Displaying items by tag: Australia

Australia: A South Australian court has found former Adbri (formerly called Adelaide Brighton) accounts manager Glenda Burgess guilty of nine counts of deception and nine counts of dishonest dealing between 2009 and 2017. The Australian Broadcasting Corporation has reported that Burgess increased AdBri’s customer Concrete Supply’s credit limits, concealed its debts and created ‘large’ manual entries in her employer’s accounts to benefit it. The company only paid around US$14.5m for cement worth US$23m during the period under investigation. However, the prosecution said that Concrete Supply was not complicit in the alleged crime. Sentencing for the case is due to take place later in 2021.

Australia: Adbri’s first-half sales in 2021 were US$545m, up by 7% year-on-year from US$508m in the first half of 2020. The group’s cement and clinker volumes increased by 11%. It said that this was due to a rise in demand in the eastern states of Australia and the recommencement of regular supply to a customer in South Australia. The group increased its earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) to US$64.0m, up by 81% from US$35.3m. Its net profit increased by 95% to US$41.1m from US$21.1m.

CEO Nick Miller said “Adbri delivered a robust first half financial performance for 2021 recording solid growth in revenue and profits with improving margins as demand for construction materials rebounded, supported by increased residential housing activity and infrastructure spending.” He added that full-year 2021 earnings would increase less sharply year-on-year than first-half earnings have, due partly to the anticipated impacts of the opening of a rival cement terminal in New South Wales in the second half of the year.

Australia: James Hardie has raised its full-year earnings forecast for the 2022 financial year to US$550-590m from US$520-570m. The decision follows a year-on-year increase in consolidated sales of 35%, to US$843m from US$624m.

Australia: Sumitomo Osaka Cement has started operating a cement terminal at Port Kembla in New South Wales. The Japan-based cement producer owns a 30% share in the company running the unit, which operates as Falcon CP. The terminal has a silo capacity of 36,000t. Sumitomo Osaka Cement says it plans to use the terminal as a means to increase its activity in the local market. It runs its regional headquarters in Sydney trading as SOC Oceania.

Australia/UK: InterGroup Mining has secured just under Euro60m from Luxembourg-based investment group GEM Global Yield as part of a share subscription facility. The Australia-based mining company says it will use the funds primarily for the ongoing development and commercialisation of its Brilliant Brumby kaolin and gold project in Queensland. The company hopes to sell the kaolin for use in cement and concrete production or as a feedstock for high purity alumina (HPA). It says it will be able to drawdown the funds over a 36-month term following a public listing of its common stock.

Neil Miller, the chairman of InterGroup said, “The GEM facility provides a major accelerator for InterGroup as we continue to prove up the scale of our Brilliant Brumby project and the optimal development path for the co-mining opportunity of kaolin and gold. It likewise enables us to continue our important research and development work into the new carbon reduction markets of potential scale that our minerals serve and which complement their existing known end markets.” InterGroup is currently working towards a potential stock market flotation in the second half of 2021.

Australia: Ryan Stokes has been appointed as the chairman of Boral. The appointment follows Seven Group’s acquisition of a majority shareholding in Boral in late July 2021. Kathryn Fagg, the former chair, has retired from Boral. Richard Richards, a Seven Group nomination, has also been appointed as a director. Stokes is the managing director and chief executive officer of Seven Group, an Australian-based conglomerate that operates in the industrial services, oil and gas and media sectors.

Australia: James Hardie Industries has published its 2021 Sustainability Report, entitled Building Sustainable Communities. The report outlines the group’s sustainable future, commitments and progress to date in four key areas, namely Communities, Environment, Innovation and Zero Harm. The framework uses measurable goals, such as a 40% greenhouse gas reduction between 2019 and 2030, a 5% increase in gender diversity in management positions between 2020 and 2024 and an increase in the proportion of revenues covered by environmental product declarations to 80% from 26% in the 2021 financial year. Formalised in the 2021 financial year, the sustainability strategy is integrated with James Hardie’s global strategy for value creation and operational performance.

Chief executive officer Jack Truong said “Our commitment to building better, more sustainable communities starts by building better homes, with the homebuilding materials of the future.” He added “Our commitment to a sustainable future extends to our James Hardie community, the local communities in which we operate and across the largest shared community of all, our global ecosystem. At James Hardie, we are transforming the way the world builds by offering better, safer and more sustainable products.”

Australia: AdBri has awarded a gas sales agreement with Senex Energy to supply up to 11PJ of natural gas to support its manufacturing operations in the south of the country to 2030. Supply will start in January 2023. The long-term, contract sets prices ‘in line with current market levels.’ Adbri chief executive officer Nick Miller said that he was ‘pleased to execute this long-term agreement,’ which gives certainty to both parties moving forward.

Adbri committed to net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 in late May 2021.

Australia: Seven Group has increased its stake in Boral to 52% via a 3% equity swap with Macquarie. the company now has effective control of the building materials producer although it assured Boral that it would retain a majority of independent directors, according to the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper. However, Boral has continued to urge its shareholders to resist the ongoing offer by Seven Group to buy their shares. The takeover bid has been valued at around US$6.5bn. Boral is currently in the process of selling its US fly ash business.

Australia: Fortescue Metals Group subsidiary Fortescue Future Industries has announced plans to enter green cement production. The company plans to make use of waste from green iron ore processing and ‘other easily-sourced materials’ in production.

Chief executive officer Elizabeth Gaines said “At Fortescue, we are leading the heavy industry battle against global warming, transitioning from being a major fossil fuel importer to a significant green and renewable energy and product exporter.” The group is targeting net-zero CO₂ emissions by 2030.