Displaying items by tag: Expansion
Nigeria: Lafarge Africa’s chairman Mobolaji Balogun says that the company plans to cut its debts by 2020 before continuing with its expansion programme. In an interview with Bloomberg he said that the cement producer wants reduce its leverage ratio to below 70% from over 100% at present.
The subsidiary of LafargeHolcim wants to take advantage of improvements in the Nigerian economy and a recovery in South Africa to grow its profits. Its total debt recently dropped to about US$600m. Lafarge Africa incurred debt to expand the production capacity at its Calabar cement plant and plans to add more production to plants in the southwest and the north of the country.
India: Grasim Industries plans to invest up to US$870m in its cement business by the end of 2021. The subsidiary of Aditya Birla that also operates UltraTech Cement, wants to modernise its existing cement plants, carry out environmental upgrades and increase the production capacity of the units it acquired from Jaiprakash Associates, according to the Mint newspaper.
Aditya Birla Group’s chief financial officer Sushil Agarwal said that the company wants to increase the capacity utilisation rate of the former Jaiprakash Associates cement plants to over 85%, the standard level for the other UltraTech Cement plants. He added that on average cement plants in India have a capacity utilisation rate of 75%.
Spain: Cementos Alfa, part of Cementos Portland Valderrivas Group, has received permission from the Ministry of Environment to expand its quarry. The approval also allows the cement producer to expand the area of its quarry, according to the El Diario Montañés newspaper. The quarry currently produces 0.6Mt/yr of limestone and marl that are used for clinker production at the neighbouring plant.
Lafarge Zimbabwe to expand quarry
15 February 2018Zimbabwe: Lafarge Zimbabwe is looking to expand its operations as it is set to commence exploratative drilling for lime within the next two months. It already has two mining operations where limestone is extracted at Mbubu in Mashonaland East Province and Sternblick quarry in Harare.
The company told local press that exploratative drilling was anticipated to commence in April 2018. This comes as its environmental impact assessment for limestone exploration drilling in Pfura Rural District was approved. The company has contracted Bumira Environmental Consultants to perform the environmental assessment.
JSW Cement to bid for Binani Cement
15 January 2018India: JSW Cement plans to bid for Binani Cement. Managing director Parth Jindal said that the cement producer would partner with a private equity fund to make the offer, according to the Economic Times newspaper. He added that the company is looking for acquisitions in the cement sector. It has also made a bid for Kalyanpur Cement that has a cement production capacity of 1Mt/yr in Bihar. The company aims to reach a production capacity of 20Mt/yr by 2020.
JK Cement to invest US$234m on expansion drive
18 September 2017India: JK Cement plans to invest up US$234m over the next 3- 4 years on an expansion project to increase its cement production capacity by over 30% to 14Mt/yr. Rajnish Kapur, the head of the company’s cement business, told the Press Trust of India that the cement producer is considering expanding existing plants and building new ones due to anticipated government infrastructure spending and a good monsoon. He said that it is in the process of evaluating expansion opportunities at its Mangrol plant in Rajasthan. It is also looking to build a new plant in Panna, Madhya Pradesh. It intends to finance the expansion through a mixture of internal funds and via loans.
Minister requests more money for Belarusian plants
08 August 2017Belarus: The construction ministry has asked Alyaksandr Lukashenka to provide a fresh portion of government aid to Belarus’ three cement plants. Minister Anatol Chorny confirmed this on 7 August 2017, adding that the government was also considering selling stakes in the companies to investors that ‘could take over the financial burden.’ Chorny explained that the companies were struggling because of the need to pay off massive loans taken out to cover modernisation projects several years ago.
Ramco to ramp up grinding capacity
07 August 2017India: Ramco Cements is planning to make an investment of about US$172m in various projects, on the back of anticipated higher demand for cement in the near future. The company will invest in a range of projects, including expansion of its satellite grinding unit capacity. This move will enable the company to increase its presence in Odisha, Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal and will raise its total capacity to 7.1Mt/yr from 4.0Mt/yr at present. Expansions will be undertaken at its Visakhapatnam and Kolaghat plants, as well as at a new new grinding unit in Odisha. The projects will be commissioned within 18 months.
Semen Indonesia sets US$449m aside for expansion in 2017
09 January 2017Indonesia: Semen Indonesia has prepared US$449m to be spent on capital expansion upgrades in 2017 to support government infrastructure targets. The plan includes four cement plants with a total production capacity of 10.5Mt/yr, according to the Jakarta Post. The Rembang plant in Central Java and the Indarung VI plant in Padang, West Sumatra are in the final stages of construction. New plants in Aceh and Kupang are also being planned for completion in 2019 and 2020 respectively, although these projects will require additional funding. The cement producer is also planning to build two packaging plants in Bengkulu and Maluku and a 30MW waste heat power plant at its plant in Tuban, East Java.
Company corporate secretary Agung Wiharto added that Semen Indonesia has forecast a 5% rise in demand for cement in 2017 to 70Mt. This is mainly due to government plans to boost infrastructure development across the country.
Emami Group plans 20Mt/yr expansion drive by 2021
26 October 2016India: Emami Group is planning to build a cement production capacity of 15 – 20Mt/yr by 2021. It started operations at its 5.5Mt/yr cement plant in Chattisgarh in July 2016. In addition, two cement grinding plants are set to open in West Bengal and Odisha, according to the Press Trust of India. The West Bengal plant is due to open in January 2017.
"We aim to be among the top few players in the cement industry. Emami Cement plans to have a manufacturing capacity of 15 – 20Mt/yr over the next three to five years," said Aditya Agarwal, director of Emami Group.
Emami Cement has a limestone mine in Andhra Pradesh where it also plans to build a 2Mt/yr plant with an investment of US$225m. It also plans to build a 6Mt/yr plant in Rajasthan for US$524m.
Initially, the company plans to target markets in Chattisgarh, West Bengal, Odisha and eastern Maharashtra's Vidharbha region. It sells cement under the 'Double Bull' brand.