Displaying items by tag: Cambodia

Sri Lanka: Insee Group has signed a memorandum of understanding with the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) to protect limestone hills in the company’s quarrying sites in Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam.
The ultimate goal of the partnership is to turn the limestone quarrying sites into forests through rehabilitation programmes.

In Sri Lanka, the agreement is intended to strengthen Insee Cement’s capacity to rescue and release threatened wildlife, prepare mine restoration guidelines and carry out annual ecological monitoring of restored mines in Insee Cement’s quarry sites in Aruwakkalu and Puttalam.

“In Sri Lanka we have worked with IUCN since 2007 to ensure conservation in quarry sites, as the partnership is focused on delivering practical solutions which protect Sri Lankan ecosystem. We take pride in meeting the expectations of our local stakeholders and join hands with our group and OpCo’s on the dedicated commitment to enhance forestry and quarry management in Asia,” said Nandana Ekanayak, the chief executive officer (CEO) of Insee Cement.

Cambodia: The four local cement plants produced 3.67Mt of cement in the first nine months of 2018. The Ministry of Industry and Handicraft said that two more plants will open by December 2018, according to the Phnom Penh Post newspaper. Kampot Cement produced 2.21Mt, Cambodia Cement Chakrey produced 1.22Mt, Chip Mong Insee Cement produced 0.12mt and Battambang Conch Cement produced 0.11Mt. The new plants to be opened are Southern Cement (Cambodia) and Thai Boon Rong (Cement).

Cambodia: The Battambang Conch Cement Company has officially inaugurated its US$230m plant in Rattanak district, Battambang province. The unit has a production capacity of 5000t/day, according to the Phnom Penh Post newspaper. The company intends to supply cement to Pursat, Pailin, Banteay Meanchey and Siem Reap provinces. The plant is a joint venture between China’s Conch International Holdings and local cement firm Battambang KT Cement.

Following the opening of the new unit Cambodia has a cement production capacity of 7Mt/yr from four plants. The country has six licenced cement plants including Kampot Cement, Cambodia Cement Chakrey Ting, Mong Insee Cement Corporation, Thai Boon Rong Cement, and Southern Cement Cambodia. Thai Boon Rong Cement, and Southern Cement Cambodia are projects that are currently being built.

China: Anhui Conch’s sales revenue grew by 35% year-on-year to US$11.9bn in 2017 from US$8.85bn in 2016. Its net profit nearly doubled to US$2.51bn from US$1.36bn. The cement producer said that it had, ‘seized the favourable opportunities arising from the state’s further deepening of supply-side structural reform and the promotion of off-peak season production.’

During the year Anhui Conch opened eight cement grinding plants including Quanjiao Conch Cement, Anhui Xuancheng Conch Cement and Nantong Conch Cement. Outside of China the company completed phase two of its Merak grinding plant in Indonesia and started cement production and completed construction of the North Sulawesi Conch plant in Indonesia and the Battambang Conch plant in Cambodia. The units in Indonesia and Cambodia are due to start production in 2018. A new plant, Luang Prabang Conch, is being built in Laos and preliminary work on projects at Volga Conch in Russia, Vientiane in Laos and Mandalay in Myanmar is underway. At the end of 2017 Anhui Conch says it has a clinker and cement production capacity of 246t/yr and 335Mt/yr respectively.

The cement producer also announced that its Baimashan Cement plant was intending to start operating a CO₂ collection and purification pilot project in the first half of 2018. The initiative is part of the group’s moves to implement the government’s low-carbon development strategy.

Cambodia: Mines and Energy Minister Suy Sem says that a new 1.7Mt/yr cement plant in Battambang province is set to start production in mid-march 2017. Although the minister did not specify which plant was due to open, the only unit with that production capacity is Battambang Conch Cement, a joint venture between China’s Conch International Holdings and local cement firm Battambang KT Cement, according to the Phnom Penh Post newspaper. Construction at the site started in late 2016 with an investment of around US$230m. With the completion of this latest plant the country is now expected to be able to meet its own domestic demand with local supply.

Cambodia: Chip Mong Insee Cement has launched its new plant in Kampot province. Prime Minister Hun Sen in the Banteay Meas district of Kampot attended the event, according to the Phnom Penh Post. The US$262m plant has a cement production capacity of 5000/day or nearly 2Mt/yr. The plant is a joint venture between Chip Mong Group, which owns 60% of the shares, and Thailand’s Siam City Cement. The project is intended to meet growing demand for cement in the country.

Cambodia: Chip Mong Insee Cement has started production at its new plant in the Tuok Meas district in Kampot province. The unit had a soft launch with a visit from Suy Sem, the minister of mines and energy, according to the Phnom Penh Post newspaper. The US$262m plant will have a cement production capacity of 2Mt/yr when it is fully operational.

There has been an interesting knock-on effect from further economic integration of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) this week. Holcim Philippines may delay the construction of a 2.5Mt/yr cement plant in Bulacan province due to a drop in import tariffs in 2015. Vietnam or Indonesia were named as possible sources of clinker due to their excess capacity.

The ASEAN group comprises 10 countries including Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar and Cambodia. Their respective cement production capacities range from 0.3Mt/yr at a clinker grinding plant in Singapore to Indonesia's integrated cement production capacity of 45Mt/yr. In total the ASEAN countries have a production capacity of around 220Mt/yr for a population of about 600m with national gross domestic products (GDP) per capita ranging from US$900 (Laos) to US$52,000 (Singapore).

One scenario for cement producers in the ASEAN countries is that they might be swamped by exports from places like Vietnam. That country had a production capacity of 73Mt/yr in 2013 with cement sales predicted to rise to 63Mt in 2014. Assuming the government released figures are correct, that leaves at least a 10Mt of cement production-sales gap that could torpedo a neighbouring country's cement industry in the free trade area.

Indonesia, the other potential source of clinker that Holcim Philippines mentioned, has seen construction growth slow and production capacity grow. Holcim reported in its nine-month report in November 2013 that, while national cement sales had risen by 5.3% to 41.6Mt, supply capacity had risen by 9% to 59Mt/yr. Assuming equal sales distribution throughout this suggests a capacity gap of 4Mt.

Some politicians in the region have complained that impending free trade area will create winners and losers. At a recent ASEAN meeting in Yangon, Myanmar a Myanmar planning minister raised the issue of a development gap within the ASEAN region calling for renegotiation for countries like Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos.

Meanwhile both the cement industries in Vietnam and Indonesia have clearly anticipated the implications of the ASEAN Economic Community. The Vietnam National Cement Association expects to remain competitive within the ASEAN region and against Chinese imports after 2015. In Indonesia State Enterprises Minister Dahlan Iskan stated this week that the cement industry was ready for the ASEAN Economic Community thanks to the government's strategy to consolidate its major cement producers within one company, Semen Indonesia. Consistent cement industry growth in South East Asia may be about to change.