Displaying items by tag: Lucky Cement
Pakistan: Lucky Cement’s net sales rose by 5.7% to US$434m for the financial year that ended on 30 June 2017 from US$428m in the same period in 2016. Its cement sales volumes rose by 3.1% to 7.15Mt from 6.93Mt and its profit after tax rose by 5.8% to US$130m from US$123m. No reason for the good performance was presented in its financial results statement but that it said it was confident in the domestic market due to both resident and public sector construction markets and large scale infrastructure projects driven by the China-Pakistan Ecumenic Corridor initiative.
The cement producer also provided an update on new and on-going expansion projects. Its expansion plans at the Karachi Plant to add a 1.25Mt/yr production line are expected to reach commercial operations in December 2017. It is also in the process of obtaining approvals and authorisations from the state government of Punjab to build a new 2.3Mt/yr plant.
Pakistan: Lucky Cement has appointed Muhammad Irfan Husain Chawala as its Chief Finance Officer and director of finance. He succeeds Muhammad Faisal. Previously Chawala was the company secretary of the cement producer. Faisal Mahmood will succeed him in this role.
Lucky Cement inaugurates WHR unit
15 March 2017Pakistan: Lucky Cement has inaugurated a waste heat recovery (WHR) unit in Pezu, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, its fifth across its operations. The unit generates 10MW from two 2400t/day cement production lines. It was installed by China’s Sinoma.
The inauguration ceremony was attended by Muhammad Ali Tabba, CEO of Lucky Cement, as well as other members of the company’s senior management. “As one of the leading cement manufacturers in Pakistan, we have the responsibility to reduce energy consumption and improve the environment. With the launch of our fifth WHR plant, we aim to do just that,” said Tabba.
Pakistan: Lucky Cement’s sales have risen by 13% year-on-year to US$514m for the six months to 31 December 2016 from US$454m in the same period in 2015. Its profit after tax rose by 14% to US$83m from US$73m. It attributed the increase in revenue on rising sales volumes and its cost of sales fell due to lower fuel costs.
Its cement sales volumes rose by 5.4% to 3.5Mt from 3.3Mt, although exports fell by 16.3% to 0.75Mt from 0.9Mt. Overall the cement producer reported that its market share in Pakistan grew slightly to 18.8% due to an increase in its share of domestic sales.
The cement producer reported that construction at its Punjab cement plant project is awaiting governmental approvals and that it is expected to start in June 2017. A waste heat recovery unit at its Pezu plant is planned to finish commissioning and start operation by the end of January 2017. A joint-venture 1.18Mt/yr plant in the Democratic Republic of the Congo started commercial operation in December 2016 and a 0.87Mt/yr cement grinding plant in Iraq is expected to come online in August 2017.
Lucky Cement says all of its cement plants are operational
05 January 2017Pakistan: Lucky Cement says that all of cement plants in Pakistan are operating as normal. The plants are not facing any unscheduled shutdown and sales and cement dispatches are progressing as per the company’s regular routine.
The cement producer made its comments in response to a news story in the Nation newspaper alleging that a district authority had shut down Lucky Cement’s Pezu plant near Darru Pezu in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in early January 2017 due to breaches of environmental regulations.
Amendment: This story was amended following comment from Lucky Cement.
Competition in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
05 October 2016News from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) this week: Lucky Cement has nearly finished its new 1.2Mt/yr cement plant. The US$270m project is due to start commercial operation in October 2016, according to a report by Bloomberg. The news is fascinating because it marks the opening up of central sub-Saharan Africa to the cement industry and it puts the boots of Pakistan’s Lucky Cement on the African continent in a big way.
The Nyumba Ya Akiba plant is a 50:50 joint venture between Lucky Cement and a local conglomerate Groupe Rawji, with financing supplied from a group of international development agencies. Originally proposed in 2013 the plant is located in Kongo Central province in the far west of the country between Kinshasa and the port of Matadi near to the connecting main road and railway line. The kit for the plant was ordered from FLSmidth in 2014 for Euro68m, including crushers, pyro processing equipment and vertical mills for raw meal, coal and cement grinding. An overview from the International Finance Corporation also added that the plant intended to cut a deal to import South African coal via the railway from the coast. Limestone and clay will come from a captive quarry. Incidentally, FLSmidth reckoned in 2015 that the project was the first new cement plant in the country in 40 years.
