Displaying items by tag: Japan

US: Taiheiyo Cement subsidiary CalPortland has concluded a deal with Martin Marietta Materials for the acquisition of the latter's Tehachapi cement plant in California for US$250m. The deal also covers two business centres.

Taiheiyo Cement said "We expect the US cement business to continue to have strong demand from the private sector in view of projected economic growth and chronic housing shortages going forward. Additionally, we expect the infrastructure demands to accelerate as a result of the passing of the more than US$1tn infrastructure investment bill by the US Congress. Further, California is likely to have even greater growth because it will host the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics. The planned acquisition of Martin Marietta Materials' assets is intended to ensure that we capture this increased demand. It is an essential element in maximising our future corporate value."

Japan: Sumitomo Osaka Cement recorded sales of US$337m in the first quarter of the 2023 financial year, up by 3.7% year-on-year from US$325m in the first quarter of the 2022 financial year. Despite this, the company reported a loss for the quarter of US$8.23m, compared to a net profit of US$20.5m in the first quarter of the 2022 financial year. For the first half of the current 2023 financial year, Sumitomo Osaka Cement expects to deliver sales of US$726m and a net profit of US$3.71m.

Japan: Sumitomo Osaka Cement has announced its next price rise from the start of October 2022. It previously raised the price of its cement-related products by 20% in April 2022. It blamed this on rising raw material, energy and logistics costs. A further price will be considered from April 2023.

India: Dalmia Bharat Refractories and Japan-based Shinagawa Refractories have launched a refractories partnership to serve India and other markets.

Dalmia Bharat Refractories managing director Sameer Nagpal said "We have been strategically expanding our partnerships to bring best-in-the world products and solutions to our customers, and this relationship very well complements our objective. Dalmia Bharat Refractories is well positioned to meet the growing demand for refractories over the next few years, with five manufacturing units in India and two overseas, and a manufacturing capacity of 345,000t/yr."

CalPortland completed its acquisition of the Redding cement plant from Martin Marietta this week. As previously announced the transaction involved the integrated cement plant in northern California, related cement terminals and 14 ready mixed concrete (RMC) plants also in the state. However, CalPortland’s parent company Japan-based Taiheiyo Cement revealed this time round that it is considering buying the Tehachapi cement plant from Martin Marietta too. It says it has some sort of preferential purchase agreement in place, although a final decision is yet to be made.

If CalPortland and Taiheiyo Cement do end up buying the Tehachapi plant as well as Redding then it will mark a fairly quick turnaround of owners. HeidelbergCement subsidiary Lehigh Hanson announced that it was selling up assets in its US West region to Martin Marietta for US$2.3bn in May 2021. The deal was completed by October 2021. Then, CalPortland said it was buying the Redding plant in March 2022. From an outside perspective it was not clear what Martin Marietta might have had planned for its new assets. Over three quarters of Martin Marietta’s revenue in 2021 came from its Aggregates and RMC products. However, it is also a prominent regional US cement producer with two plants in Texas and two plants in California, along with associated terminals. So, building up its cement business in California didn’t seem unfeasible. Now, as can be seen, it is likely to be sticking to its primary focus of aggregates and RMC. It is also worth noting that California has some of the stricter CO₂ reduction policies in the US with a 40% reduction target for 2030 (compared to 1990 levels) and a local emissions trading scheme that started in 2013.

Looking at the local cement production base in California, the latest development with the former Lehigh Hanson plants shows the changing situation since the subsidiary of HeidelbergCement left the region. Beforehand, Cemex, Lehigh Hanson and CalPortland each had a similar clinker production capacity. Then, Martin Marietta took the lead and now CalPortland looks set to become the frontrunner if it buys Tehachapi. With the Redding deal completed it now operates three integrated cement plants in California and one in Arizona. Alongside this it runs 15 terminals in Alaska, Arizona, California, Nevada, Oregon and Washington – and – two terminals in Alberta and British Colombia in Canada. The Redding plant is also a distinctive addition to its portfolio as it is further north than the other clinker units.

United States Geological Survey (USGS) data shows that cement shipments to California grew by 5% from 10.05Mt in 2019 to 10.57Mt in 2021. So far in 2022, shipments to the state rose by 3.4% year-on-year to 3.56Mt for January to April 2022 compared to 3.44Mt in the same period in 2021. However, clinker production fell by 5% to 8.94Mt in 2021 from 9.45Mt in 2019. This trend seems to have continued into 2022 with a 9% fall to 2.54Mt for January to April 2022 compared to 2.81Mt in the same period in 2021. Despite this, California remained the second largest OPC and blended cement producer in the US in April 2022. In its Western US Regional Outlook in May 2022, the Portland Cement Association (PCA) forecast that the Pacific region of the US (including California) will experience flat growth in cement consumption in 2023 due to a slowdown in residential consumption. However, consumption is then expected to bounce back sharply in 2024 as the effects of the infrastructure bill take effect.

This suggests that CalPortland has picked an uncertain time to start buying cement plants in California. Yet only last year, in 2021, Cemex began restarting production at a previously mothballed cement plant in Mexico to supply the south-west US. Alongside all of this, environmental regulations are tightening. However, the key difference between Martin Marietta and CalPortland is that the latter is owned by Japan-based Taiheiyo Cement, which is more cement-focused than the aggregate and concrete oriented Martin Marietta. No doubt Taiheiyo Cement’s intention to become more international also played a part in its decision making. If CalPortland does decide to buy Tehachapi then this may give observers an idea of how much further its ambitions go.

Japan: Taiheiyo Cement plans to introduce a coal surcharge for its cementitious products in September 2022 due to rising energy prices. It will use a surcharge system linked to the price of coal for one year until the end of August 2023. The first surcharge will be determined based on the price of coal in June 2022 and then disclosed in mid-August 2022. It will be revised every two months. The surcharge will be charged separately from the product price.

The cement company said that, “Although we are trying to further reduce costs, it is not possible to absorb the unprecedented rise in costs only by corporate efforts.”

Japan: Sumitomo Osaka Cement’s sales fell by 23% year-on-year to US$1.43bn in the financial year to the end of March 2022 from, US$1.85bn in same period in 2021. Its domestic sales volumes of cement grew slightly to 8.34Mt but exports sales volumes rose by 8.4% to 1.54Mt. Its operating income dropped by 59% to US$53.3m from US$129m. The company blamed its falling profits on rising input costs including energy prices such as a coal and oil.

Japan: Taiheiyo Cement’s consolidated sales declined by 18% in its 2022 financial year, which ended on 31 March 2022, to US$5.51bn from US$6.72bn. The group’s net profit was US$225m, down by 38% from US$364m.

Nikkei Financial Summary News has reported that Japanese cement consumption was 37.9Mt in the 2022 financial year, down by 2% year-on-year.

Japan: Logistics group Tohbu Network has acquired Shiogama-based cement distributor Tohoku Sanko. The Nikkei newspaper has reported that Tohoku Sanko serves the customers of cement producers in Akita and Miyagi Prefectures. The group aims to expand its sales footprint and its productivity through shared use of vehicles, facilities, software and human resources.

Japan: Tokuyama Corporation has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Engineering (MHIENG). Under the agreement, MHIENG will install a carbon capture demonstration plant at the producer's 4.7Mt/yr Nanyo plant in Yamaguchi Prefecture. It plans to commission the trial plant in June 2022 and operate it until March 2023. The supplier hopes to contribute to the early realisation of carbon neutrality in cement and other industrial fields through its work.