Displaying items by tag: Budget

Peru: Chile-based CBB, formerly Cementos Bío Bío, has reduced the budget for its planned Matarani cement grinding plant near Arequipa by 79% to US$8.95m from US$42.5m. According to the Gestión newspaper, the producer had previously secured and environmental permit for the unit.

Bolivia: Fábrica Nacional de Cemento (Fancesa) has announced that no cuts will be made to transport spending until after the end of the coronavirus lockdown. Plans to reduce operating expenditure in this area have been opposed by the company’s drivers. Fancesa head of transportation Jhonny Palma said, “Both parties now have the time to analyse the proposals. In due course we will present our operating cost sheets and these will be put up for debate.”

Germany: HeidelbergCement has reported a fall in first quarter revenues by 7% year-on-year in 2020, to Euro3.93bn from Euro4.24bn. Revenues fell by 6% in Western and Southern Europe and by 10% in the Asia-Pacific region, but rose by 11% in North America, by 2% in Northern and Eastern Europe and Central Asia and by 3% in Africa-Eastern Mediterranean Basin.

HeidelbergCement Managing Board
Chair Dominik von Achten said that, after year-on-year sales increases across all business lines, “from mid-March our sales volumes were significantly impaired by the effects of the coronavirus pandemic, such as state-imposed production downtimes and construction stoppages on major infrastructure projects.” Total cement and clinker sales over the period were 27.7Mt, down by 3.0% year-on-year from 28.6Mt.

Thanks to its COPE coronavirus action plan, HeidelbergCement says that it has reduced 2020 spending by Euro1.0bn. It says that it has Euro5.7bn of financial liquidity.

Thailand: Siam Cement Group (SCG) recorded a profit of US$215m in the first three months of 2020, down by 40% year-on-year from US$358m in the corresponding period of 2019. Sales were US$3.23bn, down by 6.0% from US$3.44bn.

On 30 April 2020 SCG withdrew its sales forecast for 2020 and reduced its budget for the year to US$1.85bn, down by 14% from US$2.15bn. SCG president and CEO Roongrote Rangsiyopash said, “SCG cannot give a figure for revenue this year because we don't know yet how long the COVID-19 outbreak will last and how much it will affect the economy.” Rangsiyopash said that SCG is ‘prepared to cut its investment even more’ in a worst-case scenario.

India: Indian cement producers are poised to pass on a 5.79% increase in the freight rate to consumers following the Railway Budget. However a cement producer quoted by the Press Trust of India said that a final decision would be taken after the Union Budget.

"With the hike in freight charges, the impact will be US$2.41/t - US$2.78/t of cement production," said Shree Cements managing director H M Bangur.

An analyst tracking the cement industry said that cement makers never absorb the hike in freight costs and these are always passed through. In the budget Railway Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal raised the freight charges for cement, diesel, LPG, steel and iron-ore by up to 5.8%.