Displaying items by tag: Australia

Australia: Adelaide Brighton has extended its lease over its Sellicks Hill quarry in South Australia until 2090. The Advertiser newspaper has reported that the signing of the lease, which secures the company’s local supply of limestone, “coincides with a rise in local cement consumption due to the government’s South Australia HomeBuilder building and renovation subsidy scheme,” according to the company. In August 2020 Adelaide Brighton signed supply contracts with BHP and OZ Minerals for infrastructure projects in the state.

Australia: Adelaide Brighton has recorded a net profit of US$21.1m in the first half of 2020, compared to a US$13.0m loss in the first half of 2019. Revenues fell by 7.3% to US$508m from US$548m due to a 12% construction decline over the period, according to the company. Residential construction fell by 16%, however mining and infrastructure activity remained consistent with levels in the first half of 2019. Adelaide Brighton said, “Cement demand is likely to continue to benefit from a strong production outlook for gold, nickel, and iron ore in particular, and stable demand from the alumina sector.”

Australia: The SmartCrete Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) has appointed Warren South as its chief executive officer (CEO). He will join the cement and concrete research organisation in mid-September 2020 and lead the consolidation of its central services function, initially supporting the ‘Fast Start’ and Round 1 research projects. South joins the SmartCrete CRC following nine years as Director – Research and Technical Services with Cement Concrete and Aggregates Australia (CCAA).

Australia: James Hardie’s operating profit in the three-month period ended 30 June 2020 was US$89.3m, down by 1% year-on-year from US$90.2m in the corresponding period of 2019. Earnings before interest and taxation (EBIT) were US$125m, consistent with the corresponding quarter of the previous fiscal year.

Chief executive officer (CEO) Jack Truong said, “In February 2019 we launched a global strategy to transform James Hardie from a big small company to a small big company capable of delivering growth above market with strong returns, consistently. This is our fifth consecutive quarter of delivering strong results in line with the core goal of that strategy: growth above market and strong returns. I am very pleased to note that not only do we remain on track with our transformation, but we are also accelerating our transformation during the coronavirus pandemic.”

Australia: Adelaide Brighton says its sites in Victoria can continue to operate during coronavirus-related lockdown measures that have been implemented until mid-September 2020. It said it would work with its customers, “to assess their requirements for construction materials and modify production levels in response to demand.” The company operates a jointly-owned cement grinding plant in Melbourne as well as concrete and aggregate units in the state.

Australia: US-based bauxite, alumina and aluminium producer Alcoa has said that it will not renew its US$48.5m/yr lime supply contract with Adelaide Brighton subsidiary Cockburn Cement following its expiry at the end of June 2020. Business News Western Australia has reported that the end of the 50-year contract puts between 40 and 50 jobs at risk at Cockburn Cement.

Adelaide Brighton chief executive officer (CEO) Nick Miller said, “We are disappointed with Alcoa's decision to displace a locally-manufactured product with imports from multiple sources. We will work quickly to mitigate the impact on local jobs supporting our lime business and we remain committed to supplying our Western Australia resources sector customers.”

Australia: James Hardie has revised its guidance for the quarter ending 30 June 2020, the fourth quarter of the Australian fiscal year 2020, following “improved housing market activity, particularly in North America.” Australian Associated Press – Financial News has reported that James Hardie has revised its North American fibre cement boards volumes growth estimate to 1% year-on-year from a 3% drop previously. It expects Australian volumes to remain constant year-on-year, as previously predicted, and European volumes in the quarter to fall by 13%, rather than by 16%.

Exports are the theme this week with news that the value of Turkey’s cement exports fell by 26% year-on-year in April 2020. Reporting from the Trend News Agency showed that the export market has been stable so far for the year to date, with some countries, like Kazakhstan, increasing exports and others, like France, decreasing exports. However the change in April may mark the start of a new trend.

