Displaying items by tag: Hyundai Cement

South Korea: Hyundai Sungwoo Holdings has reportedly made a bid for Hyundai Cement. It joins a shortlist of potential buyers including Ssangyong Cement Industrial, Halla Cement, United Asset Management Company (UAMCO) and IMM Private Equity, according to the Maeil Business Newspaper. Hyundai Sungwoo Holdings, a manufacturer of car parts, was previously part of the same group that also owned Hyundai Cement.

South Korea: The sale of Hyundai Cement is predicted to generate up to US$515m. Sources quoted by the Maeil Business Newspaper say that the auction in mid-December 2016 will receive attention from cement producers and private equity funds. Hyundai Cement is the seventh largest cement producer locally, holding about 7% of the market. Larger producers, such as Ssangyong Cement Industrial, Tongyang Cement & Energy and Lafarge Halla Cement, with production units in coastal regions, would all benefit from purchasing Hyundai Cement with its assets located internally in the country.

South Korea: Creditors could put Hyundai Cement on sale in 2016, according to sources quoted by the Korea Herald. The South Korean cement producer has been on a debt management scheme. Its creditors, led by the state-run Korea Development Bank, will be able to complete any sale when the lock-up period on their shares in the company expire at the end of 2016.

Previously the company suffered financially from the misfortunes of its affiliate Sungwoo Engineering & Construction. Sungwoo has since been sold to other investors.

South Korea: South Korea's antitrust watchdog has fined six local cement makers a combined US$168m for fixing the prices of cement products and divvying up the market, according to Dow Jones.

According to the Fair Trade Commission (FTC), cement companies have allegedly colluded to rig the prices of cement products by controlling output and market share in 2011. The suspected companies are Ssangyong Cement Industry Co., Tongyang Cement & Energy Corp., Hanil Cement Co., Sungshin Cement Co., Hyundai Cement Co. and Asia Cement Co. Ssangyong was set to take 22.9% of the total market share, while Tongyang and Hanil were in charge of 15.1% and 14.9%, respectively.

"Managers of the six companies had regular monthly meetings to oversee whether or not the members had complied with the arranged shipments," said the FTC. The prices of cements surged by 43% year-on-year in April 2012.

Industry leader Ssangyong was slapped with US$73.6m of fines, followed by Hanil with US$34.5m and Sungshin with US$36.7m. Tongyang was exempted from the penalty, as the cement maker has been under court receivership since October 2013.

The FTC said that it will strictly crack down on price-rigging practices in backbone industries to build sound market order and fair competition.

South Korea: The South Korean Fair Trade Commission has started an investigation into major cement companies including Ssangyong Cement Industrial and Hanil Cement for suspected price fixing. The companies had notified ready-mixed concrete operators that they would raise their cement prices by 9-10% in 2012.

On 9 April 2013 the commission sent investigators on a two day probe to seven cement producers: Ssangyong Cement Industrial, Hanil Cement, Tongyang Cement, Sungshin Cement, Lafarge Halla, Asia Cement and Hyundai Cement.

An industry source said, "Lately cement producers and ready-mixed concrete operators are at loggerheads over cement prices. It appears that the Fair Trade Commission is looking closely into the matter. In 2003, the commission had imposed penalties of US$22.5m for restricting the supply of cement to ready-mixed concrete makers in order to prevent them to use slag powder in place of cement."