15 February 2023

India: Grasim Industries, a subsidiary of Aditya Birla Group, has posted a 44% year-on-year rise in its consolidated net profit to US$303m for the third quarter of the 2023 Indian fiscal year, a period that ended on 31 December 2022.

During the quarter under review, the company’s consolidated revenue rose by 17% to US$3.45bn. Grasim Industries said that the growth in revenue was driven by strong performances by its subsidiaries UltraTech Cement and Aditya Birla Capital. UltraTech Cement’s sales for the quarter rise by 12% year-on-year to 26Mt. This led to an increase in capacity utilisation rate from 75% to 83%.

France: Vicat’s full year results for 2022 show a 16.6% year-on-year rise in consolidated sales, from Euro3.12bn to Euro3.12bn. Its earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBIDTA) came to Euro570m, a 7.9% fall compared to Euro619m in 2021. Its net income for 2022 was Euro156m, a fall of 23.6% year-on-year from Euro204m in 2021.

Commenting on these figures, Guy Sidos, the Group’s chair and chief executive officer, said “In 2022, the Vicat Group demonstrated resilience amid tough conditions. Faced with an unfavourable basis of comparison as a result of the sharp post-Covid rebound in business trends during 2021, a very strong increase in energy costs and non-recurring industrial costs in the US, France and India, we responded rapidly, raising our selling prices significantly across almost all the markets in which we operate to offset the impact of inflation. We have made progress with our policy of lowering our greenhouse gas emissions by harnessing existing solutions and investing in technologies that will enable us to reach our new 2030 targets.”

Australia: Rampant inflation, restructuring costs and a softening US housing market have been blamed for a third earnings downgrade at building materials group James Hardie. The company’s new chief executive officer Aaron Erter has also warned of ongoing challenges for the business in Australia, where the housing boom is grinding to a halt in the face of surging interest rates and the end of the federal government’s HomeBuilder stimulus.

James Hardie reported an adjusted net income of US$129.2m in the three months to December 2022, down by 16% year-on-year from the same quarter of 2021. Global net sales of its fibre cement and cladding products were down 4% during the quarter, at US$860.8m, driven down by falling sales volumes in its largest market in the US, as well as in Europe and the Asia-Pacific region.

More widely, price increases partially offset an 11% decline in global sales volumes across James Hardie’s entire range of business lines. The challenging conditions led to full-year earnings guidance for the 12 months to 31 March 2023 being cut for a third time, to US$600 - 620m, in line with the prior fiscal year.

Peru: Cementos Pacasmayo’s revenue rose by 1.7% year-on-year in the fourth quarter of 2022, mainly on the back of higher bagged cement sales prices, although inflation affected raw material and energy costs. However, its sales volume of cement, ready-mix concrete and pre-cast elements fell by 7.7% partly due to high sales in the comparable quarter of 2021, although road blockages as part of political disruption in December 2022 also reduced sales. Its net profit for the quarter was US$10.1m, a 24.6% rise.

Across the whole of 2022, the company’s revenues were up by 9.2% year-on-year, while sales of cement, concrete and pre-cast elements rose by 5.3%. Consolidated earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) rose by 8.8% to US$128m, mainly due to performances in the first nine months of the year. It made a net profit of US$45.8m, an increase of 15.4%.

India: Adani Group is in talks with lenders to repay a US$500m bridging loan facility it used to buy controlling stakes in ACC and Ambuja Cements in 2022. Adani is looking to repay the loan with cash during February 2023, according to the Economic Times. The loan was underwritten by Barclays, Deutsche Bank and Standard Chartered. The financial consortium lending to Adani also includes DBS, MUFG, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp, First Abu Dhabi Bank, Intesa and Mizuho.

The Economic Times’ report comes a day after the group said its companies face no material refinancing risk or near-term liquidity issues, in its latest attempt to calm investors spooked by Hindenburg Research’s critical report on its business practices.

