Displaying items by tag: GCW205

India: As part of the implementation in India of its planned merger with Holcim, and subject to the completion of the same merger, Lafarge has signed an agreement to acquire the 14% stake held by Baring in Lafarge India for Euro270m. Following this transaction, subject to the approval of the regulatory authorities, Lafarge will hold 100% of the shares of Lafarge India.

India: N Srinivasan has resigned from the board of financial services company India Cements Capital (ICCL), part of India Cements.

"N Srinivasan and T S Raghupathy have resigned as directors of the company with effect from 30 March 2015," said ICCL in a statement. ICCL provides various financial services like money changing services and advisory services on the foreign exchange market to exporters and importers.

Nigeria: Lafarge's Ashaka Cement has reported that its first quarter 2015 profit fell despite reduced production costs. The fall was attributed to lengthy rainy rains and insurgency in the north of country that disrupted operations.

Ashaka Cement's operations have been disrupted by Boko Haram as the company is located in Gombe State, an insurgent hot-spot. Boko Haram has waged a six-year campaign to impose Islamic law, or Shariah, in Africa's largest economy and biggest oil-producer.

For the first three months that ended on 31 March 2015, Ashaka's net income fell by 53.5% year-on-year to US$4.47m and its sales dropped by 29.8% to US$22.9m. Gross profit was down by 48.9%, while gross profit margin fell to 35.7% in 2015 compared with 48.7% in the same period of 2014. Net margin, a measure of profitability and efficiency, fell to 19.5% compared to 29.5% in the first quarter of 2014.

While Ashaka Cement's profits flounder due to political risk, it was also able to reduce its costs. Cost of sales fell by 11.7% year-on-year to US$14.7m in the first quarter of 2015 as the company increased its use of local coal in place of expensive low pour fuel oil (LPFO).

Ashaka Cement is currently expanding its cement production capacity from 1Mt/yr to 4Mt/yr. The expansion will comprise debottlenecking of the existing line for additional 500,000t/yr and the installation of a new 2.5Mt/yr line, according to Suleiman Yahyah, chairman of the board of directors of the company. "As part of the expansion project, a captive coal-fired 64MW capacity power plant will be built in order to allow a reliable and sufficient source of power for the existing plant and the new cement line," said Yahyah.

Algeria: Qalaa Holdings, an investment company in the Middle East and Africa, has reported that its revenue in the first quarter of 2015 grew by 42.5% year-on-year to US$256m. Growth was driven mainly by operational improvements at ASEC Cement's Sudan subsidiary Al-Takamol, which recorded 157% year-on-year revenue growth. The energy and cement segments contributed 71% to its consolidated revenues.

Qalaa Holdings reported that its earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) stood at US$36.2m, an eight-fold increase on the same period of 2014. It had a net loss after tax and minority of US$14.7m in the first quarter of 2015, a 51.6% year-on-year improvement. Foreign exchange charges rose to US$6.95m, compared to a gain of US$1.71m in the first quarter of 2014. Qalaa Holdings' cement and construction unit ASEC Holding recorded US$10.2m in foreign exchange losses due to its stake in dollar-denominated ASEC Holding Convertible.

Qalaa Holdings' plans for the future include several cement divestments. Negotiations are progressing for the sale of ASEC Cement's operations in Algeria, with an Algerian Holding Company in the cement industry being the natural buyer for Zahana Cement as it already owns 65% of the company. The greenfield plant in Djelfa, Algeria is being bid for by two Algeria-based industrial groups.

Tunisia: According to the African Manager website, white cement production in Tunisia fell by 11.5% to 141,000t in the first four months of 2015 compared with 160,000t in the same period in 2014. According to deputy director of construction materials industries at the Ministry of Industry Taoufik Khardani, white cement sales fell by 8.8% to 59,000t during the period, down from 64,500t in 2014. Some 87,400t of white cement was exported in the first four months of 2015 compared to 102,400t in 2014.

Indonesia: Cement consumption fell by nearly 4% year-on-year during the first five months of 2015, the biggest decline in the January - May period in the last six years. The fall has been blamed on the country's slowing economy.

Data released by the Indonesian Cement Association show that cement demand in January - May 2015 fell by 3.8% year-on-year to 22.9Mt. It was the steepest drop so far in 2015. Consumption has declined consistently since February 2015. It was also the biggest drop recorded since 2009, when domestic demand fell by nearly 7% year-on-year due.

