Displaying items by tag: GCW173

Indonesia: Following its plan to build a cement plant in Papua, Semen Indonesia has said it will soon expand to the west and develop another cement plant in Aceh Province to fulfil increasing local demand.

Semen Indonesia finance director Ahyanizzam said that the company was considering developing a cement plant in Aceh, as well as in Sulawesi and Kalimantan, in addition to its plan to set up a plant in Papua. Each of the plants would have up to 3Mt/yr of cement production capacity. The investment would be around US$352m, which would be sourced from bank loans. He added that Semen Indonesia is currently looking for suitable locations for the plants. "We expect to start working on the Aceh project in 2015," said Ahyanizzam.

Semen Indonesia expects cement demand in the province to rise due to the construction of the Trans Sumatra highway, a 2700km toll road project that stretches from Aceh to Lampung in 24 sections, connecting major cities in Sumatra. Four sections of the toll road began construction in October 2014 and are expected to be completed in 16 months, absorbing US$4bn of investment. The four sections are designed to connect Medan to Binjai in North Sumatra, Pekanbaru to Dumai in Riau, Bakauheni to Bandar Lampung in Lampung and Palembang to Indralaya in South Sumatra.

Ahyanizzam added that the planned cement plants were also projected to help Semen Indonesia cope with rising cement demand from across the country. Demand is expected to grow by 4% in 2014 and by 6% in 2015.

Semen Indonesia produces 31.8Mt/yr of cement and has a 44% share of the country's cement market. The company plans to boost its cement production to 39.3Mt/yr by 2016 and to 40.8Mt/yr by 2017 with the help of its new plants.

India: The Aditya Birla Group has submitted bids to purchase global assets being divested from the LafargeHolcim merger. UltraTech and other companies that belong to Birla have put in bids for cement units of Lafarge and Holcim in Brazil and the Philippines at an enterprise value of US$1.4bn. The group had identified Brazil as a major place for expansion three years ago. The Philippines was among the overseas countries where the group started operations several years ago.

Birla is competing with rival cement companies and private equity funds for the units. Germany's HeidelbergCement has teamed up with Votorantim Cimentos of Brazil while Cemex has joined hands with CRH plc. Eurocement is also in the race. Birla's move is part of its overall plan to increase its cement capacity to 70Mt/yr by early 2016 from 63Mt/yr currently.

Over 50% of Birla's revenues come from its overseas operations. According to a consultant involved with the deal, Birla will be unable to bid for LafargeHolcim assets in some of the market, including India, as a purchase will lead to monopoly in those markets.

UAE: Everest Industries, a leading Indian manufacturer of building solution products, plans to set up a fibre cement board plant in the UAE as part of its global expansion strategy. The new plant, which will produce about 72,000t/yr of fibre cement, will be set up through a wholly-owned subsidiary company of Everest Industries in Mauritius. Everest Industries has already won approval from its board of directors for the new UAE venture.

India: Sagar Cements has received final approval for the acquisition of the 100% equity stake in BMM Cements, which owns a 1Mt/yr capacity cement plant and a 25MW captive thermal power plant in Gudipadu, Andhra Pradesh.

India: UltraTech has reported a higher net profit in the second quarter of fiscal 2015, on a standalone and consolidated basis, off the back of increased sales. Second-quarter standalone net profit grew by 55% to US$66.9m compared to US$43.1m in the second quarter of 2014. Quarterly net sales stood at US$878m, 20% higher than US$735m in the prior year quarter.

"During the quarter, domestic cement sales volumes increased by 11% on the back of higher demand and additional volume from the acquired units in Gujarat," said UltraTech. "Costs were impacted mainly on account of increase in prices of petcoke, input material and royalty on limestone."

For the first half of 2015, the company's net profit was US$169m, up by 11% from US$153m in the corresponding period of 2014. Net sales and other operating income rose by 17% to US$1.81bn from US$1.56bn for the comparable period of 2014. The combined domestic cement and clinker sales were 10.4Mt, up by 12% from 9.22Mt in 2014, while white cement and wall care putty sales volumes amounted to 302,000t, up by 3% compared to 294,000t in the year-ago quarter.

Egypt: Egypt's National Company for Construction and Development (NCCD) plans to build its own cement plant as the price of locally-produced cement is high, according to NCCD's chairman Mahmoud Hegazy. The new plant will cover the cement requirements of NCCD's subsidiaries. The state-run firm is currently evaluating the best timing for the project.

India: Jaiprakash Associates Limited is selling its 2.1Mt/yr capacity split grinding plant at Bhilai, Chattisgarh to Shree Cements Limited for an enterprise value of US$293.
The deal is expected to be completed in October 2014.

Bhilai Jaypee Cement Limited is a joint venture between Jaiprakash Associates, which holds 74% stake in the unit and the Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL), which holds 26%. The cement plant, which has revenues of US$130m/yr, has US$97.5m of debt. After adjusting for this, the equity value of the deal is US$179 – 195m.

India: Holcim and Lafarge have begun an internal process in India to identify the assets that must be divested to adhere to the requirements of India's competition regulator, the Competition Commission of India.

Both companies are running processes to identify the plants and operations that are not linked to their strategic global plans. The process will also look at consolidation of operations and processes, which will lead to strategic alignment of both the companies in India to create a future-ready organisation with uniform processes.

In India, Lafarge, which has around 5Mt/yr cement capacity, is dwarfed by Holcim with a capacity of 47Mt/yr through its subsidiary companies Ambuja Cement and Associated Cement Companies (ACC), cornering roughly 12% of the 350Mt/yr Indian cement market. Aditya Birla Group's UltraTech is India's largest cement maker with a 62Mt/yr capacity.

Dominican Republic: Cemex has launched operations at a 1.5MW solar energy complex in the Dominican Republic in line with its commitment to sustainability. The facility will supply 2.2MkWhr/yr of energy to Cemex's cement plant in San Pedro de Macoris. It features 5040 panels with high-tech inverters. It is the first solar power plant owned by Cemex in the Caribbean. The company aims to continue to invest in sustainable energy solutions, such as marine and wind power.

India: In response to local concerns over the open-filling of fly-ash, an NTPC-owned thermal power plant in Kahalgaon, Bihar will install bagging machines for its fly-ash production. The facility provides fly-ash to cement makers in the northeast and is setting up six packing machines filling a total of 4800bags/hr or 4000t/day. The facility had been warned by the pollution control board, which has asked NTPC to deposit US$16,243 as security against the prescribed environmental measures. The board has said that the plant will be closed if it continues to violate the 'norms' by open-filling the sacks.