As Tamer Saka, the chairman of the Turkish Cement Manufacturers’ Association (TÇMB), said earlier in the year, his country is one of biggest cement exporters in the world and among its most important markets are the US, Israel, Ghana and Ivory Coast. To look at one of these countries, United States Geology Survey (USGS) data shows that cement and clinker imports from Turkey to the US grew by 26% year-on-year to 1Mt for the first quarter of 2020 but that exports fell by 24% year-on-year to 0.11Mt in March 2020. Each of these countries is being affected in different ways by the coronavirus pandemic and at different times. Overall though, Saka’s and the TÇMB’s forecast in February 2020 that exports would rise by 15% year-on-year in 2020 is looking decidedly shaky. Any knock to the export market in Turkey is particularly unwanted given the poor state of the Turkish economy at the moment.

What would be useful to know here is how other major cement exporters are coping with the global situation. Data from the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics shows that Pakistan’s cement exports dropped by 31% year-on-year to 0.36Mt in April 2020. Data from the All Pakistan Cement Manufacturers Association (APCMA) for the same month tells a similar story. Its data shows a 57% drop in exports to 0.25Mt in April 2020, with a bigger share lost by plants in the north of the country than those in the south.

The other country to note is Vietnam. Here, data from the General Department of Vietnam Customs shows that cement exports fell by 9.7% year-on-year to 7.73Mt in the first quarter of 2020. This follows the announcement by Vietnam Cement Association (VCA) chair Nguyễn Quang Cung in May 2020 that all cement plant projects scheduled to begin in 2020 would be suspended. Luckily those currently being built avoided this fate. This has included a new line at Thanh Thang Group Cement’s integrated Bong Lang cement plant, which Germany’s Loesche has just sent a pair of clinker mills to this week.

These changes from the major cement exporters are bad for their host countries but the other side of the chain is how their destinations are affected. For example, Australia’s clinker imports nearly doubled between 2010 – 2011 and 2018 – 2019 to 4.1Mt. This compares to local clinker production of 5.6Mt in 2018 – 2019, according to the Cement Industry Federation and the Australian Bureau of Statistics. With this in mind, this week saw the resolution to a legal dispute between Wagners Holdings and Boral over a cement supply contract. Boral found a cheaper source of cement from Cement Australia in early 2019 and the two parties argued over their contract. This dispute may have nothing to do with foreign import levels but Wagners Holdings, Boral and Cement Australia all operate standalone clinker grinding plants and will all be subject to general market pricing trends. Higher international clinker levels may add pressure to pricing issues surrounding cement supply contracts in Australia and elsewhere.

Finally, cement trade flows aren’t the only commodity that has been affected by coronavirus disruption. The mass movement of workers home and then back to work is expected to complicate India’s return to business, as discussed in last week’s column. In this context it’s pleasing to come across one sign of normality. Local press in Hubei, China reported this week that workers from Huaxin Cement finally flew back to Uzbekistan. They were originally meant to commission a new plant in March 2020 but became stranded at home when they returned for the Chinese New Year. Commissioning of the plant is now planned for later in June 2020.

The Virtual Global CemTrans Conference and Exhibition 2020 on cement & clinker, shipping & trade, transport & logistics takes place on 16 June 2020. To find out more information and to register click here.

Australia: The Queensland Supreme Court has ruled that Wagners must meet lower prices offered by a competitor in the market in its cement supply contract with Boral. Wagners suspended its supply of cement products to Boral for six months in early 2019 when Boral said it found cheaper cement from Cement Australia, according to the Australian newspaper. However, the court found that an October 2019 pricing notice for cheaper supplies from Cement Australia was ‘valid and effective’. Boral will continue buying cement from Wagners until 2031.

Australia: Boral has announced a planned three-week shutdown of the kiln at its 1.5Mt/yr integrated Berrima plant in New South Wales. The Financial Review newspaper has reported that Boral chief executive officer (CEO) Mike Kane said, ‘Revenues are down by 6% year-on-year in Australia in the first four months of 2020.’ He added that Australian cement volumes in the same period fell by 16% year-on-year and that there are fewer new orders than at the same stage of 2019 as a result of the coronavirus outbreak.