Displaying items by tag: Guatemala

We start 2022 with the news that Cemex is selling up to Cementos Progreso in Costa Rica and El Salvador. On 20 December 2021 Cemex announced that it was selling one integrated cement plant, one grinding plant, seven ready-mix concrete plants, one aggregate quarry and one terminal in Costa Rica and one terminal in El Salvador. The sale is valued at around US$335m with an expected completion date in the first half of 2022 subject to regulatory approval.

This sale is noteworthy because it concerns Mexico-based Cemex selling off assets in its ‘back yard’ of Central America. Once the sale completes it will retain operations in Panama, Nicaragua, Guatemala and Colombia under its Cemex LatAm subsidiary. It will also continue to operate in the Caribbean in the Dominican Republic, Jamaica and Puerto Rico. Previous divestments by Cemex over the last five years or so have tended to focus on piecemeal (or bolt-off) divestments in the US and Europe. This latest sale could be viewed in a similar way if Central America and the Caribbean are seen as a region rather than individual countries. For its part Cemex describes the divestment as part of its ‘Operation Resilience’ plan to optimise its global portfolio.

Why it chose to sell up in Costa Rica is curious given that Cemex LatAm’s cement sales volumes for the region were reported as ‘flat’ in 2019 with the exception of Colombia and El Salvador. 2020 was then a shock, like almost everywhere else, as coronavirus caused disruption reducing sales volumes. 2021 saw recovery in all of Cemex LatAm’s national markets over the first nine months. Notably, both Cemex’s revenue and operational earnings in Costa Rica grew when comparing the first nine months of 2019, before the pandemic, to the same period in 2021, unlike Colombia and Panama. For the third quarter of 2021 Cemex said that growing cement sales volumes in Costa Rica had been driven by infrastructure and housing sectors. It also added that “Our cement footprint in the country is also a very relevant component of our regional trading network. We continued exporting during the quarter, mainly to our operations in Nicaragua.” In may be coincidence but it was interesting timing to add a comment like that.

From Cementos Progreso’s perspective the new assets in Costa Rica and El Salvador are part of an ongoing expansion phase outside of its home base. At home in Guatemala the company operates three integrated plants. The third, the San Gabriel plant, started up in 2019. In the same year the company purchased Cemento Interoceanico and its grinding plant in Panama. Then in July 2021 the group commissioned its new Belmopan grinding plant in Belize as part of its Cementos Rocafuerte subsidiary. The new proposed acquisitions in Costa Rica and El Salvador start to fill in the gaps in Cementos Progreso’s network between Guatemala and Panama. The price seems on the high side for a 0.9Mt/yr integrated plant and a 0.9Mt/yr grinding unit. Yet the associated quarry, concrete plants, terminals and, crucially, the location may have made it one well worth paying. For comparison Peru-based Unacem agreed to purchase a grinding plant from CBB in Chile this week for around US$30m. Back in 2013 Lafarge sold assets in Honduras, including an integrated plant and a grinding unit, to Cementos Argos for Euro232m.

Both parties may do well out of this transaction. Cemex continues to show that it is fully prepared to sell assets anywhere as it sharpens up its operations. Cementos Progreso meanwhile is turning itself into a regional player to watch.

Guatemala: Cemex Latam Holdings plans to invest US$25m in installing a new mill at its 500,000t/yr Guatemala City grinding plant. The company says that the mill will increase the plant’s capacity by 80% to 900,000t/yr.

Cemex South America, Central America and Caribbean president Jesus Gonzalez said "This investment reinforces Cemex's commitment to Guatemala's development and reflects our confidence in the favourable outlook of the economy in the country and the region." Gonzalez added “We are excited about expanding our offer of products and solutions to the market which contribute to sustainable construction, like Vertua, our family of net-zero and low carbon products."

