Displaying items by tag: GCW327

Mexico: Cemex has launched Cemex Go, a digital customer integration platform. The system will be used in real time to manage order placement, live tracking of shipments and invoices and payments for the company’s main products, including bagged and bulk cement.

“Cemex Go creates an experience for our customers that is superior to anything that has been provided in the past and is the only platform of its kind currently offered in our industry,” said Fernando A Gonzalez, chief executive officer (CEO) of Cemex.

The platform is intended to reduce customers’ administrative burden and to allow them to work at anytime and anywhere on multiple devices. It also plans to use the core activities of Cemex’s open innovation and venture capital unit, Cemex Ventures, to help further build the project. The initiative is being supported by Cemex’s long-term partners, IBM and Neoris.

In November 2017, Cemex Go will start to roll out in the US and Mexico. Further worldwide deployment will follow in 2018.

Peru: Invercem plans to build a cement grinding plant in Ica for US$20m. The modular plant will have a production capacity of 0.25Mt/yr, according to the Gestión newspaper. Construction is scheduled to start from December 2017 with completion planned for April 2018.

Previously, Invercem has imported cement from HeidelbergCement via the port of Salaverry. It then bagged and sold it locally under the Qhuna brand. As well as building its own plant the cement importer is also considering expansion plans in Ayacucho, Cusco and Iquitos.

South Africa: The Public Investment Corporation (PIC) has been steadily increasing its shareholding in cement producer PPC. It now owns a 25.1% stake. In March 2017, the PIC increased its shareholding in PPC to 15.1% and subsequently increased it further to 21.2% in October 2017.

Vietnam: Vietnam sold 64.6Mt of cement in the first 10 months of 2017, a rise of 4% year-on-year compared to the same period of 2016, according to the Ministry of Construction. Of the sum, 49.3Mt was sold domestically, a 2% year-on-year rise, while 15.3Mt was exported, a rise of 2%.

In October 2017, local firms sold 6.2Mt of cement, including 4.7Mt of domestic sales, and 1.5Mt of exports. As of October 2017, Vietnam had 3.3Mt of cement and clinker inventory, mostly clinker.

At present, Vietnam’s cement output has reached 86Mt/yr, while domestic demand is estimated at only 60Mt. The country is thus predicted to face a surplus of 26Mt of cement overall in 2017, according to the Vietnam Cement Association (VNCA).

Uzbekistan: Beijing Triumph International Engineering, a subsidiary of China National Building Material’s (CNBM), has signed a US$160m deal with Eurocement’s subsidiary Akhangarancement to build a new 3Mt/yr cement plant. The contract was signed during Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev's official visit to the Central Asian country, according to InterFax. The project will be completed by 2020. Eurocement chairman Filaret Galchev and Uzstroymaterialy chief executive officer (CEO) Botir Zaripov signed the agreement on project implementation during Medvedev's visit.

Akhangarancement operates a 2.2Mt/yr cement plant. It holds a 30% share of the Uzbek market. The plant also exports to Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Turkmenistan. Eurocement purchased a 75.5% stake of Akhangarancement in August 2006 and bought the remaining share in 2013. It originally signed a US$128m contract with China CAMC Engineering, a division of Sinomach, in 2014 for construction of a plant that was supposed to open in 2016. However, construction was subsequently cancelled.

Germany: Union delegates representing workers at HeidelbergCement have created a trade union network. Forty delegates from Europe, Middle East and North Africa, North America, Asia-Pacific and South Asia met in early November 2017 in Bremen. The meeting was organized by IndustriALL Global Union with support of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation, also involving IndustriALL‘s sister organisation Building and Wood Workers’ International.

“With the creation of the HeidelbergCement union network, we open the door to social dialogue if management is willing, and we hope union activists will contribute seriously to the promotion of workers’ rights and interests in the company. To this end, the steering committee will be in close interaction with the national unions. Finally, we strongly believe that HeidelbergCement will only win through workers’ active participation and engagement,” said Matthias Hartwich, director for materials industry at IndustriALL.

The meeting discussed recent developments in the cement sector and sustainability issues. The experience of global and national unions interacting with management at another big cement giant company, LafargeHolcim, was also raised. At the end of the meeting, delegates unanimously adopted a Bremen declaration and elected a steering committee for the network, which will coordinate the work in between its global meetings. No representative of the group’s global management attended the event despite being sent invitations.

Greece: Titan Cement’s sales and operating profit have all benefited from growth in the US so far in 2017. The group’s net sales grew by 1.8% year-on-year to Euro1.14bn in the first nine months of 2017 from 1.12bn in the same period in 2016. Its earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) rose by 4.6% to Euro215m from Euro205m.

In the US sales grew by 14% to Euro667m in the year to date, despite a poor third quarter due to disruption by hurricanes and other weather events. In the group’s Greece and Western Europe region, sales fell by 3% to Euro190m and earnings fell also. However, sales rose in Southeastern Europe by 10.5% to Euro173m although rising fuels costs dented its earnings. Market conditions remained ‘challenging’ in Egypt with demand for building materials in 2017 estimated to be about 8% below the previous year’s levels and prices still impacted by the low value of the Egyptian Pound. Overall, the group’s Eastern Mediterranean region saw its sales fall by 39% to Euro114m and earnings fell by 66% to Euro11.1m. Further issues were reported in Turkey due to competition but joint venture operations in Brazil saw faint improvements in the third quarter of the year.

India: Shree Cement has won a coal linkage auction in Chhattisgarh. The coal will be used at the company's captive power plant at its Raipur cement plant.

Sweden: Denmark’s FLSmidth has completed its acquisition of Sandvik Mining Systems’ projects business except for the transfer of assets in South Africa, which is awaiting merger control clearance. The acquisition includes continuous surface mining and minerals handling technologies and competences that strengthen the group's core minerals business. The purchase is intended to increases FLSmidth’s coverage of the full mining value chain.

"With this acquisition we will be able to increase the productivity of the complete ‘Pit to Plant’ operation by better integrating upstream mining with downstream processing. The acquisition also allows us to digitalise the full value chain and enables a better utilisation of existing leading technologies by obtaining direct access to all key processes and equipment," said Manfred Schaffer, Group Executive Vice President, Minerals Division of FLSmidth.

The acquisition includes the part of Sandvik Mining Systems that is closest to the mine, which excludes Sandvik's conveyor component and its Finland based businesses. It includes all products for continuous surface mining, inpit crushing and minerals handling technologies and related intellectual property, including reference lists, drawings and data for installed base. The deal includes the transfer of over 200 employees from Sandvik. FLSmidth will also provide project management services to Sandvik on the majority of ongoing projects to be delivered during 2017 - 2019 period and parts and services for the installed equipment.

The closing of the acquisition in South Africa is expected to occur in early 2018.

Africa: FLSmidth says that a contract for a cement plant valued at more than Euro100m in an unspecified location in North Africa is now effective. The change in the project’s status follows the completion of carious conditions, including the receipt of a down payment for the work.

The order is in part a result of the partnership between FLSmidth and Beijing Triumph International Engineering Company, a company under the China National Building Material Group Corporation (CNBM Group), which will be responsible for the construction of the cement plant. The plant will mainly supply cement to the North African market. Once completed, the cement plant will have a capacity of 12,000t/day. The includes engineering, equipment supply, construction supervision, commissioning and training.