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India: JK Lakshmi Cement has reported an 88.6% fall in its net profit to US$0.95m for the quarter that ended on 31 March 2015. Total income fell by 11.4% year-on-year to US$93.8m for quarter.
For the year that ended on 31 March 2015, JK Lakshmi Cement posted a 2.8% rise in its net profit to US$15m. Its total income surged by 11.2% to US$367m for the year and its net profit after tax grew by 9.65% year-on-year to US$16.2m.

South Africa: PPC has reported that in the six months that ended on 31 March 2015, its profit fell by 38% year-on-year, hurt by slack demand at its mainstay home market. However, its revenue rose by 9% to US$379m during the period.

South African building firms are struggling with weak demand as the government delays rolling out its US$84bn infrastructure investment package. In response, PPC has set its sights on the rest of Africa. It is building plants in African countries like Ethiopia and the Democratic Republic of Congo as part of a wider plan to generate 40% of its sales outside its home market by 2017.

Ireland: Gardaí (Ireland's police force) and officials from the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) raided Irish Cement's offices last week in an investigation into the Euro50m bagged-cement industry. According to local media, the inquiry is focused on charges of abuse of a dominant position, which is an offence under both Irish and European law.

The alleged offence involves a business using a powerful position in a particular market to force out rivals or put them out of business. It often involves predatory pricing, namely cutting charges for products or services to a point where others cannot compete. Irish Cement is one of the largest players in the market.

"Irish Cement fully facilitated the inspection and is continuing to cooperate with the CCPC. Inspections regarding competition policies, procedures and practices are an accepted part of the business environment around the world," said Irish Cement in a statement. The company added that it operated to the highest standard and was confident that it had no issues in relation to competition.

South Africa: South Africa has imposed provisional anti-dumping duties of 14.3 – 77.2% on Portland Cement originating in or imported from Pakistan from 15 May 2015 for six months. Lucky Cement is subjected to pay 14.3% duty, followed by Bestway at 77.2%, DG Khan at 68.9%, Attock Pakistan at 63.5% and other cement makers at 62.7%.

This follows an investigation initiated by the International Trade Administration Commission of South Africa (ITAC) on 22 August 2014 after a number of local cement producing companies submitted an application on behalf of the South African Customs Union (SACU). A number of companies, including Afrisam, Lafarge Africa, NPC Cimpor and PPC, approached the ITAC and established a prima facie case that convinced the commission to initiate an investigation on the basis of dumping, material injury, threat of material injury and causality. However, the application was opposed by Pakistani cement producers, such as Lucky Cement, Bestway Cement, DG Khan Cement and Attock Cement.

The commission found that the industry is suffering material injury through a decline in sales volume and output as well as profits and cash flow. The industry also experienced price undercutting and price suppression. The commission further found that a threat of material injury exists given that Pakistan has increased its production capacity; Pakistan's exports to its traditional markets are declining and imports from Pakistan into South Africa increased by >600% in 2010 - 2013.

The commission made a preliminary determination that Portland cement originating in or imported from Pakistan was dumped into the market. In order to prevent further injury to the industry while the investigation is under way, the commission has requested the SARS (South African Revenue Service) to impose the provisional measures on imported Portland cement originating from Pakistan for six months.

Trinidad & Tobago: According to chairman Wilfred Espinet, director Nigel Edwards and new chief executive Jose Luis Seijo, Trinidad Cement Ltd (TCL) has repaid all of its previous lenders.

"TCL has been able to secure the funds to repay those lenders from short term loans in the amount of US$245m, together with cash from its recent Rights Issue and cash generated from operations," said Espinet. The company has also secured a nine-month loan facility from Citibank and Credit Suisse at an initial rate of libor plus 6.25% (a current effective interest rate of 6.53%), subject to a quarterly increase of 1% if it is still in issue.
In the coming weeks, TCL, Credit Suisse and Citibank intend to approach local and international markets to secure longer-term financing that will bring TCL to the final stage of the reorganisation of the capital structure. Some of the expected immediate benefits from the refinancing are a debt reduction from prepayment of previous lenders of US$31m, a reduction in financing costs in the form of quarterly interest savings of up to US$1.7m and a stronger balance sheet.

Jose Luis Seijo was named as TCL's new chief executive officer effective from 4 May 2015. Previously, Seijo has worked with Mexico's Cemex. Seijo's focus will be on value creation for the company and its stakeholders. "The TCL Group has huge potential. My immediate job is to tap into all our resources-essentially to mobilise the skills of our workforce against a backdrop of improved operational efficiencies and prudent investments to ensure a sustainable future," said Seijo. Former CEO Rollin Bertrand was dismissed by the TCL board in September 2014.

India: Orient Cement, a C K Birla Group company, has reported revenues of US$243m in its 2015 financial year, which ended on 31 March 2015. It also expects the demand cycle in the Indian cement industry to pick up within a couple of quarters and is ready to take up the opportunity with inorganic growth.

Orient Cement CEO Deepak Khetrapal said that the country is witnessing policy tweaking on the infrastructure front. "We can see that the GDP growth will happen on massive investment in infrastructure and this will pick up demand for cement in the country," said Khetrapal.

