Displaying items by tag: GCW171

Venezuela/Switzerland: Holcim Ltd has said that it will continue to pursue a final payment of roughly US$100m from Venezuela after the country's government failed to complete compensation payments related to the nationalisation of the Swiss cement company's operations in the country.

Holcim has already received US$552.5m out of a total of US$650m compensation that it expected following the nationalisation of Holcim Venezuela in 2008.

However, Corporación Socialista Del Cemento, SA, the state-owned company that now operates the former Holcim plants, hasn't transferred a final installment of US$97.5m, according to Holcim. The payment was been due on 10 September 2014.

"Holcim is in contact with the relevant parties in Venezuela to address this situation and, if necessary, will pursue all legal steps to collect the amounts due," said a Holcim statement.

Ireland: Ireland-based building materials group CRH will sell its clay brickwork division for up to Euro760m in order to bid for cement assets that are to be sold as part of the LafargeHolcim mega-merger. London-based sources have said that the Dublin-based company had hired bankers from JP Morgan to find a buyer for the division.

CRH is believed to be interested in all of the assets Lafarge and Holcim have up for sale, including subsidiaries in Canada and Brazil. LafargeTarmac, the largest cement maker in the neighbouring UK, is also up for sale as part of the LafargeHolcim divestment package. There are Euro5bn of assets for sale in total.

The disposal could be one of the first big changes by CRH's new chief executive, Albert Manifold. He was promoted in January 2014 after the retirement of Myles Lee, who had spent 32 years at the company. Several private equity firms are thought to be interested in the clay brick division. Bankers said that it was likely to fetch Euro630-760m.

India: JK Cement has commenced production and dispatch of cement from an expansion project at its cement plant in Mangrol, Chittorgarh, Rajasthan. The plant, which started production in 2001 at a rate of 0.75Mt/yr, had a capacity of 1Mt/yr prior to the upgrade. The company has plans to eventually increase the plant's capacity to 3Mt/yr in the future.

One of the largest cement makers in northern India, JK Cement is also a major producer of white cement. It exports to South Africa, Nigeria, Singapore, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, UAE and Nepal.

India: Zuari Cement has announced that it will set up a 3.2Mt/yr cement plant in Gulbarga through its subsidiary Gulbarga Cement Ltd (GCL). The company also plans to set up 50MW captive power plant. The site for the new plant is 28km from Gulbarga city on the Gulbarga–Bangalore highway.

According to Nabil Francis, Managing Director of Zuari Cement, on completion of the project, the company will have a total capacity of 10Mt/yr and will become one of the largest cement manufacturers in South India. "The capacity expansion will strengthen our presence and strengthen our market expansion plans in the southern, western and the north east markets," he said.

The foundation stone for the plant was laid on 30 September 2014 by Francis along with Ramesh Suryanarayana, Director of Business Development, in the presence of Surendra Pattar, Site Manager, and other senior Zuari Cement executives.
Francis said the Gulbarga unit is designed to double its capacity in the future as part of the plans to cater for growing demand in northern Karnataka and neighbouring Maharashtra.

Brazil/UK: Lafarge Tarmac, the UK's largest cement firm, may be bought by the Latin American conglomerate Votorantim. The mooted deal comes as giant cement firms Lafarge of France and Holcim of Switzerland sell off assets as they pursue their merger, announced in April 2014.