Displaying items by tag: LafargeHolcim

Nigeria: Lafarge Africa’s sales rose by 36% year-on-year to US$835m in 2017 from US$613m in 2016. Its recurring earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) nearly doubled to US$161m from US$81m. Michel Puchercos, the chief executive officer of Lafarge Africa, attributed the strong margins in its Nigerian business to cost initiatives and higher prices. He added that the company’s increased use of alternative fuels and coal to offset gas shortages in the west of Nigeria and a focus on coal and gas in the east and north of the country aided market share.

However, the cement producer reported a ‘challenging’ business environment in South Africa, where operations are expected to ‘stabilise’ in 2018. Its Lichtenburg cement plant returned to normal operations during the course of the year and a turnaround plan was initiated in order to transform the company’s operations.

Switzerland: Thomas Schmidheiny has decided not to stand for re-election for the board of LafargeHolcim. In recognition of his years of service to LafargeHolcim and its predecessor company Holcim, the board of directors has decided to name Schmidheiny honorary chairman of the group. He will remain one of the group’s main shareholders. Fellow board member Bertrand Collomb has also decided to stand down.

“For almost 50 years Thomas Schmidheiny has made a significant contribution to the success of Holcim and later LafargeHolcim. He was instrumental in successfully expanding into promising growth markets and has made Holcim one of the leading companies in its industry. On behalf of the board and all employees I would like to thank Thomas Schmidheiny for his exceptional contribution to our company,” said Beat Hess, chairman of the board of LafargeHolcim. He also thanked Collomb for his contribution to Lafarge and then LafargeHolcim.

Schmidheiny began his career at Holcim in 1970. He became a member of the executive committee six years later and served as chief executive officer (CEO) between 1978 and 2001. After joining the board of directors in 1978 he was chairman of the board of directors from 1984 until 2003. Later, he was a key part of the merger between Holcim and Lafarge that completed in 2015.

Collomb joined Lafarge in 1975. After serving in different management positions, including Head of North American operations, he served as chairman and CEO of Lafarge from 1989 to 2003, as chairman until 2007 and then subsequently director until 2012. He was named honorary chairman of Lafarge in 2007 and joined LafargeHolcim’s Board in 2015. Collomb has also decided not to stand for re-election at the upcoming annual general meeting, in order to follow a customary age limit of 75 years.

All other current members of the board of directors will be proposed for re-election at the annual general meeting. This will include: Beat Hess; Oscar Fanjul; Paul Desmarais, Jr; Patrick Kron; Gérard Lamarche; Adrian Loader; Jürg Oleas; Nassef Sawiris; Hanne Birgitte Breinbjerg Sørensen; and Dieter Spälti. Following the election of the nominees the board of directors will drop in size to 10 members compared to 12 at present.

Switzerland: Roland Köhler has been appointed as the chairman of the board of the LafargeHolcim Foundation for Sustainable Construction. He succeeds Rolf Soiron, the founding chairman of the Foundation since 2003, with effect from 1 April 2018.

Brinda Somaya, Principal Architect & Managing Director of Somaya & Kalappa Consultants in Mumbai, India and Stuart Smith, Director of Arup, a multinational engineering Group based in London, UK have also been appointed as new members to the board of the foundation.

The foundation selects and supports initiatives that combine sustainable construction solutions with architectural excellence and enhanced quality of life beyond technical solutions. Through the non-commercial promotion and development of sustainable construction at national, regional, and global levels, the LafargeHolcim Foundation encourages sustainable responses to the technological, environmental, socioeconomic and cultural issues affecting building and construction.

Poland: LafargeHolcim has celebrated investing over Euro95m at its Kujawy cement plant since 2008. As part of the Pomeranian Special Economic Zone, the plant has had a number of upgrades over the last decade and has created over 60 jobs.

Projects at the site have included spending Euro24m on environmental improvements such as installing new filters, building a new clinker silo and four cement silos, and converting the plant to process alternative fuels. Euro56m has been invested on production upgrades including a new cement grinding mill, a new calciner and new constant monitoring systems. Euro18m has been spent on two bulk loading terminals, a new weighbridge and self-loading systems and a new laboratory.

Kenya: Bamburi Cement’s turnover fell by 6% year-on-year to US$357m in 2017 from US$380m in 2016. The subsidiary of LafargeHolcim attributed the decline to poor weather, a prolonged election period and lower construction activity, especially in the individual home builder segment, in Kenya. In Uganda it described the market as ‘broadly flat’ for both domestic and export sectors. The cement producer’s profit fell by 66.5% to US$19.6m from US$58.4m.

Chairman John Simba said, “While the 2017 results reflect a mixed performance in a challenging market environment, we remain positive that the market conditions in both countries will continually improve and rebound in line with the projected growth in both domestic and regional markets. The expected commissioning of the new capacity in the second half of 2018 will see the business enhance its market leadership position and underscores our belief in the growth of East African economies, underpinned by a robust construction industry.”

Philippines: Phinma Group has returned to the cement industry bringing its ‘Union Cement’ brand back to the market. Its cement production subsidiary, Philcement, is also building a new 2Mt/yr cement plant in Bataan, according to the Philippine Daily Inquirer newspaper. The new plant is expected to be operational in early 2019. No cost for the plant has been disclosed.

Phinma sold its majority interest in Union Cement in 2004 and the business eventually became part of Switerland’s Holcim. However, Phinma subsequently required the Union Cement trademark after Holcim Philippines abandoned it.

The cement producer’s head is Eduardo Sahagun, the former boss of Holcim Philippines from 2013 to 2017. At present Philcement is distributing cement from third parties.

Nigeria: China’s CBMI and LafargeHolcim have held a signing ceremony for a 5000t/day cement plant upgrade project near Ewekoro. The deal follows previous collaborations between the companies in the country, including work at Ewekoro and Unicem.

Syria: An investigation by the Agence France Presse has found that one local employee of Lafarge in Syria was killed and another has been missing for five years. According to the news agency, Syrian mechanic Yassin Ismail, who was employed at Lafarge's plant at Jalabiya, was kidnapped by jihadist fighters in 2013. He was subsequently executed, according to relatives and former work colleagues. Another mechanic Abdul al-Homada, was disappeared in Aleppo in 2013 while attempting to collect his salary.

LafargeHolcim is being investigated in France over claims that Lafarge Syria had paid extremist groups to keep its Jalabiya cement plant operational after the outbreak of war in Syria. Six former Lafarge executives have been charged with financing a terrorist organisation. Those managers could also face prosecution for endangering the lives of their local Syrian employees after 11 of them filed their own lawsuit alleging that Lafarge put financial profit before their personal safety.

Malaysia: Lafarge Malaysia has appointed Mario Bastian Gross as its chief executive officer (CEO). He will take up his new post on 1 April 2018. He succeeds Thierry Legrand who has been in post since mid-2015.

Gross, a German national aged 39 years, joins Lafarge Malaysia from Sika. He started his career with Sika in 2000 and has global experience with roles across Germany, China, Thailand and Switzerland. He was Asia Pacific Head of Procurement from 2007 to 2011, after which he was appointed Managing Director of Sika in Thailand. In 2013, he took the role Head of Global Procurement, Quality & Sustainability of Sika based in Switzerland.

He holds an MBA from the University of Strathclyde in the UK and a Bachelor of Economics from the VWA Koblenz in Germany.

Malaysia: Lafarge Malaysia has won a US$68.9m contract from China Communications Construction to supply cement for the East Coast Rail Link project. The contract will run until the end of 2019 with options for renewal by a further two years.