Displaying items by tag: China

China: Asia Cement Corp, one of Taiwan's leading cement suppliers, said that its subsidiary in China, Asia Cement (China) Holdings Corp, saw its net profit plunge year-on-year by 71% in 2012 to US$63.7m, due to an oversupply in China.

Asia Cement (China) posted a revenue of US$1.08bn in 2012, a year-on-year drop of 18.6%. Asia Cement blamed falling product prices in the Chinese market. Asia Cement (China) had a cement production of 24.9Mt in 2012 and its cement sales were 22.7Mt.

The China-based manufacturer sold 3.8Mt of cement in the Nanchang-Jiujiang district of Jiangxi Province, accounting for 31% of the district's total cement sales in 2012, while the company took a 27% share of the Wuhan market in Hubei Province, selling 5Mt in 2012. It accounted for 21% of the total cement sales in Chengdu, Sichuan Province and accounted for 30% of the cement market in Jiangsu Province's Yangzhou in 2012.

Asia Cement (China) said it aims to boost production capacity in its production line in Jianxi Province in an effort to boost its production to 30Mt/yr. In addition, the company said it will seek targets for acquisitions in a bid to further lift production to 50Mt/yr to rank among the top 10 cement suppliers in China.

China: Huaxin Cement Co Ltd, a Hubei Province-based cement producer, announced on 25 March 2013 that the company's net profit came to US$89.5m in 2012, a year-on-year decrease of 48.3%. Huaxin Cement saw its operating revenue for 2012 slide by 0.93% year-on-year to US$2.0bn.

The company attributed the drop in its profit to falling cement prices caused by overcapacity in the Chinese cement market during 2012.

China: West China Cement has reported that its gross profit fell by 23.7% to US$109m in 2012 from US$142m in 2011. The Chinese cement producer attributed the shortfall on a decreasing selling price, increases in electricity costs and higher overheads due to lower productivity.

The company's revenue rose by 10.5% to US$567m from US$513m. Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBIDTA) fell by 9% to US$170m from US$187m. Cement sales volumes rose by 22% to 14.3Mt in 2012 from 11.7Mt in 2011.

In its annual report West China Cement reported that it is consolidating its position as the largest cement producer in Shaanxi Province as well as expanding into Xinjiang Province, where economic and infrastructure growth promoted by the Chinese government's Western Development Policy remains a key feature of the 12th Five-Year Plan. For 2013 the company expects the recovery in infrastructure demand in the second half of 2012 to continue. However, increased overall capacity in Xinjiang Province is expected to continue impacting upon cement prices in that region.

Production: China saw cement output increase by 10.8% year-on-year to 237Mt in the first two months of 2013, according to recent data released by the National Bureau of Statistics.

45 companies in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region produced a total 466,000t of cement and 2.67Mt of clinker in the first two months of 2013, a year- on-year decrease of 9.28% and 37.27% respectively, according to sources quoted by China Business Newswire.

Guangdong Province produced 118Mt of cement in 2012.

Company news: China Shanshui Cement has reported that its net profit fell by 31.8% to US$245m in 2012. Its revenue fell by 4.2% to US$2.6bn in 2012. Total sales volume of cement and clinker rose by 3.5% to 56.9Mt. It attributed the decrease in net profit to the fall of selling prices as a result of decline in demand.

West China Cement has reported that its net profit rose by 44.9% to US$57.9m in 2012. Operating revenue grow by 10.5% to US$566m. The company saw cement sales rise by 22.2% to 14.3Mt.

Fujian Cement has reported a slump in net profit of 76.9% to US$4.63bn in 2012. Operating revenue fell by 13.7% to US$261m. The company expects to earn US$359m in operating revenue in 2013.

Gansu Qilianshan Cement Group sold 15.3Mt of cement and cement clinker in 2012, a year-on-year increase of 29.2%. Currently the company has a cement production capacity of 21.3Mt/yr and it aims to reach a capacity of 45Mt/yr by the end of 2015. Gansu Qilianshan Cement Group Co has announced in its annual report for 2012 that the company saw its net profit drop by 47.8% year-on-year to US$28m in 2012. The company's operating revenue rose by 17.28% year-on-year to US$684m in 2012.

Xinjiang Tianshan Cement Co Ltd has reported that it saw net profit drop by 71.8% year-on-year to US$51.3m in 2012. The company attributed the net profit drop to overcapacity in the cement industry in 2012. Tianshan Cement's operating revenue for 2012 fell by 6.99% year-on-year to US$1.24bn.

Shenzhen-listed cement producer, Sichuan Shuangma Cement Co has announced that it earned a net profit of US$1.37m in 2012, a year-on-year decline of 90%. The company's operating revenue for 2012 decreased by 8.3% on-year to US$301m.

