Displaying items by tag: Belarus
Belarus: The government is in talks with Ireland’s CRH to sell Krasnoselskstroymaterialy. Anatoly Kalinin, the Deputy Prime Minister of Belarus, told the Belarusian Telegraph Agency that the government wants US$200 for the state-owned cement producer but that CRH wants to pay less or buy a share of the business. Negotiations are on going.
Belarus: A worker has been killed in an accident at the Krasnaselskbudmateryyaly cement plant in Vawkavysk. The 32 year old contractor was cleaning a heat exchanger in a storage facility when a layer of cement fell on him and a co-worker, according to the Belarusian Private News Agency. The man died at the scene from asphyxia. His colleague was taken to hospital with injuries. An investigation into the incident has started.
Belarus: The Belarusian Cement Company increased its exports of cement by 42.6% year-on-year to 1.4Mt/yr in 2017. The exported cement had a value of US$682.m, according to the Belarusian Telegraph Agency. The company has attributed the rise on an efficiency drive that it says has reduced the cost of production by 50%. The company mainly exports to the Commonwealth of Independent States region but it has started selling its product in parts of the European Union, including Poland and Latvia. It plans to increases its exports by 4% in 2018, partly by introducing 35kg bags.
Belarus to ramp up exports to Ukraine
09 August 2017Belarus: Construction Minister Anatol Chorny expects that Belarus will export 0.3 - 0.4Mt of cement to Ukraine in 2017 and to then increase cement exports to that country to 1Mt in 2018. Speaking in Minsk, Chorny was responding to ‘efforts’ by the Association of Cement Producers of Ukraine and certain high-ranking Ukrainian government officials that had earlier tried to ‘force’ Belarusian producers out of the Ukrainian market, by accusing them of providing false quality certificates. The dispute has since been settled.
Belarusian exports of building materials rose by 29% year-on-year between 1 January 2017 and 31 July 2017, noted Chorny, adding “We managed to reduce production costs and therefore the profitability of sales increased by 25-30%.”
Minister requests more money for Belarusian plants
08 August 2017Belarus: The construction ministry has asked Alyaksandr Lukashenka to provide a fresh portion of government aid to Belarus’ three cement plants. Minister Anatol Chorny confirmed this on 7 August 2017, adding that the government was also considering selling stakes in the companies to investors that ‘could take over the financial burden.’ Chorny explained that the companies were struggling because of the need to pay off massive loans taken out to cover modernisation projects several years ago.
Ukraine: Pavel Kachur, the head of the Ukrainian cement producers association Ukrcement, has accused imports of cement from Belarus of not following the proper certification process. He said that imported cement had not been tested properly in an independent laboratory, according to Interfax-Ukraine. He also complained about energy subsidies for Belarusian cement that make it more competitive internationally and noted that Belarus is closed to exports of cement from the Ukraine.
Belarus: The Belarusian government has reduced its national plan for the production, consumption and export of cement from 2017 to 2020. The national cement production target has been set at 4.5Mt in 2017, 4.7Mt in 2018, 4.9Mt in 2019 and 5.1Mt in 2010, according to local media. During this period it is anticipated that the country’s cement production capacity will fall to 5.9Mt/yr from 5.4Mt/yr. Exports of cement are forecast to reach 1.6Mt in 2017, 1.7Mt in 2018 and 2019 and 1.8Mt in 2020. Consumption of cement is planned to be 3.3Mt/yr in 2017, 3.4Mt in 2018, 3.5Mt in 2019 and 3.6mt in 2020. The country produces cement from three state-controlled integrated plants.
Belarus: The Belarusian Cement Company and Eurocement Group have signed a contract concerning deliveries of cement in 2017. In line with the agreement the deliveries will satisfy the demand for Belarusian cement on the Russian market. The deliveries in 2017 will be at least as large as in 2016, according to the Belarusian Telegraph Agency. The deal was signed by Eurocement Group President Mikhail Skorokhod, Director General of Belarusian Cement Plant Igor Lozhechnikov and Director General of Krichevcementnoshifer Vladimir Korchevsky.
Belarusian Architecture and Construction Minister Anatoly Cherny said that the Russian market is the key target market for Belarusian cement producers. He added that despite falling demand in Russia that the share of Belarusian cement on Russian Federation markets would grow larger.
Russia: Filaret Galchev, the owner of Eurocement, expects that demand for cement in Russia will fall by 8% - 10% in 2016 after falling 12% in 2015. The cement producer will sell about 20Mt of cement in Russia and about 3.5Mt in other regions including Uzbekistan and Ukraine in 2016. He added that average production costs at the group will produce cement at around US$25/t.
In an interview with Rossiya 24 television reported upon by Interfax, Galchev also described Eurocement’s sale of its 6.1% stake in LafargeHolcim in February 2016 as ‘unexpected’. The Russian cement producer sold its share in LafargeHolcim after they lost nearly half of their value in six months.
"No, I did not expect it. We analysed the situation for a long time, but that is the decision that was made," said Galchev. He added that he had no issues with Sberbank, the Russian bank that restructured Eurocement’s debt after the sale of the shares in LafargeHolcim.
Originally Eurocement was a shareholder in Holcim and it received a stake in LafargeHolcim after that company was formed in a merger. The stake was subsequently transferred to Sberbank of Russia in January 2016 after the shares, which Galchev had acquired with financing from Bank of America, lost over 40% of their value in half a year. At the beginning of February 2016, Sberbank sold the 6.12% LafargeHolcim stake to investors from the UK, Switzerland, the US and other countries.
Belzarubezhstroy launches cement-bonded particleboard plant
06 October 2015Belarus: The Belarusian civil engineering company ZAO Belzarubezhstroy has opened a cement-bonded particleboard plant in Krichev, Mogilev on 5 October 2015. Austria's VST Building Technologies was a partner of Belzarubezhstroy and an investor in the project.
The new plant uses the premises of the former Krichev meatpacking factory and is located 7km from the Krichev cement mill, where its cement is sourced. Imported equipment was installed. The plant will make cement-bonded particleboards using the process flows developed by VST Building Technologies. The new technology boasts high speed and quality of construction processes, energy-effectiveness and wide geographical deployment.
The Belarusian Architecture and Construction minister Anatoly Cherny stressed that the opening of the plant represents a truly ground-breaking event for the civil engineering industry of the oblast and the country. "With cement-bonded particleboards of our own, we will be able to greatly reduce the cost of residential housing construction. We will be able to build more homes and export more construction materials," said Cherny.
The plant's construction was prompted by the rapid pace of housing and industrial construction in Belarus, as well as the need to find new ways to modernise the civil engineering industry and reduce costs. Belarus has had to import cement-bonded particleboard to make the panels until now. In addition to serving the local market, over 25% of the cement-bonded particleboard produced will be exported to the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and the European Union (EU). The plant's proximity to the Belarusian-Russian border and the two rail lines going in the eastern direction will minimise the costs of exports to Russia.
Belzarubezhstroy director general Vitaly Bondarik said that the project was a historical one for the company. "We hope that the site will become kind of a springboard for advancing joint operations and implementing new construction projects in Belarus and abroad together with our partner, VST Building Technologies AG. We expect a successful future and intend to implement a number of joint projects in Venezuela, Saudi Arabia, Ecuador, Algeria and other countries. The enterprise should become a successful example of a new construction formation in Belarus," said Bondarik.
Belzarubezhstroy used its own resources and foreign investments to build the plant. It will create 200 jobs to reach the designed output capacity of 60,000m3/yr. In the future, the output capacity may be increased up to 100,000m3/yr.
The new plant is the first step of the programme sketched out by the Belarusian and Austrian partners.