Displaying items by tag: ACC

India: Ambuja Cements’ profit in the first three months of 2020 was US$52.4m, down by 6.5% year-on-year from US$56.2m in the corresponding period of 2019. Sales were US$3.72bn, down by 3.4% from US$3,86bn. The company said the shutdown of all plants in March 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic ‘impacted operations.’ It added, “Taking into account directives from the government, operations at a few plants have commenced in a phased manner since 20 April 2020.’

Ambuja has said that together with ACC it has donated US$434,000 to non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to provide food and ration kits to vulnerable people affected by the coronavirus outbreak. LafargeHolcim CEO India and Ambuja Cements managing director and CEO Neeraj Akhouray said, “Collaborative models are more effective in both containment of the disease as well as support for those whose livelihood and even survival is at risk. We believe that our contributions to these NGOs that are delivering grass-roots relief measures, coupled with our own companies’ efforts on ground working with local communities, will greatly accelerate the scale and impact we will have.”

India: The impact of the coronavirus pandemic was visible in the financial performance of ACC, one of LafargeHolcim’s major Indian subsidiaries, during the three months to 31 March 2020. For the quarter, the company’s consolidated net profit fell by 6.6% on a year-on-year basis to US$42.1m, while net sales declined by 11% to US$448m on the back of a steep fall in volumes, which came to 6.6Mt, 12% lower year-on-year. ACC’s ready mix concrete (RMC) volumes remained stable at 930,000t.

The pandemic mainly impacted sales volumes in March 2020, whereas January and February 2020 saw healthy growth in both cement and RMC sales. ACC said that this was due to a focus on premium products, increase in value-added solutions in its ready mix business, cost reductions on the manufacturing side and logistics-derived savings. Input cost of raw materials were lower on account of material source mix optimisation and supply chain efficiencies. Consequently, the company’s earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) for the first quarter increased by 10% year-on-year to US$76.4m.

Sridhar Balakrishnan, ACC’s managing director and chief executive officer (CEO), said, “We believe that with a high probability of a normal monsoon season, growth in the rural economy will revive and stay strong. We expect cement demand to increase in the medium term once the pandemic subsides and business operations commence”.

India: Operations of industrial units in rural areas are clear to resume as of 20 April 2020, subject to local permissions and social distancing rules. Dion News Service has reported that JK Lakshmi Cement has resumed operations at two grinding units in Gujarat, JK Cement has resumed reduced operations at its 3.0Mt/yr integrated Muddapur plant in Karnataka and UltraTech has resumed operations ‘at some of the company’s locations.’ Ambuja Cements, ACC, ICC and India Cements all announced plans to return to full capacity utilisation in phases.

As part of phase two of India’s coronavirus lockdown, public spaces remain closed and public transport is suspended until 3 May 2020.

India: ACC Cement has awarded an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract for work on its upcoming 1.0Mt/yr integrated Ametha plant in Kathnl, Madhya Pradesh to Larsen & Toubro. The Press Trust of India has reported that the 9500t/day cement plant will have a clinker capacity of 3.0Mt/yr. The value of the contract is reportedly US$131m.

India: KHD’s subsidiaries Humboldt Wedag India and Humboldt Wedag have signed a deal with LafargeHolcim’s subsidiary ACC to build a new raw meal grinding unit and a pyroprocessing line for an existing cement plant. The contracts also include the supply and installation of the electrical and instrumentation package for the entire cement plant. The entire contract package is worth over Euro35m.

India: ACC Limited has announced that it will open a 2.5Mt/yr integrated cement plant with ‘state-of-the-art pollution control technology,’ along with a 25MW coal-fired power plant that will serve the plant in addition to an existing 15MW coal-fired power plant on the site in Chandrapur, Maharashtra. The opening in March 2020 will follow the expiry of a period of respite for continued operation of ACC’s 0.9Mt/yr integrated Cement Nagar plant on the same site.

The Times of India has reported that the plant, the company’s oldest, first shut on 30 November 2010 due to repeat violation of pollution standards, and was permitted to reopen in January 2011 up until 28 February 2020, subject to its adherence to strict conditions imposed by the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (PCB). The company says that it is investigating the use of cladding in the old power plant to bring noise pollution down to 55dB.

India: Lafarge Holcim-owned Ambuja Cement’s consolidated net profit almost halved to US$100.4m during the three months to 31 December 2019, from US$191.4m in the three months to 31 December 2018. The 2018 result was boosted by a one off benefit of US$121.5m, meaning that underlying operating profit has improved year-on-year. Ambuja’s revenue from operations was up by 6% to US$992m from US$936m.

India: LafargeHolcim subsidiary Ambuja Cement has grown its consolidated net profit by 35% year-on-year to US$73.4m in the three months to 30 September 2019 from US$55.9m in the corresponding period of 2018. Revenue grew by 1.5% to US$0.87bn from US$0.86bn. Ambuja managing director and CEO Bimlendra Jha spoke in positive terms of the growth in spite of falling volumes. Expenses fell amidst logistics improvements, as Ambuja continues to focus on product mix enrichment, alternative fuel substitution and the increased use of renewable energy.

Other Indian cement companies to weather stagnant third quarter sales with growing net profit were Shree Cement with 414% growth to US$43.6m and ACC with 45% growth to US$29.5m.

India: ACC’s net sales grew by 8% year-on-year to US$1.15bn in the first half of 2019 from US$1.06bn in the same period in 2018. Its operating earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) increased by 18% to US$191m from US$162m. Its cement sales volumes rose by 2% to 14.7Mt from 14.4Mt and its ready-mixed concrete (RMX) sales volumes jumped by 15% to 1.79Mm3 from 1.56Mm3.

“I am pleased that EBITDA improved significantly on account of better realisations, operational efficiencies and supply chain efficiency improvement. Despite subdued cement demand, our strong customer relationships, loyal channel network and range of innovative products have helped us deliver a robust quarter,” said Neeraj Akhoury, the managing director and chief executive officer (CEO) of ACC. He added that the company’s concrete business grew ‘strongly’ due to eight new RMX plants it added in the second quarter. Altogether the company operates 82 operational.

India: Ambuja Cement is looking for ready-mix concrete (RMX) and aggregate assets to buy as part of its growth plans. A company source quoted by the Business Standard newspaper said that it was considering ‘growth options’ in all of its core businesses of cement, RMX and aggregates. Industry analysts have interpreted this as an effort to diversify the business away from dominance by the cement sector. However, expansion in the RMX market is expected to be difficult owing to the lack of local organisation in the market.

The subsidiary of LafargeHolcim has a cement production capacity of 63Mt/yr, including those of ACC. Both Ambuja Cement and ACC use a master supply agreement to coordinate sales, marketing and logistics.