Displaying items by tag: Italcementi

Italy: Italcementi has inaugurated its new research centre, i.lab, costing Euro40m near Bergamo in northern Italy. Once complete the centre, which was designed by US architect Richard Meier, will cover 23,000km³ and will employ 1300 researchers.

Italcementi will focus the research on the development of new building materials and on the use of renewable and reusable raw materials. The centre will also research special products such as 'pollution' cement.

In 2010, Italcementi's ITCLab received the European Greenbuilding Award of the European Commission for energy efficient construction and now the centre can also boast Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design platinum certification. The centre allows energy saving of up to 60% compared to traditional buildings, director general Giovanni Ferrari said.

Egypt: Italcementi subsidiary Suez Cement has announced that workers at two of its factories in Suez and Katamiya started a strike on 14 March 2012. The strike has halted shipping at these plants although production has not been affected. In a separate statement Suez Cement said that strike action at its Tourah plant ended on 20 March 2012.

Turkey: Italcementi has announced that it has reached an agreement to sell 51% of its Afyon Turkish unit to Cimsa Cimento Sanayi ve Ticaret AS for Euro25m. The stake and the payment will be done at the closing of the operation, which has to be cleared by antitrust authorities. With the closing of this deal, and following the 2011 divestment of Set Group, Italcementi will be left without any presence on the Turkish market as a cement producer.

Italy: An on-going personnel crisis at Italcementi has prompted the company to request unemployment subsidies from the Ministry of Labour and Social Policies.

Following a statement from the company on 11 January 2012 that up to 265 workers would be made redundant, Italcementi sought out the Extraordinary Redundancy Fund, a specialist Italian fund designed to help ailing industries.  This loss represents approximately 7.5% of the company's Italian workforce.

In the statement Italcementi announced that layoffs would affect a total of 265 existing employees: 80 at the headquarters of Italcementi, 60 at Group Technical Centre in Bergamo, 115 (out of a total of 1651 employees) in 18 Italian plants and 10 in the company's commercial network.

Outside of Italy the restructuring of the group will include changes in Spain, Belgium, Egypt and the US. 22,000 employees work for Italcementi worldwide, with 3500 in Italy. In November 2011 the company reported a 51.7% drop in third quarter profits despite the sale of its Turkish assets.

Italcementi has not responded to requests for further information from Global Cement.

Russia: Ciments Français has gone to court to keep a Euro50m advance payment from OAO Sibtsem Holding for Turkish cement assets that the latter company did not acquire.

Ciments Français filed a suit with the Russian supreme arbitration court on 20 December 2011 to recognise the ruling of the Istanbul arbitration court as of 7 December 2010. Under this ruling the French company does not have to return the advance payment to Siberian Cement for the acquisition of Turkish Set Group, which has four cement plants with a capacity 5Mt/yr. On 26 December 2011 the court accepted the suit for consideration.

In March 2008 Sibtsement announced that it would acquire Set Group from Ciments Français, having paid Euro377m and about 5% of its shares, estimated at Euro200m. The first instalment stood at Euro50m. However, the world financial crisis prevented the companies from closing the deal. In the autumn of 2008 the parties began discussing payment for the deal by instalments but they failed to reach an agreement.

In the summer of 2010 the arbitration court of the Kemerovo region in Russia confirmed that Ciments Français had to return the advance payment as the agreement was null and void. In early 2011 the Kemerovo court refused to confirm the Istanbul court ruling.

Switzerland/Italy: Sika AG, the Swiss specialty chemicals company, is to acquire the global concrete admixture and cement grinding aid businesses of the Italcementi Group (directly or indirectly controlled by Italcementi or Ciments Français). The businesses are on the market under the brand Axim. Axim has approximately 150 employees in Italy, France, the US, Canada, Morocco and Spain. In 2010 it generated sales of around Euro61m.

"This agreement will allow the group to capitalise the value of this business," said Giovanni Ferrario, COO of Italcementi Group. "Moreover, this will further extend the relationship between Italcementi and Sika, enhancing the reputation of both companies as innovators in the field of concrete and cement."

This acquisition allows Sika to significantly strengthen its market position in the relevant countries. As Sika's CEO, Ernst Baertschi, said, "This acquisition is a major step for Sika in the process of expanding market shares in the admixture business worldwide."

Italy: Italcementi has reported a 51.7% fall in third quarter net profits to Euro25m despite the sale of its assets in Turkey earlier in 2011.

The profit over the nine months to 30 September 2011 was up at Euro123.2m from Euro18.5m in 2010, with the group saying that cement sales were up in Belgium, France, North America and in the emerging markets of India, Morocco and Thailand. Total group sales remained almost unchanged at Euro3.6bn for the same period. Italcementi's cement sector reported Euro2.3bn for the first nine months of 2011, a drop of 8.4% from Euro2.5bn in the same period in 2010. Cement sales volumes remained steady at 38.9Mt. The group reported a contraction in Egypt due to the civil unrest there and said there was, "stagnation in some industrialised economies."

"The positive results seen on emerging markets where, with the exception of Egypt, sales volumes rose by around 3%, confirms their strategic importance," said Italcementi's chief executive Carlo Pesenti in a statement. "More than 60% of our production capacity is located in these regions and this will increase in the near future with the new development projects recently set up in India," Pesenti continued.

The group said the profit fall was due to 'the unfavourable dynamic of operating costs and exchange rate effects' Italcementi sold equity investments in Turkey for Euro133.4m earlier in 2011 and said it would continue with cost cutting.

"While the Egyptian market will still be affected by political instability and increased local competition, the rest of the group should generate improved operating results, also thanks to positive price trends in Italy," it said. "In the fourth quarter, the group should record a decline in operating results that will be less than those of the previous quarters," it said, adding that it expected a 'significant improvement' in net profit for 2011 overall.

France/Italy/Turkey: French cement maker Ciments Français has said that it will sell its 51% stake in Turkish Afyon Çimento Sanayi TAS. The French company, part of the Italcementi group, has mandated Mediobanca to be its financial adviser in assessing and carrying out the potential sale of its stake.

In February 2011 Ciments Français started divesting assets in Turkey with the sale of Set Group Holding to diversified Turkish group Limak Holding. After the latest strategic move in Turkey, Mediobanca does not rule out that Italcementi may leave markets on which it has minor presence, such as China, Kazakhstan and Saudi Arabia.