05 September 2022

Indonesia: Semen Indonesia Group has focused on the domestic cement market in the first half of 2022 due to the better availability of coal supplies. Its revenue fell by 2.1% year-on-year to US$1.07bn in the first half of 2022 from US$1.09bn in the same period in 2021. Its earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) remained stable at US$237m. Overall sales volumes of cement dropped by 12% to 17Mt from 19.3Mt. However, domestic sales volumes fell by 2.6% to 14Mt but overseas sales fell by 39% to 3Mt. The group also raised its prices twice in the reporting period to further shore up revenue.

India: Birla Corporation plans to increase its cement production capacity to 30Mt/yr in 2030 from 20Mt/yr at present. It made the proclamation in its annual report for the 2021 – 2022 financial year. Recent developments include the inauguration of its 3.9Mt/yr integrated plant at Mukutban in Maharashtra, run under its RCCPL subsidiary. It is the group’s fourth integrated plant and is reportedly the largest single cement production line in the state. The unit also includes a 40MW captive power plant.

Other developments include plans to expand the capacity of its Kundanganj grinding plant in Uttar Pradesh to 3Mt/yr from 2Mt/yr and a plan to build a new 1.2Mt/yr grinding plant at Gaya in Bihar. The group is also increasing production from its captive coal mines. Output from the Sial Ghoghri coal mine has been increased by 20% above its rated capacity to 30,000t/month. Development of the Bikram coal mine has been advanced and production is expected to start in mid-2023. Finally, the group is adding 8MW of solar power capacity at its Chanderia, Satna and Kundanganj plants in the current financial year and a 10.6MW waste heat recovery (WHR) unit is planned for the Mukutban plant.

Bangladesh: The high rate of the US Dollar against the Bangladeshi Taka is forcing local cement producers to raise their prices despite an increase in imports of volumes of raw materials. The country imported 5.12Mt of clinker, granulated slag, limestone, gypsum and fly ash in July and August 2022, a rise of 34% year-on-year, according to the Daily Star newspaper. Golam Kibria, the general manager of Premier Cement, said that the negative currency exchange effect was the main cause of local price rises for cement since the cost of raw materials on international markets had remained stable in recent months.

The country imported 36.1Mt/yr of raw materials for cement production in the 2021 – 2022 financial year. These materials mostly came from Thailand, Vietnam and China through ports in Chattogram and Mongla. This compares to imports of 16.8Mt in the 2017 – 2018 financial year.

China: Sichuan Yadong Cement’s plant in Sichuan has restarted production following a suspension of electricity to industrial users due to a heat wave. The local authorities stopped supplying industrial plants in late August 2022. The subsidiary of Taiwan-based Asia Cement Corporation also reduced staff levels at the plant to cope with the extreme weather event.

Australia: BGC has cancelled its latest attempt to sell the company, blaming the decision on labour shortages and supply chain disruption. It said it had received “very strong interest from a range of parties” but had made the decision based on poor market conditions, according to the West Australian newspaper. A shortage of skilled tradespersons in West Australia is negatively affecting the local home construction sector and reducing BGC’s value consequently. A second attempt to sell the company started in April 2022 with Macquarie Capital appointed to run the process. The company plans resume its sale in 2023 when market conditions have improved.

Mexico: Cooperativa la Cruz Azul’s Tula cement plant in Hidalgo has agreed with the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) that electricity supplies will restored no later than 7 September 2022. Federico Sarabia, cooperative chair and leader of a dissident group claiming to own the plant, said that the plant has made losses of over US$15m due to the outage, according to the El Sol de la Laguna newspaper. The electricity supply to the site was reportedly cut in mid-August 2022 at the request of Víctor Manuel Velázquez, the head of the board of directors of the group.

State police intervened during a confrontation between rival groups for control of the Tula cement plant in late July 2022. The plant is the sole remaining Cruz Azul unit still reportedly controlled by former company director Guillermo ‘Billy’ Álvarez and his associates. The rest of the company is under the command of Cruz Azul’s directors José Antonio Marín and Víctor Manuel Velázquez. This group started asserting legal control of the cooperative’s cement plants in Puebla and Aguascalientes from mid-2020.

Cameroon: The Minister of Trade, Luc-Magloire Mbarga Atangana, has announced cuts to the price cement. He attributed this to a substantial increase in the production capacity of Mira SA’s plant to 1.5Mt/yr from 0.5Mt/yr, according to the Cameroon Tribune newspaper. Prices of some products have reportedly fallen by up to 12%.