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A Sinoma subsidiary was raking in the big bucks this week with the announcement that it had booked a Euro1.05bn order with the Egyptian government. The order was for six 6000t/day cement production lines plus assorted maintenance contracts from Chengdu Design and Research Institute of Building Materials Industry (CDI).

The order caps a busy month for Sinoma. At the start of June, another subsidiary, CBMI, said that it had picked up deals to build two new lines in Algeria for Groupe des Ciments d’Algérie. Around the same time another project in the country, a joint venture between Lafarge Algeria and Souakri Group, revealed that it had started commissioning its mill. Other assorted cement projects announced so far in 2016 include a waste heat recovery unit for Thai Pride Cement in Thailand, a conversion to coal burning at South Valley Cement in Egypt and various orders for mills via Loesche for Sinoma projects in Vietnam.

The scale of that latest Egyptian order becomes apparent when one looks at Sinoma, or China National Materials Group Corporation’s, annual results. It reported revenue of US$8.08bn in 2015, a slight decrease from US$8.38bn in 2014. Those six lines represent 13% of the group’s entire turnover in 2015. That’s one humongous order. The last time Sinoma signed a cement deal on this magnitude was in August 2015 when Nigerai’s Dangote placed an order at a value of US$1.49bn.

Elsewhere on the balance sheet for 2015, its profit fell markedly by 25% year-on-year to US$150m from US$200m. However, its new order intake grew by 14% to US$5.1bn. Overseas orders accounted for over three quarters of this or US$4.32bn, its highest level on record. This compares to its rival FLSmidth’s new order intake of US$2.8bn in 2015. It declared that it would continue to seek business outside of China in line with the country’s ‘One belt, one road’ policy focusing on Central Asia and South America.

This growth by Chinese engineering companies on the world stage may have been stymied in 2015. The Verband Deutscher Maschinen- und Anlagenbau (VDMA) in Germany reported in April 2016 that the members of its Industrial Plant Manufacturers’ Group (AGAB) had booked orders of Euro19.5bn in 2015, a similar figure to its orders in 2014. This compared to a drop of 63% of large plant orders (not just cement) in 2014 from Euro5.29bn in 2013. AGAB saw opportunity in service industries for its German members as markets stalled in Russia and Brazil, and China’s property market faced its own problems. Research by UBS Evidence Lab, as reported by the Financial Times in May 2016, has taken a different view, suggesting that Chinese construction quarry equipment manufacturers such as Sany, Zoomlion and XCMG were likely to expand their market share outside of China to 15% by 2025. At present the research pegged them at 7%.

Expansion comes with its risks though. In late May 2016 Sinoma International Engineering reported details of a tax dispute it was suffering in Saudi Arabia. The Saudi subsidiary of the company was levelled with a request for unpaid back taxes from 2006 and 2008. At the time it was appealing against a bill of US$18m. In a changing global marketplace some things never change. Global success it seems is taxed.

India: Parth Jindal has been appointed as Managing Director of JSW Cement. He will assume the position in July 2016 and will be assisted by Anil Kumar Pillai as CEO, according the Business Line.

Jindal is the son of Sjjan Jindal, the chairman of JSW Group. The 25-year old has worked previous as an Economic Analyst for JSW Steel amongst other positions in the group. He is also the chief executive of the group's sport company, which owns Bangalore Football Club.

Mexico: Corporacion Moctezuma has announced that Fabrizio Donega will become its new general director from 3 October 2016. Donega will replace Pedro Carranza Andresen, who is due to retire after 10 years working for the corporation. Corporacion Moctezuma was formed in 1982 from the merger of Cementos Moctezuma and Concretos Moctezuma.

Germany: Stefan Puntke has become the managing director of Refratechnik Cement, replacing Wolfgang Tabbert. Puntke’s previous role has been taken by Christian Meyre, effective from 1 June 2016. The announcement was made at the 14th REFRA-Kolloquium held on 31 May to 3 June 2016 in Berlin.

Tabbert has worked for the company for more than 30 years, five of them as sales manager and 13 years as managing director. He will continue to act as consultant for Refratechnik Cement for a period to ensure a smooth transfer of responsibilities.

Meyre holds management experience in the international cement industry, particularly in North America.