Indonesia's economy grew by 4.7% in the first quarter of 2015, the slowest in six years and since the start of the global financial crisis. Cement consumption has been a parameter in emerging markets' economic growth. "Cement demand has not fully recovered yet due to slower economic growth, relatively high interest rates, changes in property regulations and bleak commodity exports, which hampered property demand and consequently reduced cement consumption," said Marwan Halim from the stockbroking arm of United Overseas Bank Ltd, UOB KayHian, in a report. Bank Indonesia has maintained its interest rate at 7.5% to curb inflation and maintain its currency, while mortgage regulation and a lower price threshold for property products subject to 20% income have contributed to constraining the property industry.

Cement consumption in May 2015 fell by 7.9% year-on-year, much steeper than the 1.1% decline recorded in April 2015. It was the biggest May drop recorded since May 2009. Lower sales in May 2015 occurred in almost every part of the country, although East Nusa Tenggara and West Nusa Tenggara Provinces saw monthly sales rise by nearly 50% year-on-year. Commodity-based provinces experienced the highest declines during the month, with South Kalimantan and East Kalimantan making the steepest plunges with 41% and 24%, respectively. Even West Java, which traditionally has one of the highest cement consumption rates in Indonesia, suffered a sales decline of 8.3% year-on-year in May 2015.

Argentina: Loma Negra, the cement assets purchased in 2005 by Brazil's Camargo Corrêa Cimentos from the Fortabat family in a US$1bn deal and later incorporated into Intercement is likely to be sold, according to El Cronista. Loma Negra began 2011 with a US$400m four-year investment that includes US$250m to set up a plant at San Juan, Puerto Rico. It would be Loma Negra's 10th cement plant.

Russia: According to Heavy Lift, Germany-based Dako Worldwide Transport has transported a 185t cement mill over 5700km from the manufacturer's location in Austria to a cement plant in Sterlitamak, Russia.

The mill, which measured 18.5m x 5.7m x 6m, was first loaded onto a barge in Linz, Austria for transport along the Danube River to the Romanian port of Constanta, where the cargo was loaded onto a vessel and shipped across the Black Sea to Rostov, Russia. From Rostov, the vessel travelled down the Volga-Don River system to eventually arrive at Nizhnekamsk, where the cement mill was lifted by a heavy lift port crane onto a ro-ro barge for onward transport down the Kama and Belaya rivers to Ufa, Bashkortostan.

On arrival at Ufa, the mill was unloaded using a bespoke roll-off jetty that had been designed and constructed by Dako in Russia. The company explained that this was extremely challenging due to the very low water level in the river at the time. Special steel plates were placed on the jetty and two heavy-duty prime movers were used to pull the 24-axle hydraulic trailer and its load off the barge and onto land. The same trailer was then used to transport the cement mill to its final destination in Sterlitamak, Bashkortostan by road. En route, the vehicle had to pass over several bridges, many of which had been reinforced for this transport.

Vietnam: Vietnam Cement Industry Corporation (Vicem) said that its cement and clinker sales in May 2015 grew by 10% year-on-year to 2.01Mt. Of the volume, 1.84Mt of cement and clinker were sold to the domestic market while 162,000t were exported.

In the first five months of 2015, Vicem's cement and clinker sales fell by 1.4% year-on-year to 9.08Mt. Of this, 8.0Mt was sold to the domestic market, up by 6.2% year-on-year, while 1.06Mt was exported, down by 34% year-on-year. Vicem produced 6.97Mt of clinker and 7.61Mt of cement in the first five months of 2015, rising by 5.1% and 4.1% year-on-year respectively. Of this, 1.47Mt of clinker and 1.82Mt of cement was produced in May 2015.

Vicem plans to produce 1.52Mt of clinker and 1.58Mt of cement and aims to sell 1.73Mt of cement and clinker in June 2015.

US: Lafarge North America has signed a deal to build a cement trans-loading facility in Williston, North Dakota. According to local press, the storage facility and terminal will be located on a new rail spur on the east side of the town. Lafarge North America says that it will allow the company to better serve its customers amid growing demand for construction materials in North Dakota and South Dakota

Roy Sander, general manager of Lafarge Dakotas, noted that the new rail line will remove the company's existing truck traffic from US Highway 2.

North and South Dakota are growing states for cement consumption. As well as traditional construction cements for standard applications, the presence of the Bakken oil field means that the states also require oil well cements and products for soil stabilisation.