From Lucky Cement’s perspective the project makes sense given the bad reaction it has had trying to import its cement into western and southern Africa. Local producers recoiled from cheap imports along the coast and then lobbied their governments to block them. So, putting down manufacturing roots in a target country with a local partner makes it that much harder to block additional imports. It may or may not be importing its own clinker from somewhere else to supplement local demand but it is definitely providing local jobs and supporting local development. Lucky Cement’s previous international adventure of this kind was the opening of a cement grinding plant in Iraq in 2014.
Naturally, like buses, one waits ages for a cement plant to be built and then two turn up at the same time. South Africa’s PPC is also building an integrated cement plant in the DRC at Kimpese, in the same province as Lucky Cement’s plant. PPC’s half year report to March 2016, released in September 2016, mentioned that its 1Mt/yr plant was 83% complete with all civic and structural work complete. Commissioning was intended for the end of 2016 with cement ready for sale in early 2017. It is being built by Sinoma. The cement producer already has a sales depot in Kinshasa and it exports 32.5N and 42.5N cement from South Africa to the territory. Given PPC’s falling revenues from cement in South Africa and growing revenue elsewhere in Africa the opening of this plant will be keenly awaited.
The local demographics may answer whether the DRC can support two new cement plants. The country’s cement consumption was just 24kg/capita with a gross domestic product (GDP) per capita of US$490 in 2015. These are some of the smallest figures in the world. A feasibility study ahead of the Nyumba Ya Akiba plant estimated that the country would have a demand of 1.8Mt/yr by 2015 compared to a local production capacity of under 1Mt/yr. Nature, and markets, abhor a vacuum. Lucky Cement and PPC are about to fill it.
Lucky Cement set to open plant in Democratic Republic of Congo
04 October 2016Democratic Republic of Congo: Pakistan’s Lucky Cement is set to open its US$270m Nyumba Ya Akiba cement plant in Bas-Congo later in October 2016. The 1.2Mt/yr plant will be operated with Groupe Rawji, a local company, under the name CIMKO. It is financed by the African Development Bank, the International Finance Corporation, EKF and by Habib Bank among others, according to Bloomberg.
“We will take care of everything that can hinder your production, unfair competition, fraudulent imports, we will take care of that,” said Prime Minister Matata Ponyo Mapon to CIMKO executives in a show of support for the project at a recent meeting.
Pakistan: The Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP) has fined four cement producers for deceptive marketing practices in violation of the Competition Act 2010. Fines of US$1.8m each have been levied on Al-Abbas Cement, Attock Cement, Bestway Cement and Lucky Cement.
A CCP official said that the commission is mandated under the Competition Act 2010 to ensure fair competition in all spheres of commercial and economic activities. The Competition Commission of Pakistan is committed to maintain transparency for enhancing economic efficiency and to protect consumers from anticompetitive practices, including deceptive marketing.
Lucky Cement wins environmental award
07 September 2016Pakistan: Lucky Cement Limited has received the 13th Annual Environment Excellence Award 2016. The awards ceremony took place on the occasion of a conference titled 'Making our cities sustainable' organised by The National Forum for Environment and Health. Provincial ministers, the Secretary of the Environment, representative of United Nations and other notables were also present on the occasion.
Lucky Cement to build new US$190m cement plant
14 July 2016Pakistan: Lucky Cement has decided to spend US$190m towards building a new 2.3Mt/yr cement plant at Chakwal in Punjab province. The cement producer is currently working with the provincial government to acquire land for the project and it is finalising a contract for the equipment supplier. It is expected that the plant will be commissioned by the end of 2018. It will be Lucky Cement’s third cement plant in Pakistan, according to the Daily Times newspaper.