Belize: Cementos Rocafuerte has commissioned its new Belmopan grinding plant at a 10ha site adjacent to the George Price Highway. The Belizean has reported that the grinding plant is the first in the country, which previously imported Cementos Progreso’s cement from Guatemala. The value of the Cementos Progreso subsidiary’s investment in the new facility was US$8m. In its first phase, the plant will employ 28 Belizeans.

Chief executive officer Jose Raul Gonzalez said that the plant, “meets all environmental and quality standards that this country deserves.” He added, “Life must go on, and the development of Belize shouldn’t be stopped by the virus or by the lack of proper building materials.”

Fernando A González and Cemex took to the virtual airways this week with Cemex Day 2021. The investors’ update comprised the usual greatest hits package explaining how well everything is going: earnings growth and leverage levels about to hit desired targets, selective investments and divestments on the way, new production capacity round the corner and punchy sustainability goals turning up earlier than expected. Or at least that’s the way that chief executive officer González and the team told it.

To be fair to Cemex, it seems to be in a good place right now. It weathered 2020 well and now its first quarter results in 2021 compared to the same period in 2019, before coronavirus hit, are looking rosy with cement sales volumes growth of 9%. How much of that is attributable to pent up demand from 2020 remains to be seen though. Its strategy of focusing on markets in North America and Europe appears to have paid off in recent years with its competitors copying it as they have retreated from riskier climes and concentrated on core territories. Its obsession with righting the ratio between its debts and earnings is closer than ever to being realised, with a 4.07x net leverage ratio in 2020 and a target of 3x or lower planned for 2023. That last target is crucial both materially and psychologically for the company as it starts to put it back in the same financial field as its Western multinational competitors and opens up new investment opportunities.

From a production angle, the big news from the event was a 10Mt/yr cement production expansion project between now and 2023. This wasn’t quite as promising as it sounded, as just under half of this was attributed to legacy projects in Mexico, Colombia and the Philippines and some of the new projects had already been announced, but it does bookmark a move from divesting plants to upgrading and building new ones.

The new projects comprise an additional 5.7Mt/yr capacity from on-going debottlenecking, new integrated plants, new grinding plants and reopening idle or mothballed plants. During the event José Antonio González, the Executive Vice President of Strategic Planning & Business Development broke it down into 3.5Mt in Mexico, consisting of 1.5Mt additional grinding capacity at the integrated Tepeaca plant, a 0.5Mt/yr expansion at the integrated Huichapan plant and 1.5Mt/yr from bringing both idled lines back into production at the CPN Hermosilla plant in Senora to support the US market. That last one notably was partly announced in February 2021. In Europe and the US the group plans to add 1.2Mt/yr including expanding grinding capacity at two plants in Europe with details to be announced later. Finally, the company plans to add 1Mt/yr of additional capacity in South American including restarting an idled 0.5Mt/yr kiln at a plant in the Dominican Republic and building a new 0.5Mt/yr grinding mill in Guatemala.

Cemex has also stepped up its target reduction in CO₂ emissions to below 475kg CO₂/t of cementitious material, an approximately 40% reduction in CO₂ emissions compared to 1990 levels, by 2030. The previous target for 2030 of 520 kg CO₂ has been brought forward to 2025. This compares to LafargeHolcim’s similar target of 475kg CO₂/t by 2030, HeidelbergCement’s target of 500kg CO₂/t by 2030 and CRH’s target of 530kg CO₂/t by 2030. The group is planning to spend US$60m/yr on its decarbonisation projects. This compares to a spend of around US$140m/yr on its 10Mt/yr cement production capacity expansion drive over the next three years. Or to put it another way, the group is spending more on growing than sustainability.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t all good public relations for Cemex this week with the news in the Colombian press that one of its former executives is set to be investigated by the authorities over his alleged involvement in the ongoing Maceo cement plant corruption case. The background to this one is that in 2016 Cemex fired several senior staff members, and the local subsidiary’s chief executive resigned, in relation to the building of a new integrated plant at Maceo. This followed an internal audit and investigation into payments worth around US$20m made to a non-governmental third party in connection with the acquisition of the land, mining rights and benefits of the tax free zone for the project. Legal proceedings followed in Colombia and the US. Many large companies have legacy problems to deal with. Just take LafargeHolcim’s continued connection to Lafarge Syria’s conduct in the early 2010s. At the time of writing the Maceo plant is still yet to start operation and is likely to be one of the ongoing projects mentioned above.