China: China is expected to introduce rules to boost the use of waste treatment as an alternative fuel in cement kilns, a China Securities Journal report has said.

Xu Yongmo, vice chairman of the China Building Materials Federation, said at a forum that the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), together with other six ministries, were mulling over policies to boost co-processing in cement industry. The waste used in the cement kilns covers municipal sludge, household garbage and industrial solid waste.

China: Demand for cement in China will increase amid tightening supply in 2013, according to the vice-president of China Resources Cement. Yu Zhongliang, the vice-chairman of China Resources Cement, said that mainland China would not suffer from overcapacity because obsolete production capacity will be eliminated, in an article in the South China Morning Post.

An estimated 150Mt of new production capacity of cement will be added in 2013, but 100Mt of obsolete capacity will be eliminated, leaving a net increase in production capacity of 50Mt. Yu predicts that production will rise by 8% at most, but demand will grow by 8% to 10%.

"Over the past year, lots of metro railway and airport projects were approved in China. This will drive cement demand," said Pan Yonghong, the chief executive of China Resources Cement.

Government-led investment in infrastructure and urbanisation will support growth of 5% to 8% annually until 2015, according to a Macquarie Group report. Macquarie expects cement prices to jump 13% by 2015 due to tighter supply and increased demand, giving the sector a surge of 60% to 80% in earnings.

In January 2013, the central government stipulated that the country's ten largest cement producers should increase their national market share to 35% by 2015 from 30% currently. "We are in the top five by production capacity. We hope to rise in rank by 2015," Yu said. Beijing aims to create three or four mega-sized cement companies each with a production capacity exceeding 100Mt/yr by 2015.

China: China Resources Cement has announced a turnover of US$3.27bn for the calendar year 2012, 9.1% higher than its 2011 turnover of US$3.00bn. However, its profit attributable to the owners of the company was down by 44.4% year-on-year to US$299.7m from US$538.8m in 2011. In terms of volumes, the company sold 26.5% more cement and 36.0% more clinker than in 2011, selling 55.9Mt and 8.7Mt respectively.

Zhou Longshan, Chairman and Executive Director of China Resources Cement, said, "In 2012, the global economy was still in a downturn and China's economic growth continued to slow down. However, under the 'Steady Growth' economic policies implemented by the Chinese government, the national economy had shown a stable trend (to recovery)."

"During the year under review, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued a list of companies with obsolete capacities. The continuous and effective implementation of obsolete capacity elimination has played an important role in the improvement of demand and supply dynamics of the cement industry. The group managed to achieve the target total sales volume of about 65Mt of cement and clinker, which resulted from the release of new capacities completed and acquired since 2011, reinforcing its leading market position in Southern China."

In addition, China Resources Cement secured a US$64.5m bank loan. It announced the funding on 5 March 2013.

China: The cement sector on China's A-share market fell on 4 March 2013 following the announcement of new property control policies. China's central government announced on 1 March 2013 a set of measures to reduce rising domestic housing prices. The new measures included higher transaction duties, increased down payments and mortgage interest rates as well as strict purchase qualifications.

Cement demand in China is mainly driven by the property market and infrastructure construction. The market information supplier Chem99.com analyst Lu Ning said that the property market provided about 30% of the cement demand. Data from the China Cement Association showed that profits for the domestic cement industry fell by 32.8% year-on-year in 2012 to US$10.6bn.

China: German cement industry supplier Loesche GmbH has signed a contract to provide five mills to Shanxi Biological Cement Co. in China. The Shanghai division of Loesche has taken an order for two raw material mills and three clinker mills with complete mill key parts, housings and frames. The components are scheduled for delivery in 2013 with commissioning planned for mid-2013.

Shanxi Biological Cement is the daughter company of Shanxi Coal and Chemical Industry Group Co. It has merged two local cement companies with just under 1Mt/yr cement production capacity. It is building two 4500t/day clinker production lines in FuPing and a 1.8Mt/yr ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBFS) production line in Gaoling. Another 1Mt/yr clinker grinding station plant in HuangLing is being planned. Following all of this production, Shanxi Biological Cement Co intends to become the top cement producer in Western China with a capacity of 10Mt/yr.

China: Cement output in China increased by 7.4% year-on-year in 2012 to 2.18Bt, according to data released by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. Clinker output rose by 1% to 1.28Bt. Obsolete cement production capacity of 220Mt/yr was eliminated.

In other news the China Building Material Federation has released production information for regions in north-western China. Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region produced 41Mt of cement in 2012, a year-on-year increase of 32.8%. Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region saw cement output increase by 10% to 16.1Mt. Shaanxi Province saw cement output increase by 16.3% to 76Mt. Gansu Province saw cement output increase by 32% to 36.7Mt.