Displaying items by tag: Belarus

Belarus: The Council of Ministers has ordered Belarusian Cement Plant and Krychawtsementnashyfer to hand over the government-owned stakes to Belarusian Cement Company. The move comes as part of a merger of all of Belarus' cement plans to create a new holding company, Belasrusian Cement Company.

Belarusian Cement Company is to receive 7,723,192 shares from Belarusian Cement Plant and 196,697,461 shares from Krychawtsementnashyfer. Belarusian Cement Company was initially expected to control Belarusian Cement Plant, Krychawtsementnashyfer and AAT Krasnaselskbudmateryyaly. However, it is still unclear whether Krasnaselskbudmateryyaly will join the holding company.

Belarus' president, Alyaksandr Lukashenka, approved the merger, which was proposed by Pyotr Rudnik, head of the Mahilyow Regional Executive Committee. Uladzimir Kisyalyow was appointed as director general of Belarusian Cement Company. Prior to the appointment, Kisyalyow served as first deputy head of the Mahilyow Regional Executive Committee.

Belarus: The president of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, has approved the merger of the country's cement plants into a holding company under the name Belarusian Cement Plant. It will include Krasnoselskstroymaterialy, Krichevtsementnoshifer and Belarusian Cement Plant. The holding company will mainly focus on export growth, as Belarus' cement output capacity is currently more than double the domestic demand. Belarusian cement plants manufactured 5.05Mt of cement in 2013, up by 3.1% year-on-year. Belarus exported 1.37Mt of cement in 2013, up by 36.5% year-on-year.

Belarus: Russia's Eurocement Group is ready to invest US$70 – 80m in a project to upgrade cement production facilities in Belarus, according to the minister of Architecture and Construction, Anatoly Chernyi.

"Eurocement offered to help us to switch the cement production plants from the wet process of cement production to the dry process," said Chernyi. Further negotiations will be held between the participants of the project to upgrade the facilities by 2017. The government has already approved the plans. The minister stressed that the wet process of cement production is energy consuming and costly.

The current combined capacity of the Belarusian cement plants is 9.5Mt/yr of cement, of which 5.4Mt is produced by dry kilns.

Belarus/Kazakhstan: Kazakhstan is interested in buying a 'large' batch of Belarus-built wagons for cement transportation, according to Nigmatzhan Isingarin, President of the Association of National Forwarding Agencies of Kazakhstan and the Kazakhstani Association of Freight Carriers and Wagon (Container) Operators. Isingarin met with the Prime Minister of Belarus, Mikhail Myasnikovich, on 31 October 2013. The wagons will be manufactured by the Mogilev railway car building plant.

In addition to negotiating a purchase, Isingarin and Myasnikovich discussed a contract for manufacturing and supplying wagons via international leasing. Isingarin said he was satisfied with the progress in the project's implementation. So far 425 wagons have been delivered.

Belarus: President Alyaksandr Lukashenka has approved the creation a new cement company, the Belarusian Cement Corporation. The new holding company is expected to control three cement manufacturers: Belarusian Cement Plant in Kastsyukovichy, Mahilyow region, Krasnaselskbudmateryyaly in Vawkavysk, Hrodna region, and Krychawtsementnashyfer in the Mahilyow region, as well as a transport and logistics company.

The Belarusian Cement Corporation is to be established in 2014 and attract a strategic investor in 2015. The establishment of the corporation is intended to decrease production costs, increase profits and raise exports. After project capacity is achieved in 2015, the company will have a cement production capacity of 9.5Mt/yr.

Belarus: Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka has ordered the Homel Regional Executive Committee to cancel an investment agreement under which Iran's Azarab Industries Company was to build a cement plant in the Vetka district.

Under the agreement, signed in May 2010, the Iranian company was to invest at least US$200m dollars in the project and complete the plant within three years. The Belarusian authorities hoped that the plant would be put into operation within 24 months. The investor was also to be granted the right to develop two chalk deposits near Vetka for a period of 50 years and export up to 70% of the output of the 1Mt/yr plant.

Uladzimir Dvornik, head of the Homel Regional Executive Committee, said in March 2011 that although the first stage of the project was to be completed on 7 February 2011, Azarab Industries Company had not submitted an implementation report. Instead, in January 2011, the regional government received a draft lease agreement for land plots from the company, which contained provisions contravening Belarusian regulations. In March 2011 the Homel Regional Executive Committee sent a letter to the Iranian company to assure it of a favourable decision on its suggestions with regard to a fixed lease rate for 50 years.

"There has yet been neither reply nor action from the Iranian company, which does not contribute to the implementation of the investment project," said Dvornik. The regional government is now looking for new investors for the plant.

Belarus: A new dry 1.8Mt/yr cement line has been commissioned at Kostyukovichi in Belarus. Architecture and Construction Minister Anatoly Nichkasov presided over the opening ceremony for the joint Belarusian and Chinese project, which was constructed by the Chinese company CITIC Construction. Director of OAO Belarusian Cement Plant Vladimir Kiselev said that the launch of a further cement manufacturing line in July 2012 would raise domestic output to 3Mt/yr. He also noted that it would create 154 new jobs.

Since 2007 CITIC has been implementing an investment programme in Belarus to modernise cement mills and manufacturing lines, including building three new cement mills and modernising the power supply for three existing ones. In April 2012 a cement line was commissioned at OAO Krasnoselskstroimaterialy with a capacity of 1.8Mt/yr. OAO Krichevtsementnoshifer will have a similar line to be completed by 1 July 2012. Loans from China Export and Import Bank are the main source of funding.

Lithuania: Akmene Cement, Lithuania's only cement producer, says it will be affected by the European Union's sanctions against Belarus. Previously the producer sold cement to the Belarusian company Triple, owned by oligarch Yury Chyzh, which has been affected by the blacklist.

"We discussed it today at our company. It is hard to say what it is going to be like now," Arturas Zaremba, head of Akmenes Cementas, stated. "I do not know myself how those sanctions would work. Does it mean that we will not be able to maintain any business relations with them? We will need to clear that up."

EU foreign ministers decided to impose sanctions against 29 Belarus companies and 12 individuals related with Alexander Lukashenko's regime. Akmenes Cementas exported around 70,000t of cement to Belarus in 2011.