Displaying items by tag: Cementos Molins

Bolivia: President Evo Morales has inaugurated the Itacamba Cement plant in Yacuses in the department of Santa Cruz. The plant had an investment of US$220m and has a production capacity of 0.95Mt/yr, according to Via Empressa. Itacamba Cement is a joint venture between Spain’s Cementos Molins, Brazil’s Votorantim Cement and Camba Cement. The cement producer also operates a grinding plant in Puerto Quijarro and its hopes to produce up to 1.2Mt/yr of cement from both sites. The plant is also expected to create up to 540 direct and indirect jobs.

Colombia: A new cement plant to be built at Rio Claro in the Sonsón municipality of Antioquia for Empresa Colombiana de Cementos (EcoCementos) will have a production capacity of 1.35Mt/yr. The company is a joint-venture between Spain’s Cementos Molins and Grupo Corona. Cementos Molins and Grupo Corona originally started working together in September 2015 when they formed an alliance to develop their cement businesses in the country, according to the El Tiempo newspaper. The plant is expected to be completed in mid-2019 whereupon it is hoped that it will capture 7% of the market. Once operational the plant will create 450 direct and indirect jobs.

Colombia: FLSmidth has received an order from OHL Industrial for engineering, procurement and supply of equipment for a complete cement production line with a capacity of 3150t/day. The plant will be located in Rio Claro in the Sonsón municipality of Antioquia. The end client of the project is Empresa Colombiana de Cementos (EcoCementos), a company jointly owned by Cementos Molins and Grupo Corona, with whom OHL Industrial has an engineering, construction and procurement (EPC) contract.

The order includes a complete range of equipment from crushing to packing and loadout. Supply includes an ATOX 37.5 vertical mill for raw grinding, an ATOX 17.5 vertical mill for coal grinding, a ROTAX-2 rotary kiln with low NOx ILC calciner, a FLSmidth Cross-Bar cooler, a JETFLEX burner and an OK(TM) 39-4 vertical mill for cement grinding. The order is planned for completion in the first quarter of 2018.

"The project underlines FLSmidth's strength as a leading supplier of the most productive and energy-efficient equipment and technology - and our market leader position as a full scope plant provider," said FLSmidth Group Executive Vice President, Cement Division, Per Mejnert Kristensen.

Bangladesh: Lafarge Surma Cement, a joint venture between LafargeHolcim and Cementos Molins, intends to buy a 100% stake in Holcim Bangladesh from LafargeHolcim for US$117m. The transaction is subject to approval by the shareholders of Lafarge Surma as well as other regulatory and customary approvals in Bangladesh. Following the acquisition Lafarge Surma Cement will operate one integrated cement plant and three grinding plants in the country. It will also offer a range of products including Supercrete, Holcim Strong Structure, Holcim Red and Holcim Gold.

Spain: Cementos Molins has posted a net profit of Euro15.4m for the first quarter of 2016, a rise of 1.7% year-on-year. The group’s consolidated quarterly revenue came in at Euro130.7m, 10% less than in the first quarter of 2015.

Cementos Molins suffered a Euro6m negative impact on its accounts due to the depreciation of the Mexican and Argentinian currencies during the quarter, which was compensated by improved margins.

Argentina: Cementos Molins plans to invest US$189m towards upgrading production at its San Jacinto cement grinding plant according to local press. The upgrade will increase the plant’s cement production capacity to 1Mt/yr from 0.3Mt/yr.

It will also create 130 new jobs. The project is expected to last 30 months. Cementos Molins operates in Argentina via its subsidiary Cementos Avellaneda.

Spain: Cementos Molins has reported a rise in its net profit of 65% year-on-year to Euro50.8m in 2015. The Spanish cement producer also managed to reduce its loss in the Spanish market to Euro13.1m in 2015 from Euro27.7m in 2014. Sales outside of Spain also improved, with its profit rising by 9% to Euro64m. Particular improvements were noted in Mexico (20%) and Argentina (37%), according to Expansion.

Colombia: Cementos Molins has signed a deal with Grupo Colombiano Corona for US$370m to jointly produce cement in Colombia. The firms will launch a 1.35Mt/yr cement production plant in Colombia in the middle of 2018.

Cement shortages have been reported again in western Argentina this week. The story has been simmering over the summer in Mendoza and San Juan Provinces with local construction firms becoming irate with delays to their projects.

The cause is reported by local media to be a broken raw mill at Holcim Argentina's Capdeville cement plant north of the city of Mendoza. Production has been reduced by 2400t/month of cement from the 0.66Mt/yr capacity plant. Unfortunately, cement plants in neighbouring states have lowered their deliveries. Subsequently prices are estimated to have risen by 8 – 10% in July and August 2015 alone..

To put some perspective on the cement shortage, the Cuyo region of Argentina (comprising Mendoza, San Juan and San Luis Provinces) consumed just over 1Mt of cement in 2014 compared to 11Mt for the entire country. However all three provinces in the region are above the national mean cement consumption of 271kg/capita.

Despite the bottleneck in the provinces, the Asociacion de Fabricantes de Cemento (AFCP) recently revised its cement sales forecast for 2015 upwards to over 12Mt, the highest level on record. It attributed the rise demand to public infrastructure projects, house building and the Argentina Credit Programme (ProCreAr). Total despatches to the end of August 2015 were 7.99Mt, a rise of 8.73% or 641,664t from 7.35Mt in August 2014.

This followed a poor year in 2014 when national cement consumption fell by 3.5% year-on-year according to local press. The AFCP reported a fall in production by 4.1% to 11.4Mt.

Notably for the current news story, San Juan Province saw one of the biggest sales drops in 2014 at 10.5%. As InterCement (through its subsidiary Loma Negra) commented in its annual report, the country suffered both a gross domestic product (GDP) contraction of 1% in 2014 and instability in its financial markets that adversely affected consumption. Both the other major cement producers, Cementos Avellaneda (a subsidiary of Cementos Molins) and Holcim Argentina, also reported poor sales in 2014. Under these conditions it is unsurprising that consumers have angered due to localised cement shortages. There should be lots of cement available!

Into 2015, Holcim reported increased cement volumes in the first half of 2015 due to high demand in the Cordoba Province that neighbours Mendoza Province. By contrast, InterCement forecast in its 2014 annual report that it expected sales to remain lower than the high set in 2013. However it also expected continued demand for cement to reflect a response to the economic situation in Argentina with private investors moving to real estate for security.

InterCement and the rest will be monitoring Argentina's economy very closely for the remainder of 2015. Presidential elections are due in October that may change the current scenario. For the moment though the country remains in recession but it has managed to bring in foreign investment. Regardless of this though, the quicker Holcim Argentina and the others address the shortage in Mendoza the better. Demand may not last forever.

Spain: According to the Spanish Collection, Cementos Molins plans to invest Euro127m in 2015 to boost its expansion on the markets where it already has presence. Its investments on the Spanish market will stand at Euro10m and its main project abroad will be the construction of a furnace at the San Luis plant in Argentina. Cementos Molins expects a rise in profit year-on-year in 2015. In the first quarter of the year, its consolidated profit was Euro15.1m.