Pakistan: Balochistan's local government minister has called for the cancellation of the allotment of a large area of land to a cement plant in Hub, adding that he would take the matter to court. Mohammad Saleh Bhootani said the Mines and Minerals Development Department had allotted 18,200 hectares of land that he says belonged to the people of Hub and Lasbela districts.

The allotted land comprises mountains, agriculture lands, hundreds of villages, farms and graveyards, he said, arguing that there was no justification for allotting such a vast area to a cement plant. Bhootani warned locals that fences would soon be erected around the site, forcing those that live there out of their homes. He urged Chief Minister Abdul Qudoos Bizenjo to “show mercy on the poor people of the area and cancel the allotment.” The minister said that if the allotment was not cancelled, he and the people of the area would take legal action.

The parliamentary leader of the Balochistan National Party-Mengal, Naseer Ahmed Shahwani, condemned the allotment and demanded the government withdraw its decision. 'If such practices continue, what will be the future of Balochistan?' he wondered.

Kenya: Holcim has announced the successful completion of the largest 3D-printed affordable housing to date through 14Trees, its joint venture with British International Investment, the UK’s Development Finance Institution (DFI) and impact investor. The 3D printing of the 10 housing units in Kenya’s Mvule Gardens project was made possible with TectorPrint, Holcim’s 3D printing ink product, produced in Kenya for the first time. The project’s advanced sustainability profile has attained an EDGE Advanced sustainable design certification by IFC, the World Bank's development finance institution, which recognises resource-efficient buildings with the potential to be zero-carbon. It is the first time a 3D-printed housing project has attained this certification.

François Perrot, managing director of 14Trees, said “With 3D printing, you can solve two problems at once. You can build faster and with better cost efficiency, which will help make affordable housing a reality for the majority. In addition, you can build with less materials, which preserves the resources of the planet for future generations.”

Miljan Gutovic, Region Head for Europe at Holcim, added “I am very proud of the work done by 14Trees in Africa, where their innovations in 3D printing technology are accelerating affordable and sustainable building. I look forward to 14Trees replicating these successes in Europe and other parts of Africa in the very near future.”

Nigeria: Lafarge Africa has won different awards for its contributions and achievements in sustainability and environmental performance as well as its commitment towards gender inclusion and diversity in the workplace in 2022. These are: the Award for Sustainability Reporting at the 2022 NGX Made of Africa Awards; the Eco-friendly Cement Manufacturing Company of the Year Award at the Environmental Sustainability Conference, Expo, and Awards 2022 (ECOSEA); Environmental Sustainability Professional of the Year for Titilope Oguntuge, the company’s head for Sustainability & Corporate Branding, also at ECOSEA 2022 and; Most Outstanding Company in Gender Inclusion’ (Extractive Industry) at the Women in Marketing Communications Award (WIMCA) 2022.

Organisation and Human Resources director, Gbemiga Owolabi said “At Lafarge, we put people at the heart of everything we do, from promoting diversity in our teams to thriving with our communities, and this was evident in our results. We achieved a 47% representation on our board in 2022 which is a significant increase from 45.5% in 2021 and 40% in 2020.”

Argentina: Cement shipments reached 0.96Mt in January 2023, while exports totalled 7403t, a joint increase of 8.9% year-on-year and an increase of 3.0% compared to December 2022. No imports were registered.

Uzbekistan: Cement sales via the Uzbek Commodity Exchange fell by 24% year-on-year to 6.9Mt in 2022. Monthly sales hit a high of 0.82Mt in June 2022, according to Uzbekistan Newsline. Qizilqumcement retained a 40% share of sales but Akhangarancement’s share fell to 19% from 22% previously and Almalyk MMC’s share dropped to 12% from 23%.

By region Tashkent and the Tashkent region held a 25% market share, the Surkhandarya region a 13% share, the Bukhara region a 12% share, the Navoi and Kashkadarya regions a 10% share and the Samarkand and Jizzakh regions held a 8% share each. Data released by the national Agency of Statistics revealed that overall ordinary Portland cement (OPC) production fell by 3% to 11.4Mt in 2022 from 11.8Mt in 2021.