Displaying items by tag: Capacity utilisation

Ethiopia: Oromia State has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Ministry of Mining and 20 cement companies to regulate the price of cement. State Deputy President Awolu Abdi said that the price of cement products had been ‘skyrocketing’ due to international and internal factors, according to Walta Media. He partly blamed the problem on ‘illegal’ cement brokers and the inability of cement plants to produce output at their full capacity. The state government has been working with cement producers and approved distributors on the problem. The regional move follows action by the central government to cut out dealers and distributors from the market in mid-May 2022.

India: The Indian government has established a special panel to examine an array of possible measures to lower high cement prices in parts of the country. The Hindu newspaper has reported that the panel will consider plans, including increasing cement shipping from South Indian plants currently operating under capacity to areas affected by shortages. The national government is in talks with the South India Cement Manufacturers' Association (SICMA) about the possibility of increasing members' cement sales in future.

Vietnam: Three new integrated cement lines are expected to raise Vietnam’s total installed cement capacity by 8% to 115.4Mt/yr in 2022, from 106.6Mt/yr at the beginning of the year. VNDirect Securities has calculated that the upcoming lines – Dai Duong 1, Long Thanh and Xuan Thanh 3 – have a total capacity of 8.8Mt/yr. They are situated in Northern Vietnam’s Ha Nam Province and Central Vietnam’s Thanh Hoa Province, both of which already have cement overcapacity.

Viet Nam News has reported that Vietnam exported 4.31Mt of cement and clinker in April 2022, down by 7.6% month-on-month. The products’ total value was US$171m, down by 2.9% month-on-month.

Colombia: Cementos Argos recorded sales of US$642m in the first quarter of 2022, up by 11% year-on-year from first-quarter 2021. The company’s earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) fell by 18% year-on-year to US$88.6m. Cement volumes remained level year-on-year at 3.9Mt. Cementos Argos said that higher inflationary pressures impacted costs associated with raw materials, energy, freight and maintenance, but noted its ‘very good price performance’ across all of its regions. It expects the rise in cement prices to a contribute to a reduction in inflationary cost impacts in the rest of 2022.

CEO Juan Esteban Calle said "Demand for our products and solutions remains very healthy and dynamic in all regions. We are operating at full capacity, despite a challenging environment due to global supply chain disruptions and inflation in energetics and raw material costs. In this environment, we are focused on maximising production at our integrated cement plants to meet our customers' growing needs and on executing a pricing strategy that mitigates the impact of inflation.”

India: The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) has started insolvency proceedings against Andhra Cement, a subsidiary of Jaypee Group. The decision by the NCLT follows a petition filed by Pridhvi Asset Reconstruction and Securitisation claiming a default relating to bank loans taken out between 2012 and 2016, according to the Press Trust of India. Separately, Andhra Cement has asked its creditors to submit their claims by 10 May 2022 before the Interim Resolution Professional (IRP). Local media has also reported that the cement producer had been unable to operate its cement plant at above 60% capacity utilisation due to a shortage of working capital.

Serbia: The impacts of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine mean that the Serbian cement industry’s operations are ‘endangered’ and will likely fail to meet steady market demand in the coming months. Serbian Cement Industry Association director Dejana Milinkovic said that the industry relied on Russia and Ukraine for 50% of its coal supply in 2021.

In 2021, the industry produced 2.6Mt of cement, up by 10% year-on-year, operating close to 100% capacity utilisation.

Zimbabwe: Kelibone Masiyane, the managing director of PPC Zimbabwe, has complained about the negative effects rising imports of cement could have upon the local cement industry. In an interview with Business Weekly he said that imports had doubled to 16% over the last year and that this is restricting PPC’s efforts to reach its desired capacity utilisation levels. PPC and other producers have lobbied the government to slow down imports. PPC operates two integrated plants in the country with a combined production capacity of 0.7Mt/yr. Selected retailers interviewed separately reported that they had experienced difficulty obtaining cement from PPC recently.

Morocco: The Professional Association of Cement Manufacturers (APC) has recorded domestic cement deliveries of 14Mt in 2021. The figure corresponds to 58% of the industry’s 25.8Mt/yr capacity.

Turkey: Members of Türkçimento produced 78.9Mt of cement in 2021, up by 9.2% year-on-year from 2020 levels. Capacity utilisation for the year averaged 71%. Cement sales also rose, by 8.2% to 60.2Mt. Exports fell by 1.9% year-on-year to 30.8Mt, with a value of US$1.26bn, 23% of total sales.

Türkçimento chair Fatih Yücelik said that the sector has ‘rapidly and heavily’ felt the effects of the Russian invasion of Ukraine on its operations. Yücelik said “We continued our activities in 2021 under difficult conditions, following 23% year-on-year growth in 2020. We predict 4% growth in our sector in line with the economic growth target in 2022.”

Mexico/US: GCC plans to invest US$500m over the next three years to the end of 2024 on increasing its production capacity and strengthening its logistics and distribution network in North America. New projects in development include the expansion of a cement plant, debottlenecking at the integrated Samalayuca plant in Mexico, the construction of two new terminals and other projects to improve the company’s operational efficiency and its social and environmental strategy. The cement producer reported strong sales in 2021 and it expects even better results in 2022 and 2023, particularly in the US, due to the effect of the US infrastructure bill.

Notably GCC reported that both the kilns at its Odessa plant in Texas were running at full capacity in 2021 and an additional kiln at a plant in Chihuahua, Mexico was complimenting supply to the US state. High demand was also recorded in Montana.