Displaying items by tag: GCW253

Indonesia: Holcim Indonesia plans to focus its exports of cement towards Australia, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh in 2016 amidst unstable demand at home. Holcim Indonesia’s chief financial officer Mark Schmidt emphasised the company’s increasing desire to export more whilst not mentioning any specific export sales targets in comments that were reported by the Jakarta Post.

Gary Schutz, the president-director of Holcim Indonesia, reinforced the importance of government spending plants towards meeting the country’s cement demand in a press release published after the company’s May 2016 annual general meeting. “We are concerned that government spending plans – especially those for infrastructure – should be realised on time and in full this year. Infrastructure alongside housing development are both vital catalysts in achieving planned growth rates for the economy. It is equally important in order that Indonesia stays competitive with in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Economic Community.”

The Indonesian subsidiary of LafargeHolcim increased its cement production capacity to 15Mt/yr from 11Mt/yr after acquiring Lafarge Cement Indonesia and starting operations at the Tuban II plant in East Java.

Europe: The European Commission (EC) has cleared the acquisition of Italcementi by HeidelbergCement under the condition that HeidelbergCement sell Italcementi's entire business in Belgium. The EC expressed concern that the merged companies would have owned more than 50% of the market share in the country.

The EC accepted that the two companies’ businesses were largely complimentary in Europe. HeidelbergCement is active in Northern, Western and Central Europe whereas Italcementi focuses on Southern Europe, operating cement facilities in Italy, France, Spain and Greece. Italcementi is also active in Belgium and Bulgaria. However, it noted that the companies’ Ordinary Portland Cement activities overlapped substantially in in Belgium and to a lesser extent in Southern Italy. It also pointed out that there are cross-border overlaps between their grey cement activities in Germany and France and in Bulgaria and Romania. The merging parties' activities in aggregates and ready-mix concrete mainly overlap in Belgium and Northern Spain whereas their white cement activities overlap primarily in Belgium, France and Austria.

HeidelbergCement has offered to sell Italcementi’s Belgian subsidiary Compagnie des Ciments Belges (CCB). The divestment includes: all of Italcementi's cement, ready-mix and aggregates assets in Belgium; Italcementi's stake in an existing limestone joint venture with LafargeHolcim; a portion of HeidelbergCement's limestone quarry in Antoing provided in exchange for a portion of Italcementi's Barry quarry, which will be retained by HeidelbergCement.

“We are very pleased with the positive decision of the European Commission,” says Bernd Scheifele, chairman of the managing board of HeidelbergCement. “This decision is an important milestone on our way to the full acquisition of Italcementi.” HeidelbergCement. Is still awaiting the decision of the US regulator the Federal Trade Commission for approval in that territory.

Mexico: Cemex has closed the sale of its operations in Bangladesh and Thailand to Siam City Cement for approximately US$53m. The proceeds obtained from this transaction will be used mainly for debt reduction and for general corporate purposes. The deal was announced in March 2016.

Venezuela: Cemento Andino has reported that work on its second production line at its cement plant in Candelaria, Trujillo is 70% complete. The new line will be completed in 2017. The US$103m line has a 1.12Mt/yr clinker production capacity and a 1.36Mt/yr cement production capacity. At present the cement plant has a clinker production capacity of 0.75Mt/yr. The plant was nationalised by the Venezuelan government in late 2006.

Nepal: Hongshi Shivam Cement, a Nepal-China joint venture company, has started building a cement plant at Sardi in Nalwalparasi. China’s Hongshi Holding Group has invested US$336m or 70% of the financing for the project. The rest of the funds have come from a local partner, according to the Kathmandu Post. The cement plant will have a production capacity of 6000t/day and is expected to start production in 2017.

Russia: The Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) has held a meeting to discuss cement pricing and mandatory certification. Representatives of FAS, cement producers, industry associations and government authorities - including the Ministry of Economic Development, the Federal Accreditation Service, the Federal Agency on Technical Regulation and Metrology, the Ministry of Construction and the Ministry of Industry and Trade - took part in the event on 17 May 2016.

Attendees reported that the pricing of bulk cement to industrial customers had increased slightly due to seasonal demand. FAS had received a growing number of complaints about rising prices from purchasers of bagged cement. To counter this, FAS has proposed using points of sale for bagged cement with the intention to remove intermediaries from the supply chain and cut costs.

On mandatory cement certification the Federal Agency on Technical Regulation and Metrology and the Ministry of Economic Development reported that over 50 cement plants in Russia and several Belarusian cement producers have certified their products. However, some cement importers have experienced difficulties with certification. FAS agreed to coordinate the forwarding of issues importers and other producers have experienced to the supervising body. It will also draft proposals on amendments to the certification. Mandatory cement certification came into force on 7 March 2016 due to No. 930 Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation.

Russia: Filaret Galchev, the owner of Eurocement, expects that demand for cement in Russia will fall by 8% - 10% in 2016 after falling 12% in 2015. The cement producer will sell about 20Mt of cement in Russia and about 3.5Mt in other regions including Uzbekistan and Ukraine in 2016. He added that average production costs at the group will produce cement at around US$25/t.

In an interview with Rossiya 24 television reported upon by Interfax, Galchev also described Eurocement’s sale of its 6.1% stake in LafargeHolcim in February 2016 as ‘unexpected’. The Russian cement producer sold its share in LafargeHolcim after they lost nearly half of their value in six months.

"No, I did not expect it. We analysed the situation for a long time, but that is the decision that was made," said Galchev. He added that he had no issues with Sberbank, the Russian bank that restructured Eurocement’s debt after the sale of the shares in LafargeHolcim.

Originally Eurocement was a shareholder in Holcim and it received a stake in LafargeHolcim after that company was formed in a merger. The stake was subsequently transferred to Sberbank of Russia in January 2016 after the shares, which Galchev had acquired with financing from Bank of America, lost over 40% of their value in half a year. At the beginning of February 2016, Sberbank sold the 6.12% LafargeHolcim stake to investors from the UK, Switzerland, the US and other countries.

India: India Cements revenue has fallen by 5% year-on-year to US$636m for the financial year that ended on 31 March 2016 from US$663m in the same period in 2015 - 2016. Its net profit rose to US$20.5m from US$4.39m.

In the notes provided with its annual financial results the Indian cement producer reported that its was appealing against a provisional attachment order under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002 attaching certain assets of the company for a value of US$17.9m. It also noted that according to the condition imposed by Board of Cricket Control in India, India Cements provided a guarantee for the purpose of guaranteeing performance and compliance by Chennai Super Kings of the obligations of the franchise under the agreement. The Chennai Super Kings cricket team was suspended for two years in mid 2015 due to a corruption scandal.