Displaying items by tag: Japan

The two largest cement producers in Japan released their results for their 2023 financial years this week. Much like manufacturers elsewhere in the world they reported mounting sales revenues, but they also noted losses. Input prices such as coal rose in 2022 and these were passed on to consumers in the form of higher prices. However, this was insufficient to stop them making a loss.

In the case of Taiheiyo Cement, its domestic sales volumes of cement remained stable at 13.4Mt in the year to 31 March 2023. It made a loss at home in Japan but still reported a profit in its overseas businesses, despite export volumes falling by 41% year-on-year to 2.44Mt. The group also noted delays at construction sites due to a lack of workers. Recent domestic developments for Taiheiyo include an agreement in October 2022 to buy the cement business of chemicals company Denka. Outside of Japan, in China, the group suspended the production and sale of cement from its Jiangnan-Onoda Cement subsidiary in February 2023 citing a 'tougher competitive environment,' although it justified this decision as part of its strategy to refocus on Southeast Asia. Then, in late April 2023, the company was forced to stop its proposed acquisition of the Tehachapi cement plant in the US due to an inability to obtain regulatory approval.

Sumitomo Osaka reported a similar situation, with cement sales volumes also down year-on-year. Again, cement price increases were unable to catch coal prices made worse by negative currency exchange effects. Having got the bad news out of the way, it then it took the opportunity to outline its medium term strategy to 2035. It said that becoming carbon neutral was the key to this. In its 2022 financial year cement accounted for around 70% of total sales. However, it is now aiming to reduce this to 65% by 2025 and 50% by 2035. If this sounds familiar this is because it is similar to what Holcim is doing with its growing light building materials division and its diversification away from the heavy building materials trio of cement, concrete and aggregates. Sumitomo Osaka plans to invest over US$3.5bn towards this goal by developing its presence in the semiconductors sector, building its business in Australia and starting new ventures in decarbonisation.

Of the other cement producers, Tokuyama Corporation said in late April 2023 that it was considering suspending operation of one of the three kilns at its 4.54Mt/yr Nanyo cement plant as part of measures to strengthen profitability. It reported a growing loss for the current financial year that it blamed on raw material and fuel costs. Mitsubishi Materials and Ube Industries formed their merged cement businesses in April 2022 known as Mitsubishi UBE Cement Corporation. Ube said, as part of its latest financial results, that, despite a gradual decrease in the domestic market, cement sales had remained stable but that the business was “heavily affected” by rising energy prices such as coal. It added that demand for cement and concrete remain strong in its overseas market in North America.

Graph 1: Sales and exports of cement in Japan from 2013 – 2022. Source: Japan Cement Association.

The Japanese cement market peaked in the 1990s. Domestic sales of cement in Japan have declined over the last decade, as can be seen in Graph 1 above, but at a slower rate. Exports rose to a peak of just under 12Mt in 2017 but have slipped a little since then. Data from the Japan Cement Association placed production at 53.2Mt in 2022 compared to 61.7Mt in 2013. This trend explains the move by the cement producers towards decarbonisation, offshoring, diversification and consolidation. The bump in fuel prices over the past year may have accelerated this process, as examples such as Taiheiyo Cement’s takeover of Denka and Sumitomo Osaka’s new business strategy suggest. The race continues to keep cement production profitable in a changing business environment.

Japan: Taiheiyo Cement's consolidated sales rose by 14% year-on-year to US$6.02bn for its 2023 financial year, which ended on 31 March 2023. Its cement volumes fell by 1.5% to 37.3Mt. It said that current high costs of labour and building materials generally reduced cement demand in its local market. It reported a net loss of US$247m, up by 15% from US$215m. Nikkei News has reported that the company has forecast a US$297m profit in the 2024 financial year.

Japan: Sumitomo Osaka Cement's consolidated sales rose by 11% year-on-year to US$1.52bn in the 2023 financial year from US$1.37bn in the previous financial year. Despite this growth, the group recorded a loss of US$42.5m, compared to a net profit of US$71.8m in the previous financial year.

