competitor Dangote are used to fighting foreign imports to their core markets. Data from the Algerian customs office show that the value of cement imports to Algeria in 2013 rose by 26% year-on-year to US$395m. That's a market worth fighting for.