Orient Cement reported 225% growth in its fourth quarter 2015 net profit to US$13.4m. Its revenue, however, declined marginally to US$61.9m from US$63m in the same quarter of 2014. Orient Cement's revenue grew by 8% for the whole of its 2015 financial year, while its net profit was up by 93% to US$30.5m.

Orient Cement has already set a target of achieving 15Mt/yr production capacity by the end of 2020. "We are exploring all avenues to grow inorganically. We have already started investments in a greenfield project in Rajasthan. Also, we are looking at acquiring a few production plants with 2Mt/yr and 3Mt/yr production capacities in eastern India," said Khetrapal.

Orient Cement has invested US$236m at its soon-to-be-commissioned Kallaburgi plant to achieve 3Mt/yr of installed capacity. "We will make additional investments of US$78.6m by the end of the 2016 fiscal year. We have got all of the clearances for the project and the state government nod for limestone mining is expected within 8 - 10 weeks," said Khetrapal.

Philippines: Aboitiz Equity Ventures Inc has signed a deal with CRH, which when completed would allow it to join CRH in investing in the Philippine cement plants of Lafarge.

CRH had earlier agreed to buy for US$7.34bn in cement assets from Lafarge and Holcim Ltd, whose asset divestments are part of preconditions to winning regulatory approval for their merger. Both Lafarge and Holcim have cement assets in the Philippines. Aboitiz Equity plans to join CRH in acquiring a majority of the shares of Lafarge Republic Inc and the shares in Luzon Continental Land Corp and Lafarge Cement Services Philippines Inc, which constitute the majority of Lafarge's local cement operations.

Aboitiz Equity president Erramon Aboitiz said that if the deal with CRH is finalised, it would provide it with an investment that dovetails with its plan to invest in infrastructure development. The company is already in banking, property development, food manufacturing and power generation and distribution. "Venturing into infrastructure meets our growth criteria. We are very optimistic of the potential gains this new core business will bring to the Group amid the huge demand for infrastructure in the Philippines," said Aboitiz.

The conclusion of deal is subject to the successful completion of the merger between Lafarge and Holcim as well as approval by the boards of both CRH and Aboitiz Equity.

Indonesia: Indocement Tunggal Prakarsa, part of Germany's HeidelbergCement, has secured shareholder approval to pay 94% of the company's 2014 profits, about US$382m, as dividends. Indocement booked US$403m in profits in 2014, a 5.2% increase from US$383m in 2013. During 2014, its net revenues totalled US$1.47bn, an increase from US$1.43bn in 2013.

President director Christian Kartawijaya said that net revenues had dropped by 3.8% year-on-year to US$331m in the first quarter of 2015 due to a decline in demand. He said that he hoped sales would increase in the second quarter, during which the government was expected to begin major infrastructure projects. "The recent cement price cut by the government affected our business, but it was not so bad because we were also able to cut costs," said Kartawijaya.

President Joko Widodo instructed state-run Semen Indonesia to lower the price of cement in January 2015, a move that led to private cement companies lowering their selling prices to keep up with competition. Indocement lowered its average cement prices by 4%. However, it also reduced its operational costs, including energy costs, distribution and logistics costs to compensate the fall in prices.

According to Indocement, domestic cement consumption grew by 3.3% in 2014, slower than the 5.5% growth seen in 2014, as the election year led to the postponement of a number of projects. Kartawijaya predicted that the number would grow to 3.5% until the end of the second quarter of 2015. In 2014, Indonesia's cement oversupply was 7Mt. This is expected to rise to 15Mt in 2015. "The demand slowdown will continue until the end of the second quarter if the government does not begin large-scale infrastructure projects," said Kartawijaya. The Indonesia Cement Association (ASI) has predicted that the Indonesian cement industry would see an increase of 6% in 2015 due to the government's large-scale projects, including new toll roads, railways, deep seaports and water dams.

Indocement has allocated US$344m in capital expenditure (capex) for 2015, higher than last year's US$298m. The capex will be used to finish its new US$153m plant in Pati, Central Java, while the rest would be invested in its gas turbine projects. Kartawijaya said that the new plant in Pati would start operating in the fourth quarter of 2015 and is expected to have 4.4Mt/yr of cement production capacity, boosting the firm's annual capacity up to 25Mt/yr.

Kazakhstan: Steppe Cement Ltd has swung to a large pre-tax loss for 2014. The company said that its results were affected by the depreciation of the country's currency, the devaluation of the Russian Ruble and lower oil prices.

For the year ended on 31 December 2014, Steppe Cement reported a pre-tax loss of US$8.1m, compared with a pre-tax profit of US$13m in 2013, on revenues of US$117m and US$128m, respectively. Steppe Cement produced 1.6Mt of cement in 2014, up by 18% from the year ago period. It expects the overall Kazakh market demand for cement in 2015 to increase by 3% to 8.8Mt.

India: Saurashtra Cement's net profit rose by 107% to US$6m in the fourth quarter of 2015, which ended on 31 March 2015, compared to US$2.89m during the prior year quarter. Sales declined by 21.6% to US$21.6m in the fourth quarter compared to US$27.5m during the 2014 fourth quarter.

For the full 2015 financial year that ended on 31 March 2015, Saurashtra Cement's net profit rose by 227% to US$10.6m compared to US$3.25m during its 2014 financial year. Sales rose by 6.04% to US$87.8m during the year.