Displaying items by tag: China

Taiwan/China: TCC International, a unit of Taiwan Cement Corporation, has announced that it has entered into a framework agreement to acquire an array of cement and clinker production lines in Chongqing, Jiangxi and Zhejiang in China for a value not exceeding USD250m.

Under the framework agreement, the group will acquire either 100% or not less than 80% of equity interests in a group of companies and assets under Chongqing Kehua Holdings (Group) Limited and Zhejiang Kehua Group Company Limited. The target companies and assets to be acquired possess a total cement grinding capacity of about 8.1Mt/yr and total clinker production capacity of around 6.3Mt/yr.

Meanwhile, another of Taiwan's leading cement producers, Asia Cement, has posted a near 60% increase in net profit for the first half of 2011 compared to 2010 on the back of robust sales in its China operations. It recorded USD204m in net profit, up by 58.8% from a year ago.

Due to production expansion and rising product prices on the mainland market Asia Cement (China), the company's mainland subsidiary, registered USD104m in net profit during the same period, up by 369% compared to the first half of 2010.

However, Asia Cement said that its Taiwan operations suffered product price declines, which resulted from the dumping of low-priced mainland cement onto the island. This was compounded by rising production costs, which included higher fuel prices. With Taiwanese cement firms filing a complaint with the local authorities against the dumping of mainland products, Asia Cement expects domestic cement prices will rise to 'a reasonable level' later in 2011.

Meanwhile, Asia Cement said demand in China is expected to keep rising as the Chinese government carries out its 12th five-year economic development plan, which focuses on infrastucture, rural area development and residential property development. As the Chinese government gears up to phase out outdated cement production facilities, Asia Cement, which largely operates new plants there, is expected to take advantage and receive more sales orders.

China: China's cement industry has maintained its rapid growth in production, sales and profits so far in 2011, according to the latest data released by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT).

According to MIIT statistics China produced 198Mt of cement in June 2011, an increase of 19.9% over June 2010. This represents record highs for both monthly cement output and monthly growth rate. In the first half of 2011, China's cement production increased by 19.6% year-on-year to 950Mt.

Cement and clinker exports stood at 5.6Mt during the same period with an export value of USD310m for June 2011, down 35.5% and 14.9% year-on-year respectively.

According to the statistics provided the cement industry witnessed sales of USD50.4bn in the first five months this year with profits of USD5.4bn, up by 48% and an extraordinary 170% year-on-year respectively. Chinese cement production statistics are viewed with skepticism by some in the cement industry, who believe that they may be inflated.

Taiwan/China: Taiwan Cement Corp. (TCC) has made rapid progress in the Chinese market so far in 2011, recently announcing a massive seven-fold increase in first half earnings compared to 2010. TCC took USD138.5m in earnings from operations in China in the first half, which it attributes to higher product prices and successful capacity expansions. TCC's subsidiary in China, TCC International Holding Ltd, registered USD43.3m and USD95.2m in earnings in the first and second quarters respectively.

According to analysts, China's cement industry normally improves in the second quarter. TCC International shipped 7Mt of cement in the first quarter, with investors forecasting the volume to exceed 9.2Mt in the second quarter. If realised, such figures would represent a 30% year-on-year increase.

China: China National Building Material Group Corp (CNBM), China's largest building materials manufacturer, invested about USD131m in energy saving and emission reductions in 2010, according to the company's 2010 corporate social responsibility report. The construction industry has long been known for its heavy pollution and high energy use.

The Beijing-based, state-owned company gave top priority to fulfilling its corporate social responsibility (CSR) in terms of energy saving. "The company has dedicated itself to energy conservation by investing in clean technology," said Song Zhiping, chairman of CNBM. According to Liu Baoying, vice-president of CNBM, the cement sector is a major contributor to the company's energy consumption, accounting for more than 90% of the total.

"The company's energy consumption in the cement sector was down by 23% during the period of the country's 11th Five-Year Plan (2006-2010), mainly because of our efforts to eliminate poor production methods and upgrade technology," said Liu. CNBM has disposed of 51 energy-inefficient cement operations with a total capacity of 6.8Mt/yr over the past five years, according to its CSR report.

The country as a whole has also attached great importance to decreasing its carbon footprint with the government targeting reductions in CO₂ emissions for every unit of gross domestic product by between 40-45% by 2020 compared with 2005 levels. In addition, CNBM has made substantial efforts in developing new building materials in a bid to reduce energy consumption.

Beijing New Building Material (Group) Co Ltd (BNBM), a subsidiary of CNBM, mainly focused on manufacturing houses made of new building materials that can save electricity, water and materials during construction. They can also reduce by 60-90% the energy used when the buildings are functional, said Cui Lijun, general manager of BNBM.

China: CNBM was China's biggest cement producer in 2010 followed by Anhui Conch and Jidong according to newly-released data from OneStone Research.

In China the top 10 cement producers comprised 817.4Mt/yr (34%) of a cement capacity of 2.41Bnt/yr. The market leader with a capacity of 200Mt/yr (8.3%) was CNBM, followed by Anhui Conch with 150Mt/yr (6.2%) and Jidong with 89Mt/yr (3.7%). Next places in the ranking were taken by Sinoma Cement, Shanshui, Huaxin, CRC, Tianrui, TCC (China) and Hongshi.

Companies in the top 11 – 20 rankings included BBMG, Jinyu Group, Lafarge, Yatai and Asia Cement, combining about 9.5% of China's cement capacity. In total the top 20 companies comprised 43.5% of the national capacity.

The only foreign producer within the top 10 besides Holcim (which hold a 39.9% participation in Huaxin) was Taiwan Cement Corp. (TCC) Other major foreign cement producers in China include Lafarge, CRH, HeidelbergCement, Asia Cement Corp., Taiheiyo, Italcementi, Cimpor and Cemex.

North Korea: North Korea and China have held a ceremony to repair a key logistics road along their shared border, the latest sign of boosting economic cooperation between the two neighbours, which included a groundbreaking ceremony at the site of a new cement factory to be built in Rajin-Sonbong Economic Special Zone.

Some 200 officials from the two countries, including Jang Song-thaek, North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's brother-in-law and Chinese Commerce Minister Chen Deming, watched the ceremony in Rason.