Displaying items by tag: GCW450

Colombia/El Salvador/US: Mexico’s Elementia has stopped operations in El Salvador and Colombia to stop the spread of coronavirus in line with local government recommendations. It expected to resume operations in mid-April 2020. However, this may be modified based on ‘successful virus containment.’ However, it intends to continue operations in the US as the government has declared its industry as ‘essential.’ It added that it is maintaining all necessary sanitary measures to minimise transmission of the virus.

Trinidad & Tobago/Barbados: Trinidad Cement has halted most of its operations in Trinidad & Tobago and temporally halted operations at its Arawak Cement subsidiary in Barbados following government advice in each country with regards to coronavirus. It said that it had stopped ‘almost all operations’ at its Trinidad Cement integrated plant except for activities related to maintaining the kiln and the continuation of some port operations. Both lockdowns are expected to last initially until mid-April 2020. The subsidiary of Mexico’s Cemex said that it expected the global response to coronavirus would negatively affect economic growth in the Caribbean. To counter this it has delayed certain capital expenditure planned for 2020 and it is maintaining inventory at its facitlies to serve customer demand.

Italy: Italcementi’s integrated Calusco plant near Bergamo has been awarded a Responsible Sourcing Scheme (RSS) certificate for its concrete and related supply chain operations. The certification looks at the entire production process from transportation to recycling raw materials. It is the first cement plant in the Italian subsidiary of HeidelbergCement to obtain the certification.

Italcementi suspended operation at its plants in March 2020 due to the coronavirus outbreak due to government decree.

Ireland: The Irish Times newspaper has reported examples of shareholder advisory companies expressing concern about the scale of CRH chief executive officer (CEO) Alfred Manifold’s pay package in the face of mounting financial pressure due to the coronavirus pandemic. Glass Lewis has said in a report that it remains ‘particularly concerned’ about the size of Manifold’s pension benefits, while Institutional Shareholder Services has expressed similar reservations about his remuneration. Manifold had a total reported pay, performance and long term incentive package totalling Euro9.3m in 2019.

Institutional Shareholder Services previously recommended that investors vote against an executive pay rise at CRH in 2018. The multinational building materials company plans to hold its annual general meeting on 23 April 2020.

Building materials companies around the world are expected to face financial pressure as construction markets suffer due to national and regional lockdown measures in response to the coronavirus epidemic.

Austria: RHI Magnesita’s revenue from its cement and lime sector rose by 6.4% year-on-year to Euro344m in 2019 from Euro324m in 2018. It attributed the growth to selective price increases, product portfolio choices and market share gains specifically in China, the Middle East and Africa and the Commonwealth of Independent States. It said that demand for its products in Europe had been ‘slightly’ weaker in 2019 due to customer inventory build-up in 2018 as a result of tightening magnesite and dolomite raw material availability. It forecast a stable market in 2020 however it said that coronavirus was likely to affect this.

Overall, the company reported a 6.5% fall in revenue to Euro2.9bn in 2019 due to decreased revenue in its steel division. Adjusted earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) fell at a similar rate. However, coronavirus aside, chief executive officer Stefan Borgas expected the company’s Production Optimisation Plan to continue strengthening the business.

Russia: VostokCement subsidiary Teploozersky Cement has reported the successful completion of scheduled maintenance work on the rotary kiln at its 0.8Mt/yr integrated Teploozersky cement plant in Birobidzhan Oblast. Esmerk Russian News has reported that the work consisted of adjusting furnace units’ positions replacing worn sections of the lining.

Tajikistan: Tajik cement producers achieved volumes of 564,000t in January-February 2020, up by 20% from 469,000t in the first two months of 2019. This corresponds to capacity utilisation by the country’s 13 producers (total capacity 4.7Mt/yr) of 72% so far in 2020.

Bahrain: Kingdom Group subsidiary Kingdom Cement will supply cement for Orchid Building Contracting’s Spiral Orchid Residence skyscraper in Water Garden City, Al Manamah. Gulf Construction has reported that Kingdom Cement operated a terminal and packing plant where it receives cement from multiple regional producers.

Taiwan: Asia Cement Corporation has announced its collaboration with Germany-based energy company Innogy on construction of a 448MW wind power plant off Taiwan’s north-west coast near Hsinchu City. Renewables Now has reported that Asia Cement Corporation will supply cement for the project, which will see power sold to the national grid.

Innology, which has participated in the construction of offshore wind plants with a total capacity of 2500MW in Europe, opened its first Taiwan office in 2018.

Nigeria: A Dangote Cement truck overturned on the Epe Bridge in Lagos, landing on a taxi and killing six of its seven passengers. Punch Metro newspaper has reported the cause of the incident was a brake failure due to a mechanical fault with the truck. It is unknown whether the driver was operating illegally. The survivor is receiving hospital treatment.