Displaying items by tag: Loma Negra

Argentina: InterCement subsidiary Loma Negra’s nine-month net sales for the period ending 30 September 2020 were US$321m, down by 23% year-on-year from US$416m. Its net profit doubled to US$95.3m from US$44.9m.

Chief executive officer (CEO) Sergio Faifman said, “We feel very satisfied with the robust position with which we concluded the third quarter of 2020. We have improved our operational results with margins expansion on the back of a continuing sales volume improvement coupled with effective cost and price management.

Faifman continued, “additionally, we seamlessly executed the sale of our Paraguayan operation, an excellent deal in terms of value generation and timing. We optimised the proceeds from the transaction, creating value for our shareholders and, at the time, strengthening our already robust financial situation.” He added, “In the quarter, cement demand in Argentina continues to operate at two speeds. On one side, our bagged cement segment has taken a strong recovery path of 18% year-on-year business growth, mostly due to household and retail demand. By contrast, the bulk cement segment, as well as concrete and aggregates, are still affected by the very low levels of larger private and public works, the execution of which is still hampered by the coronavirus lockdown and its effects.”

The company said that its L’Amali cement plant upgrade – a “key element of our long-term strategy” – is on track, but that uncertainties around the impacts of the coronavirus outbreak meant that the new line would not necessarily be commissioned when scheduled in early 2021.

Paraguay: Argentina-based Loma Negra has sold its 51% stake in Yguazú Cementos. The El Cronista Comercial newspaper has reported that the proceeds of sale of the 0.8Mt/yr installed cement production capacity subsidiary will go towards paying off Loma Negra’s debts. The company said, “Loma Negra’s objective is to seek and execute projects with high potential. For this reason, after having started marketing operations in Paraguay in 2000, built and operated the factory since 2013 and reached high standards of production and profitability, we have finally decided to finalise its sale.”

Yguazú Cementos sold 260,000t of cement in the first half of 2020, down by 6.8% year-on-year from 267,000t in the first half of 2019. This generated revenues of US$25.4m, up by 39% from US$18.3m and constituting 12% of Loma Negra’s total sales of US$212m over the period. The company valued the asset at US$80m on 30 June 2020. The buyer is a Paraguayan company reportedly connected to remainder shareholder Intercement.

Yguazú Cementos’ 0.4Mt/yr Ascunsción cement plant in Capital District and 0.4Mt/yr Villa Hayes cement plant in Presidente Hayes Department supplied 40% of Paraguay’s cement demand in 2019.

Argentina: Loma Negra’s first-half net profit declined by 68% year-on-year in 2020 to US$14.2m from US$44.4m in the 2019. Sales fell by 30% to US$215m from US$306m. The company said that business was “impacted by the increasing complexities of the Covid-19 pandemic,” but that a strong recovery in bagged cement sales beginning in May 2020 was an indicator of general growth to come in the second half of the year.

Argentina: Loma Negra’s sales of cement, masonry and lime fell by 26% year-on-year to 1.13Mt in first quarter of 2020. The decline was driven by the coronavirus lockdown in Argentina, where the subsidiary of Brazil’s InterCement has most of its sales. Concrete and aggregate sales volumes declined also. The company’s new revenue dropped by 29.6% to US$115m and its adjusted earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) fell by 17.9% to US$38.6m. However, the company’s accountant adjustment for use in so-called ‘hyperinflationary economies’ made a negative impact on these figures. With this adjustment removed both revenue and earnings reportedly rose in the first quarter.

“By the end of the first quarter the coronavirus broke out, bringing additional challenges to the already adverse background,” said Sergio Faifman, Loma Negra’s chief executive officer (CEO). He added that cement demand in Argentina nationally contracted by around 29% year-on-year in the first quarter of 2020.

The cement producer temporarily suspended its production facilities and its L´Amalí Expansion project in late March 2020 due to the government lockdown. Production and dispatches of cement were restarted in early April 2020 following the implementation of new sanitation protocols. The company has now resumed working on its upgrade project at L´Amalí.

Argentina: Loma Negra plans to restart cement production at its plants depending on local demand. It is currently supplying public infrastructure projects from existing stocks, according to Infoeme. The subsidiary of Brazil’s InterCement stopped production following a national quarantine due to the coronavirus outbreak in late March 2020. However, the building materials producer has been included by the government on a list of essential activities so it can resume operation when it wants.

Argentina: Loma Negra’s total comprehensive income in 2019 was US$61.8m, up by 3.7% year-on-year from US$59.6m in 2018. Its revenue fell by 15% to US$147m from US$173m in 2018. The company said that this was due to decreased demand in Argentina, where its cement, masonry and lime sales declined by 11% year-on-year to 1.28Mt of products from 1.44Mt in 2018, with bulk sales falling further than bagged. Profit growth was hampered by non-recurrent costs from cost-control and streamlining initiatives.

Loma Negra CEO Sergio Faifman said, “Argentina's business suffered more in 2019 than previously expected, however we were able to thrive and present results that we can feel proud of.” He lobbied the new government to adopt policies to ‘re-establish financial stability and economic growth.’

An expansion to Loma Negra’s 1.7Mt/yr integrated L’Amali plant is set to bring the plant’s capacity to 2.4Mt/yr when commissioned in mid-2020.

Argentina: Loma Negra’s earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation fell to US$150m for the first nine months of 2019, down by 6.0% from US$160m in the nine months to 30 September 2019. Loma Negra CEO Sergio Faifman said that political turmoil precipitated ‘high financial and economic volatility that eroded the incipient recovery previously observed in some of the macroeconomic variables.’ Volumes of cement and concrete fell in Argentina and Paraguay. Profit for the period fell to US$32m, down from US$34m by 6.1% year-on-year.

Argentina: Loma’s new line at its L’Amali plant in Olavarría Province, involving a kiln, two vertical mills and a bagging and palletising unit, will create 120 jobs, 80 of which will go to plant staff. The company had previously estimated that 220 people would work on the line. In a statement, it emphasised the importance of maximising gender parity in its recruitment process.

Loma Negra estimated that the upgrade will enlarge the plant’s capacity by 40% to 2.4Mt/yr from 1.7Mt/yr. The declaration follows the announced relocation of 45 staff members with the closure of the 1.5Mt/yr integrated Olavarría cement plant, also in Olavarría province.

Argentina: Loma Negra plans to close its Olavarría integrated cement plant. The unit has 45 employees who will be relocated elsewhere in the business, according to the Buenos Aires Económico newspaper. In recent years the plant has been operating solely as a grinding and bagging unit. The cost of upgrading the plant and the relative distance of its raw materials were factors in the decision to close it. The Olavarría cement plant was the first to be built in the country.

In September 2019 the subsidiary of Brazil’s interCement said it was converting its San Juan integrated cement plant to grinding and bagging only. Earlier in the year it came close to closing its Barker plant as it was unable to reach an agreement with the local union over staff redundancies. Alongside this it is building a new production line at its L'Amalí cement plant.

Argentina: Loma Negra has converted its 0.2Mt/yr San Juan integrated cement plant to grinding and bagging only. 14 people have resultantly lost their jobs, five of whom have accepted relocation to the company’s Catamarca plant. Catamarca is the largest of Loma Negra’s seven production facilities in Argentina, with a cement production capacity of 1.8Mt/yr.