Sri Lanka: The Industry and Commerce Ministry has expressed its interest in buying the local operations of LafargeHolcim. Government sources have said that discussions are now on-going within the administration. The multinational cement producer announced in early June 2016 that it was selling its subsidiary Holcim Lanka. The company was originally state-owned before it was privatised.

"The government is willing to negotiate to buy it at a reasonable price. This is the only integrated cement plant in Sri Lanka. The limestone quarry in Puttalam belongs to the Cement Corporation and it had been leased out to Holcim," said a spokesman of the ministry quoted by the Daily News newspaper. He added that no final decision on the matter has been taken yet. The government also hopes that, if it successfully purchased the company, it could reduce the price of cement in the country.

Local press reports that seven bidders have made offers for Holcim Lanka. These include companies from UAE, Indonesia, Thailand, China and Sri Lanka. Holcim Lanka’s assets include two packing plants in Galle and Trincomalee, a cement plant in Puttalam and a cement grinding plant in Galle.

Russia: St Petersburg is facing a market cement shortage of 40% due to a decrease in the volume of shipments by a number of producers. Local media has attributed the deficit to the failure of equipment of main suppliers, including Pikalevskaya Soda, Cesla and Eurocement Group. Concrete producers have been forced to shut their plants down due to the shortage. Local cement prices are expected to rise consequently.

Belgium: European cement production grew by 0.9% year-on-year to 248Mt in 2015, according to newly published data in the 2015 Activity Report from the European Cement Association (CEMBUREAU).

Individual European countries recorded a mixed performance. Cement production in Spain grew by 3.3% in 2015. However, in Italy production fell by 3.4% and in France it fell by 5%. CEMBUREAU reported strong performance from its members in Eastern Europe, notably in the Czech Republic, Hungary and Romania. In the European Union (EU28) the association reported a 3.7% increase in cement production to 172Mt fro 165.8Mt. However, CEMBUREAU reinforced the face that EU28 cement production remains 37.7% below the production levels recorded in 2007.

CEMBUREAU data uses estimates for some countries where the data is unavailable including Germany, the UK and Poland. The association represents the national cement industry associations and cement companies of the European Union with the exception of Cyprus, Malta and Slovakia plus Norway, Switzerland and Turkey. Croatia and Serbia are associate members of the organisation.

South Africa: PPC’s revenue has fallen slightly, by 1% year-on-year, to US$293m in the first six months that ended on 31 March 2016 from US$296m in the same period in 2015. The group’s operating profit fell by 3% to US$47.7m from US$49.2m. It attributed the fall in revenue to lower selling prices of cement in South Africa and falling revenues in Zimbabwe and Botswana.

By business line, PPC’s cement division in South Africa reported that its revenue fell by 5% to US$155m. It noted that cement volumes improved ‘marginally’ due to sales volume growth in the coastal regions following reduced imports and demand from infrastructure projects. However, inland provinces such as a Gauteng and the Limpopo area were negatively affected to increased competition. Outside of South Africa its cement division’s revenue rose by 6% to US$85.5m. Despite sales declines in Zimbabwe and Botswana, the group’s new 0.6Mt/yr plant in Rwanda was commissioned in the second half of 2015.
The group’s lime division also reported that its revenue in all territories fell by 12% to US$24.9m.

The group also provided an update on its on-going projects. A US$280m 1Mt/yr cement plant in the Democratic Republic of the Congo was reported 83% complete in March 2016 with ‘hot’ commissioning scheduled for late 2016. A US$85m cement mill in Harare, Zimbabwe was reported 70% complete in March 2016 with plant commissioned planned for the end of 2016. Finally, a US$170m 1.4Mt/yr cement plant in Ethiopia remains scheduled to be commissioned in the second quarter of 2017.

Switzerland: LafargeHolcim plans to sell assets in nine additional countries as part of its post-merger divestment programme, according to the Financial Times. The announcement follows a portfolio review. However, LafargeHolcim did not name the locations of the proposed sales. In March 2016 the group released details of sales in South Korea and Saudi Arabia and plans to merge its operations in Morocco. This followed plans to generate Euro3.16bn from divestments in 2016.

Hungary: Hejocsabai Cement es Meszmu (HCM) has released plans to restart production at its Miskolc plant. Production is expected to start between the end of 2016 and the first quarter of 2017. Up to 340 jobs are expected to be created as a result. The company has already received a government permit to resume its activities.