Displaying items by tag: Botswana

South Africa: PPC has forecast a drop in its cement sales volumes during the 2023 financial year, which will end on 31 March 2023. It says that its South African sales will drop by 4%, and its Botswanan sales by 7%. In the first half of the financial year, sales dropped by 2.6% year-on-year. PPC now says that disruptions at South African ports will likely limit the decline in its sales volumes in its home country by reducing competition from imports. South Africa imported 30% of cement consumed during the 2022 financial year, however congestion at ports and currency effects have kept this figure from rising throughout the present financial year.

PPC's CEO Roland van Wijnen said "Rising input costs and the objective of maintaining our market share continue to cause margin pressure." The group now expects to reduce its debt by 28 - 33% to US$39.5 - 42.2m in the 2023 financial year.

South Africa: PPC’s earnings fell by 12% year-on-year to US$42m in the six months to September 2022, excluding its subsidiary in Zimbabwe due to hyperinflation. In South Africa and Botswana the group reported higher sales in coastal regions due to less imports but tougher conditions inland that led to a 2.6% fall in cement sales volumes. Despite this, it raised its revenue through price rises. Its earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) fell by 29% to US$29.9m. Performance was better in Rwanda where its Cimerwa subsidiary increased its sales volumes by 11% and its EBITDA by 63% to US$14.5m. PPC Zimbabwe’s sales volumes declined by 13% due to a planned kiln shutdown in the first quarter and margins were negatively affected by the use of imported clinker primarily from PPC South Africa and increased maintenance costs. However, sales volumes improved in the second quarter. EBITDA fell by 48% to US$8.59m.

Roland van Wijnen, the chief executive officer PPC, said, “The PPC group continues to deliver sound cash generation and deleverage the balance sheet despite difficult trading conditions in its core South African and Botswana cement market, offset by positive trading conditions in its Zimbabwe and Rwanda operations. To maintain volumes in the South African and Botswana cement markets, sales price increases were limited to 5% in the period under review. Key input costs, especially those related to fuel and energy, increased at double-digits in percentage terms.”

Botswana: PPC Botswana says it has purchased 230,000t of coal at a value of US$45m from Morupule Coal Mine. It intends to make the investment on an annual basis going forward, according to the Voice newspaper. The subsidiary of South Africa-based PPC also plans to send some of the coal to PPC's cement plant at Slurry in northern South Africa.

Botswana: Keletsositse Olebile, the chief executive officer of the Botswana Investment and Trade Centre, hopes that the country could become a net exporter of cement in 2023. Olebile made the comment whilst on a tour of the Matsiloje integrated cement plant, according to the Weekend Post newspaper. The cement company was recently acquired by Whale Rock Cement, a Chinese joint-venture based in Namibia. At present the plant is producing 0.1Mt/yr and following a planned investment drive this may rise to 0.9Mt/yr. At present the country imports around 0.62Mt/yr of cement and it is hoped that expanding production at the Matsiloje plant could create the right conditions to create an export market. Matsiloje Portland Cement, the previous owners of the Matsiloje plant, closed in 2018 due to competition from South African imports.

Botswana: Cheetah Cement Botswana aims to achieve a cement production capacity of 900,000t/yr by June 2023. Cheetah Cement Botswana currently has a capacity of 36,000t/yr since commissioning its US$40m Francistown cement plant in February 2022. Botswana Investment and Trade Centre CEO Keletsositse Olebile said that the expansion will create 200 new direct jobs.

Xinhua News has reported that the move will turn Botswana, which consumes 620,000t/yr of cement, into a regional cement exporter and reduce its net imports by US$90m/yr.

South Africa: PPC expects its group cement sales volumes to increase by 4 - 8% year-on-year for the financial year to 31 March 2022 due to strong performance in Zimbabwe and Rwanda. In an operational update it said that sales revenue is also expected to rise by 11 – 15%. However, sales volumes and sales revenue growth was reported as slower in South Africa and Botswana due to strong demand due to home improvement projects during the previous period.

The cement producer noted that it had yet to experience any ‘meaningful uplift’ in cement sales following the government’s decision to only use locally produced on infrastructure projects. It said that cement sales in coastal regions of South Africa were behind those in the previous reporting year. It said that cement imports, mainly from Vietnam, increased by 11% and accounted for approximately 10% of the local market.

Botswana: Rachit Josh, the managing director of Matsiloje Portland Cement, says that the company hopes to restart production by the end of 2021. The cement producer is currently in talks with an investor to support the move by establishing a partnership, according to the Mmegi newspaper. Joshconfirmed that the company’s integrated cement plant is currently closed. The plant, which is owned by Nortex Textiles, closed in January 2018 due to competition from South African imports. When operational it produced around 30,000t/yr of cement.

South Africa: PCC recorded sales of US$332m in the first half of its 2021 financial year, up by 1% from US$328m in the first half of its 2020 financial year. Earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) rose by 15% to US$66m from US$58m. Cement volumes fell in South Africa by 5% and in Botswana by 10% due to 35% slump in total volumes in the first quarter. The company said that this was due to muted cement sales in April 2020 and May 2020 as a result of Covid-19-related trading restrictions in South Africa. Cement sales have since recovered with strong year-on-year growth since June 2020. The increase in volumes is primarily retail led. PPC also said that it is beginning to experience the positive impact of increased infrastructure spending.

Chief executive officer (CEO) Roland van Wijnen said, “I am pleased that we are once again able to serve our customers and play our part in keeping the economy going. My gratitude goes to my colleagues who have been working diligently to keep our operations running while observing stringent health and safety protocols. Our business has benefited from a strong recovery in cement sales in all our markets, post the easing of the lockdown restrictions, and this has resulted in improved financial performance for the group. Our efforts to improve cost competitiveness and reposition PPC on a sound financial footing are yielding encouraging results and we are making good progress on our capital restructuring project, which remains a key priority for the group.”

Botswana: PPC Botswana has taken up a slogan of the Botswana government in encouraging Botswanans to “Buy Botswana” in order to reduce their import bills and utilise local suppliers post-coronavirus lockdown. The Sunday Standard newspaper has reported that, after the economy shrank by 13% since the start of the coronavirus lockdown, PPC announced that it would “continue engaging with more stakeholders on the road to economic recovery.” Regarding the possibility of layoffs in the company, PPC Botswana managing director Tuelo Bolthole said, “The situation is still very fluid, therefore it is difficult to tell whether it will reach that point. We however believe that our workforce is an important asset.” The company is currently producing cement at 100% of its capacity in anticipation of pent-up demand.

Botswana: Rachit Josh, the managing director of Matsiloje Portland Cement, say that the company will struggle to reopen without government support to block imports. The cement producer closed its plant at Matsiloje, near Francistown in January 2018, according to the Monitor newspaper. Josh blamed cement imports from South Africa as being a particular concern.

In June 2018 the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment said it was starting to introduce restrictions on imports restricting imports to 70% locally sourced product. However, it is unclear when these measures will be implemented.

Matsiloje Portland Cement is a subsidiary of Nortex Group. Its integrated plant had a production capacity of 30,000t/yr. The company produced the lime it used for its cement and it sourced other raw materials from South Africa and fly ash from a power station at Morupule.