Displaying items by tag: Nigeria
Nigeria: AshakaCem, a subsidiary of Lafarge Africa and member of the LafargeHolcim group, has appointed Alhaji Rabiu Abdullahi Umar as its new managing director. AshakaCem said in a statement that Umar was appointed to succeed Leonard Palka, a Polish national, who has resigned from the company.
AshakaCem in Gombe State is one of the four cement companies controlled by Lafarge Africa in Nigeria. Formerly the companies were known as Lafarge Cement WAPCO Nigeria before the name was changed in 2014.
Lafarge Africa launches US$302m refinancing bond
04 May 2016Nigeria: Lafarge Africa is marketing a US$302m bond to refinance some of the US Dollar-denominated debt held by its subsidiary United Company of Nigeria (UNICEM), which it bought in 2015. Chief finance officer Anders Kristiansson said that there was strong interest for the bond and that book-building was expected to open in the second week of May 2016.
The cement maker said it had received approval from Nigeria's Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for a US$500m bond, but will issue US$302m for five-years. "We are in the process of restructuring the UNICEM debt,” explained Kristiansson. "We want to refinance the US Dollar borrowings that we have in UNICEM."
Nigeria: Dangote Cement has started building a 6Mt/yr cement plant in Okpella, Edo. The Nigerian cement producer has invested US$1bn in the plant, according to All Africa. The company is also building another 6Mt/yr cement plant in Itori, Ogun. Its cement production capacity in Nigeria is expected to grow to 41Mt/yr once construction of both plants is complete. The groundbreaking event was part of the celebrations to mark company owner Aliko Dangote’s 59th birthday.
Crunching the numbers at Dangote Cement
09 March 2016Dangote Cement released its financial results for 2015 this week and certain numbers are more interesting than others. The headline that the company would probably like us to look at is a 14% rise in profit from significantly higher revenues. However, we would like to look at Dangote’s capacity and production figures. We have spoken about Dangote’s ambitions in this column in recent years and it is very likely that the topic will come up again in the future. But Dangote’s ambitions are increasingly becoming a reality for markets all around Africa. How are its pan-African expansion plans turning out?
Dangote Cement reported that cement production volumes were up by 35% in 2015 compared to 2014. This was due almost entirely to Dangote’s new plants outside of its native Nigeria. While its Nigerian cement production volumes rose from 12.9Mt in 2014 to 13.3Mt in 2015, production elsewhere came in at 5.6Mt, more than five times the amount that Dangote produced outside of Nigeria in 2014. This rapid rise was the result of the first cement being produced at its plants in South Africa, Senegal, Cameroon, Ethiopia and Zambia.
As Dangote has expanded into these new markets, we have heard much about the effects of its new capacity from other producers. In South Africa, long-established players have had to deal with falling cement prices due to the inauguration of Dangote’s Sephaku Cement subsidiary. In Zambia, Zambezi Cement was forced to lay off workers in 2015, citing the opening of Dangote’s new facility as a significant contributing factor. More recently, in February 2016, Ghana announced an investigation into Dangote’s operations in the country following accusations of ‘predatory pricing’ by its competitor Diamond Cement. The investigation is ongoing.
However, the complaints heard to date could really start to ramp up over the course of 2016 as Dangote starts to realise its full potential across Africa. Its cement production volumes may have risen by 35% in 2015 relative to 2014 but its capacity rose by an incredible 87%, with Dangote now claiming a capacity of 44Mt/yr! The capacity utilisation rate is just 43% and the inference is that the ex-Nigerian plants have not yet realised anything like their full potential. Local producers the length and breadth of Africa may well be looking at this situation with dread.
And ramping up its production in 2016 is by no means the end of Dangote’s pan-African vision, with new plants under construction in Nepal, Kenya and Zimbabwe. As well as new plants outside of Nigeria, Dangote cement capacity within Nigeria is also set to rise. It recently announced a further 9Mt/yr of capacity at two new plants. With exports to its smaller neighbours already causing consternation, this will surely add fuel to the fire for local producers like Diamond Cement.
So far in 2016, the news continues to be promising for Dangote. January 2016 sales volumes rose by 77.6% to 2.0Mt, with Nigerian sales up by 46.4% to 1.4Mt. February 2016 sales volumes were 38% better than a year earlier, with Nigerian sales up by more than 60% year-on-year to more than 1.5Mt.
At the end of its report, Dangote says that it expects to have around 77Mt/yr of cement capacity by the end of 2019. If realised, this capacity would be enough to put it up to sixth on the Global Cement Top 100 list by 2016 standards. It would have around 28% of Africa’s entire cement capacity, according to the Global Cement Directory 2016 and would be only 10Mt/yr behind the 87Mt/yr of cement capacity currently held by the established multinational player Cemex. That is truly a number to pay attention to!
Dangote makes US$910m profit in 2015
08 March 2016Nigeria: Dangote Cement has reported that its profit rose by 14% year-on-year to US$910m in 2015 from US$801m. Its revenue rose by 26% to US$2.47bn from US$1.97bn. No comment on the results was given in the financial statements released to the Nigerian Stock Exchange.
Cement production volumes for the group rose by 35% to 18.9Mt in 2015 from 14Mt in 2014. Cement production capacity rose by 87% to 42.6Mt/yr from 22.8Mt/yr.