Cemex’s second quarter results are due to arrive towards the end of July 2021 but the group is presenting an upbeat image. Sales are up, debts are down, divestments are out and expansions are in. Confidence is important for a multinational trying to convince the rating agencies to give it back its investment grade, so whether this is strictly true or not it certainly knows how to talk the talk. One question going forward at least is how strictly Cemex will want to stick to its core markets if the good times really have returned?

Guatemala: Mexico-based Cemex subsidiary Cemex Latam Holdings plans to install a new 1000t/day horizontal ball mill and support infrastructure including a dust collector and 3000t silo at its Puerto de San José grinding plant in Escuintia. Central America Data has reported the value of the work as US$16m.

Guatemala: Local cement producers have expressed concern over the quality of rising imports from Asia. Issues over quality standards and packaging have been raised, according to the El Periódico newspaper. According to data from the Bank of Guatamala, cement imports worth around US$57m were reported in the first 11 months of 2020. Imports from Turkey and Vietnam represented 85% of this. The country has a cement production capacity of 5.5Mt/yr and domestic consumption is around 3Mt/yr.

Colombia: Cemex subsidiary Cemex Latam Holdings (CLH) recorded net sales of US$571m in the first nine months of 2020 were down by 24% year-on-year from US$752m in the corresponding period of 2019. Operating earnings fell by 14% to US$69.0m from US$87.0m, while consolidated cement volumes fell by 20% to 3.92Mt from 4.89Mt.

Jesus Gonzalez, chief executive officer (CEO) of CLH said, “Our operations could run relatively normally during the third quarter in Colombia, Guatemala, Nicaragua and El Salvador, while restrictions impacted in Panama and to a lesser degree in Costa Rica.” He added that the company improved its operating earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) by 19% on a like-for-like basis to US$51m in the third quarter of 2020.

Guatemala: Colombia-based Cementos Argos has announced that it is “exploring opportunities for importing cement into Guatemala.” Subsidiary Argos Guatemala will be responsible for the import and commercialisation of the cement, which will be produced by Cementos Argos in Panama.

Colombia: Cemex Latam Holdings (CLH)’s net sales in the first quarter of 2020 were US$214m, down by 11% year-on-year compared to sales of US$240m in the same period of 2019. Operating earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) throughout the quarter declined by 12% year-on-year to US$46.0m from US$52.3m. Cement volumes over the period were 11% below their first-quarter 2019 level, however prices were 3% higher. Total debt decreased by 8% year-over-year, reaching US$766m as of March 2020.

Cemex Latam Holdings CEO Jesus Gonzalez 
said, “We came into 2020 with favourable demand momentum in Colombia, Nicaragua, Guatemala and El Salvador, and a stabilising trend in Costa Rica. The coronavirus outbreak began to impact on this in March 2020. With respect to capex, US$20.0m has been postponed until 2021. Also, members of CLH’s Board and senior leadership have agreed to voluntarily waive a percentage of their second quarter salaries. Other employees voluntarily deferred a percentage of their salaries for the period. I would like to thank my colleagues for their support in these challenging times.”

Panama: Guatemala-based Cemento Progreso, which acquired Cemento Interoceanico on 21 November 2019, has shared plans to expand its 0.25Mt/yr La Chorrera plant to 0.3Mt/yr production capacity. Noticias Financieras News has reported that the company will also establish three new concrete plants, in David, Chiriquí province, Columbus, Columbus province, and Tocumen, Panama province. Through these it hopes to serve major infrastructure projects such as the construction of a fourth Panama canal bridge and to increase its cement market share from 10%.