Displaying items by tag: Australia

Australia: Adelaide Brighton expects that its net profit in 2019 will fall by up to 15% year-on-year from the US$133m it reported in 2018. It forecasts that the decline will be driven by weakening demand from the residential market, increased competition from cement imports, higher competition in Queensland and rising raw material costs.

Australia: Wagners expects that its on-going suspension of cement products to Boral will cost it around US$7m in 2019. The company decided to stop the supply following Boral’s notification that it had found a cheaper source in March 2019. Since neither Wagners nor Boral have been able to resolve the disagreement it has now been referred to the Supreme Court of Queensland.

Australia: Raymond Barro will be appointed as the next chairman of Adelaide Brighton at the company’s annual general meeting (AGM) in May 2019. He succeeds Zlatko Todorcevski, who will become Lead Independent Director and deputy chairman. Todorcevski has spent less than a year in the role. The Barro family owns a 43% stake in Adelaide Brighton. Rhonda Barro was nominated as a director of Adelaide Brighton earlier in March 2019.

World: FCT Combustion has released details on new burner projects it is involved with. Selected projects include a new contract in the US to convert both kilns to natural gas firing at Ash Grove Cement’s Louisville plant in Nebraska. The order includes Gyro-Therm MKII Burners, Natural Valve Trains and NFPA 86 BMS for both kilns.

Nova Cimangola in Angola has contracted FCT to convert its 5000t/day kiln to fuel oil firing. The order includes a multi fuel main burner, calciner burners, oil heating units, oil pumping and filtering units and control panels.

FCT also provided details about a low NO_x kiln conversion for an undisclosed client. Other selected cement sector projects include the commissioning of Turbu-Flex burner systems for clinker kilns at Finnsementti’s Parainen and Lappeenranta plants in Finland. These are scheduled for commissioning in March 2019 and April 2019 respectively. Baumit’s Wopfing plant in Austria is due for a natural has lance for kiln preheating to be delivered later in March 2019.

It also plans to deliver a Turbu-Flex burner system for a clinker kiln to an undisclosed client in China later in March 2019. It is based on a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) study undertaken by FCT is to allow for the firing of natural gas and to modernise the plant. Commissioning is scheduled for March 2019.

Australia: Wagners Cement has suspended its supply of cement products to Boral for six months. Wagners has a cement supply agreement with Boral where it supplies cement on an annual basis for a fixed price. However, Boral issued a notice to Wagners saying that it has found cheaper cement from a ‘long established’ supplier in South East Queensland.

As per the agreement Wagners can either match the lower price or suspend its supply. Wagners has decided to suspend its supply to Boral pending a resolution of the issue. It said that the potential financial impact of the pricing notice is US$14m.

Australia: Kirkland Lake Gold plans to build a US$28m cement plant at its Fosterville Gold Mine in Victoria. The unit will be used to manufacture products to fill underground voids left over by the mining process, according to the Bendigo Advertiser newspaper. This in turn will allow ore yields to increase by mining adjacent to the former voids. The new cement plant is expected to be operational in the second half of 2019. The decision to build a cement plant at the mine follows an announcement that gold yields at the site are expected to double in 2019.

Australia: Adelaide Brighton’s sales revenue grew by 4.6% year-on-year to US$1.16bn in 2018 from US$1.11bn in 2017. Its earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) fell slightly to US$188m. The group said that its cement sales volumes grew by 1.1% in 2018 due to ‘strong’ demand in Melbourne and Sydney from residential construction and infrastructure projects. Prices increased in most markets with the exception of South Australia, where it faced competition from bulk imports.

“Increased revenue in 2018 reflects Adelaide Brighton capitalising on the favourable demand environment for construction materials and lime as well as the delivery on expectations for the concrete and aggregates acquisitions made in 2017. “East coast construction markets were strong in 2018, South Australia and the Northern Territory were flat and Western Australia was down, while lime demand from the resources sector was stable,” said chief executive officer (CEO) Nick Miller.

Australia: Boral has made a number of changes to its senior executive team that will take effect from 1 March 2019. Joe Goss, currently Chief Executive Boral Australia, moves to a senior advisory role reporting to Boral’s chief executive officer (CEO) and managing director, Mike Kane.

Wayne Manners, currently Executive General Manager, Western Australia, Building Products & Major Projects, will become President and CEO Boral Australia.

Ross Harper, currently Executive General Manager Cement will become Group President Operations, responsible for Boral Australia and Boral North America as well as Group HS&E. Ross will be working closely with Wayne Manners and David Mariner (President & CEO Boral North America) in this new role.

Ros Ng, currently Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and Chair of USG Boral will have an expanded role as Group President Ventures and CFO, which includes Group Strategy and M&A and broader responsibility for the USG Boral and Meridian Brick joint ventures. Ros will work closely with Frederic de Rougemont (CEO USG Boral) and Chris Fenwick (CEO Meridian Brick) to deliver the strategy and results of the joint ventures.

In addition to these changes, Greg Price, currently Executive General Manager, New South Wales, for Boral Australia will take on an expanded role, including responsibility for Boral’s Project Management Office, which manages major projects.

Australia: Boral Australia’s revenue grew slightly to US$1.31bn in its half year to 31 December 2018. This was supported by growing revenues from its cement, quarry and asphalt businesses. Its earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) fell by 8% year-on-year to US$194m from US$210m. This was blamed on lower concrete sales volumes and rising fuel costs.

“Boral’s half year results reflect strong underlying businesses, which were impacted by adverse weather, particularly in North America, as well as project-related volume delays in Australia. We expect to deliver growth in the second half,” said chief executive officer (CEO) and managing director Mike Kane. Overall, the group’s revenue rose but its EBITDA fell.

New Zealand: Fletcher Building is expecting to declare lower earnings in the half year to 31 December 2018 due to a regional slowdown, particularly in Australia. Its earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) for the six month period was around 10% lower than the same period of the 2017-2018 financial year. It is expected to be in the range of US$432-467m.

In a report Fletcher Building said, “While the company continues to target a result at the top end of this range, it is prudent at this stage in the year to highlight that the 2019 financial year EBIT will be impacted by the outage at the Golden Bay Cement plant, the slowdown in the Australian residential market and the reduction in land development earnings compared to last year.”