Russia/Uzbekistan: The US Department of State has imposed sanctions upon USM Holding including its subsidiaries Akkermann Cement and USM Cement in Russia, and Akhangarancement in Uzbekistan. The action is intended to target company owner Alisher Burhanovich Usmanov and his various business interests. Other USM companies in the iron, steel, copper, gold, telecommunications and real estate sectors are also affected.

The US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control noted that Usmanov was, “one of Russia’s wealthiest billionaires, with vast holdings across multiple sectors of the Russian Federation economy as well as internationally.” It added that he was linked to multiple senior Russian officials, including Russian President Vladimir Putin as well as Dmitry Medvedev, current Deputy Chairman of the Security Council of Russia and former President and Prime Minister of Russia. Usmanov has also been sanctioned by Australia, Canada, the European Union (EU), Japan, New Zealand, Switzerland and the UK.

These latest US sanctions are in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Companies on the sanction list are forbidden to conduct business transactions with any US citizens.

Akkermann Cement operates two cement plants and a network of 12 terminals in Russia. It acquired a majority stake in Uzbekistan-based Akhangarancement in early 2022.

Japan: Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) and Osaka Gas have launched a collaboration to develop a value chain for captured CO₂ from Japan's hard-to-abate industries, including the cement sector. JCN Newswire has reported that their collaboration will leverage MHI's expertise in CO₂ capture, liquefied CO₂ maritime vessel transport and CO₂ management, and Osaka Gas' expertise in e-methane production and CO₂ storage. The project will integrate MHI and IBM Japan's CO₂nnex software platform to model value chains. The project aims to contribute to the realisation of Japan's target of net zero CO₂ emissions by 2050.

Japan: Sumitomo Osaka Cement will launch its new sustainability committee on 1 April 2023. The committee will promote initiatives to reduce the producer's CO2 emissions and help it to 'realise a decarbonised society.' The new committee will operate alongside Sumitomo Osaka Cement's existing corporate social responsibility (CSR) committee, which has been in operation since April 2020.

Japan: Taiheiyo Cement has obtained a Transition-Linked Loan, the first of its kind in the Japanese cement industry. The loan employs sustainability performance targets (SPTs) based on the company's 2030 interim sustainability targets and 2050 Carbon Neutral Strategy. The former consists in a 40% reduction in its total CO₂ emissions, including Scope 3, and a 20% reduction in its Scope 1 and 2 CO₂ emissions, between 2000 and 2030.

Japan: Taiheiyo Cement recorded a net loss of US$135m during the first nine months of its 2023 financial year, compared to a net profit of US$226m during the first nine months of the 2022 financial year. Nikkei Financial News has reported that the group lowered its financial forecast for the full 2023 financial year accordingly. Taiheiyo Cement now expects to record a loss of US$199m, compared to a US$221m profit in the 2022 financial year. The producer previously revised its earnings and profit forecasts downward following its first-half 2023 financial year results on 10 November 2022.

During the first nine months of the 2023 financial year, Taiheiyo Cement recorded sales of US$4.58bn, up by 14% year-on-year. The producer said that new US acquisitions during the year so far helped it to increase its cement volumes in that market.

Japan: Sumitomo Osaka Cement recorded sales of US$1.15bn during the first nine months of the 2023 financial year. The figure corresponds to an increase of 9.9% year-on-year from nine-month 2022 financial year levels. The producer made a loss of US$13m, compared to profit of US$63.3m in the corresponding period of the 2022 financial year.

Japan: Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) has won an Award for Excellence at the 41st Nikkei Excellent Products and Services Awards for its carbon capture system. It was among eight industrial products to win the award for the year. The panel of judges selected MHI's system for its compact and versatile module configuration, which shortens installation and transport times.

MHI's model has been in industrial operation since June 2022, when MHI inaugurated its first system at Taihei Dengyo Kaisha's Seifu Shinto biomass power plant. The technology is now in operation or under implementation at cement plants in Japan and overseas. Most recently, MHI secured a carbon capture contract with a UK cement plant, Hanson's Padeswood plant, in mid-December 2022.