Displaying items by tag: GCW168

Japan: eRex Inc, a power generation company, has agreed to invest US$159m in a biomass power project situated in the premises of Taiheyo Cement plant in Oita Prefecture, Japan. The total installed capacity of the power plant will be 50MW, sufficient to supply 100,000 households. The investment/MW will be US$3.18m. The power plant will use palm shells, a by-product of palm oil production in Indonesia and elsewhere, as its primary fuel. The company will set up a separate storage facility in Oita to hold 100,000t of palm shells. The power plant is expected to be operational in 2016.

South Africa: PPC has acquired the remaining 50% stake in Gauteng Province's ready-mix concrete and fly ash-supplier, Pronto Holdings, which it did not already own. Bheki Sibiya, PPC's chairman, said that it had paid a total of US$41.9m for 100% of Pronto.

UK/US: Hanson Building Products Ltd, which is owned by HeidelbergCement AG, filed with US regulators for an initial public offering of ordinary shares. BofA Merrill Lynch, BNP Paribas and Deutsche Bank Securities are underwriting the IPO, Hanson told the US Securities and Exchange Commission in a preliminary prospectus on 15 September 2014.

HeidelbergCement agreed to buy Hanson plc, which includes Hanson Building, for Euro10Bn in 2007 to create the world's second-largest construction materials company. Hanson Building produces concrete gravity pipe, concrete and steel pressure pipe and clay bricks in the US, eastern Canada and the UK. However, HeidelbergCement has been aiming to offload its US and UK building products business in 2014 to have the best chance of buying cement assets that Lafarge and Holcim must sell when they merge, according to Reuters.

Hanson Building's filing included a nominal fundraising target of about Euro77.3m. The filing did not reveal how many shares the company planned to sell or their expected price. Hanson Building intends to list its common stock on the New York Stock Exchange but did not specify the symbol. HeidelbergCement, the wholly-owned subsidiary of the German cement manufacturer, is selling all the shares in the offering and Hanson Building will not receive any of the proceeds.

Hanson Building reported net income of Euro11.5m for the first six months of 2014, compared with a loss of Euro195m during the same period of 2013. Net sales, however, dropped by 47% year-on-year to Euro462m.

Iran: As of 1 September 2014, each Iranian cement company can export 15,000t/yr cement into Iraq from the Shalamcheh, Chazzabeh and Mehran border terminals, according to Jahanbakhsh Sanjabi Shirazi, the head of Iran-Iraq Joint Chamber of Commerce. He noted that the new regulations have been adopted by Iraq's Trade Ministry.

Iran exports 8 – 10Mt/yr of cement to Iraq, supplying almost half of Iraq's total cement consumption. Iraq consumes 19Mt/yr of cement. Iran exported over 8Mt of cement to Iraq between 21 March 2014 and 21 August 2014.

Iran currently exports cement to 24 countries, including Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Pakistan, Qatar, Turkey, Georgia, Oman, India and China. Iran has successfully started to use railroads to export cement to neighbouring and Central Asian countries. The main importers of Iranian cement are Iraq (63%), Azerbaijan (4%) and Turkmenistan (7%).

India: Bhavya Cements has received approval from the State Level Single Window Clearance Authority (SLSWCA) for the construction of a 3Mt/yr capacity cement grinding plant in Dhenkanal, Odisha, with a capital investment of US$60m. Separately, Shree Cement also plans to set up a 3Mt/yr capacity cement plant in the same location for US$74.4m.

Romania: Holcim has completed the extension of its waste co-processing platform in Campulung, Arges County, following a Euro6m investment that was co-funded by the European Union (EU).
The project was implemented throughout 20 months via ecovalor, a Holcim division that specialises in waste management. Of the total Euro6m investment, Euro1.6m came from EU funds under the economic competitiveness programme. Holcim Romania introduced waste co-processing in its cement plants in 2003 and has invested Euro32m in waste processing.

Uzbekistan: The board of appeals of Tashkent regional economic court has postponed the consideration of the case regarding the privatisation of Eurocement's Ahangarancement plant.
Eurocement officials requested additional time to sign a settlement agreement with defendant, the State Committee of Uzbekistan, for the privatisation, demonopolisation and development of competition, according to local media. The next session of the appeal board of Tashkent regional economic court will be held on 25 September 2014.