By business region, sale revenue in Nigeria rose by 5% to US$1.95bn from US$1.86bn. Sales revenue in West & Central Africa rose by over five times to US$212m from US$31m. Sales revenue in South & East Africa rose by over three times to US$307m from US$69.8m.
The statement also reported that Dangote Group set up a 100% owned subsidiary for cement production in Nepal and two 90% owned subsidiaries for cement production in Zimbabwe in 2015.
Dangote to build two new Nigerian plants
08 February 2016Nigeria: Dangote Cement has announced that it will build new cement plants in Nigeria, in Okpella in the northern part of Edo State and Itori in Ogun State. Dangote said that the new plants are expected to add 9Mt/yr to the company’s current output of 29.25Mt/yr, raising it to a total 38.25Mt/yr.
The Group’s Managing Director Edwin Devakumar, made the announcement in Lagos. He explained that the Okpella plant will have one 3Mt/yr cement line and that the Itori plant will deliver 6Mt/yr from two production lines. Both plants are expected to come on stream within the next three years.
Devakumar said the company’s expansion drive was targeted at expanding its nationwide presence and reducing the transportation cost component of its operations. He added that the new investments will also lower the cost of production, bring about a future reduction in the price of cement and generate employment opportunities in the host communities.
Group Managing Director for Cement Onne van der Weijde said the demand for cement was still high considering the population growth in Nigeria. He observed that Nigeria’s consumption of cement, at 100kg/capita was relatively low by international standards, indicating growth potential.
Van der Weijde added that Dangote Cement can supply the entire western and central Africa region. Dangote Cement currently exports cement to Niger, Ghana and Togo, with plans to also move into the Ivory Coast.
Nigeria: Dangote Cement has rolled out over 150 new trucks to ease the distribution and availability of cement across the country. The move also aims to help distributors service their customers, deliver products in a timely manner and also take distributors and businesses 'to the next level.'
The Group Chief Marketing Officer, Oare Ojeikere, explained that the trucks would be at no cost to distributors and that all that was required was for the distributors to reach a certain volume of sales in three years.
"This scheme is about empowering our partners and ensuring they have what they require to get their products to their customers. Currently, the exchange rate has more or less ballooned out of proportion, making it increasingly difficult for people to invest in new trucks. Our business is powered by the ability to get cement to the retailers and the end-users," said Ojeikere.
He pointed out that in the past nine months, the group has embarked on different initiatives to improve the profitability of its partners, noting that its partners who drove growth, bought more and were also very aggressive in distribution, were rewarded for their diligence. "We want to assure our partners that those who continue to drive growth will continuously get rewarded for their efforts. We have also made cement more affordable because our per capita cement consumption and the huge housing deficit of over 18 million, we believe that if we are able to bring down the price of cement, we can drive much greater velocity in the amount of cement consumed in the country," said Ojeikere.
Nigeria: The Edo State Government has began moves to recover US$31m that was fraudulently taken from government coffers during the administration of Lucky Igbinedion as Governor. This was part of the decisions reached at the end of the State Executive Council meeting, held on 5 November 2015.
"There is an issue of fraud that was discovered while turning our books. We found that US$31m was fraudulently taken from state coffers during the administration of Chief Lucky Ogbinedion. The governor has directed the Attorney-General to commence legal action in that direction," said Commissioner for Information, Louis Odion. "In the coming days, the state government will take legal action to ensure that what was stolen from Edo State Government is recovered."
Throwing light on the US$31m fraud, the Commissioner for Commerce and Industry, Honourable Abdul Oroh said: "The US$31m was stolen for a transaction that was designed clearly for criminal purposes. This project was called 'Abat Cement Company,' situated in Ekpe, Akoko. The company was supposed to produce cement to take advantage of the large deposit of limestone in that part of the state. The company was registered as Abat Cement Company Limited and had three shareholders. The Abat Cement Company had 75% of the shares, Edo State Government had 15% of the shares and 10% of the shares were reserved for 'other Nigerians.' Although Edo State government was given only a 15%, 100% of the revenue invested in the company, the US$31m, was taken from the account of Edo State Government. The shareholder agreement was signed by the Fashunu and Governor Igbinedion. As the money was withdrawn, construction of the company started and all the major structures were in place, 90% of the machines were installed, but there was no contribution from any other source for the construction and procurement of this equipment. Everything invested in that company came from Edo State Government.
Dangote Cement’s African projects drives revenue to US$1.83bn
27 October 2015Nigeria: Aggressive African expansion projects by Dangote Cement have started to yield positive gains as for the first nine months of 2015 as its turnover grew by 17.8% year-on-year to US$1.83bn. During the period, Dangote Cement exported 3.7Mt of cement to neighbouring countries.
Sinoma to build US$386m cement plant for Ibeto Cement
22 October 2015Nigeria: China National Materials Company's Shanghai-listed subsidiary Sinoma International Engineering Co Ltd has entered into an engineering, procurement and construction contract with Ibeto Cement Company Limited for a 6000t/day clinker line and 45MW self-generation power plant in Enugu, Nigeria. The contract is worth US$386m. It covers the whole process, from the exploitation of limestone mines and the crushing of raw materials, to the packing and delivery of cement and a captive power plant and includes engineering design, supply of equipment, steelwork and materials, civil construction, installation, debugging and staff training.