Displaying items by tag: Poland

France: Cem'In'Eu intends to open its first cement grinding plant in May 2018. The 0.24Mt/yr plant is located at Tonneins in Lot et Garonne, according to Les Echos newspaper. It has had an investment of Euro18m. The company is planning to open new grinding pants at the rate of one per year.

New locations include Chalon-sur-Saone in Saone-et-Loire, Portes-lès-Valence in Drôme, Montreuil-Bellay in Maine-et-Loire and Mulhouse-Ottmarsheim. Internationally the company is also considering new plants in London in the UK, Poland, Switzerland and Germany. Financing for the company is provided by Pergam, a French private equity firm that has already raised Euro33m.

Poland: BWF Envirotec Group has purchased Orwat Filtertechnik. Based in Mysłowice, Silesia, the company has been producing and distributing filter bags and filter pockets for dedusting and flue gas cleaning technology as well as pockets, cartridges and compact filters for air conditioning and ventilation technology since 1995. The company also has a sales office in Warendorf, North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany giving it a European presence. No value for the acquisition has been disclosed.

"Orwat Filtertechnik, with its technologically outstanding equipment, is an excellent addition to our line-up with a high level of benefit for our customers, particularly for plant builders and operators of flue gas cleaning systems,” said Stefan Offermann and Philipp von Waldenfels, managing partners of BWF Group. They added that the acquisition also strengthens its Offingen-based headquarters.

Gorazdze Cement has been approved this week by the local authorities to buy Duda Kruszywa and Duda Beton. Aggregate and concrete acquisitions are outside the remit of this column, but Poland still deserves attention as a European country that has seen construction growth in recent years.

Approval by the Polish Competition and Consumer Protection Office (UOKiK) for the Gorazdze purchase is relevant due to cartel fines that were issued to seven cement companies, including Gorazdze Cement, in 2013. At that time Lafarge had its fine absolved, Gorazdze's was reduced but the other producers had to pay 10% of their annual turnover. As part of the Duda purchase, Gorazdze is expected to sell a concrete unit in Olszowa to avoid market overlap.

Polish cement production hit a high of 18.6Mt in 2011 according to Polish Cement Association (SPC) data. In its annual report for 2011, Lafarge attributed the surge to European Union (EU) funding for infrastructure projects and a deficit in housing. The multinational cement producer reported a 27% increase in domestic sales that year. Since then production fell to a low of 14.5Mt in 2013 before picking up. Cement production for the first nine months of 2015 is a little ahead of 2014 year-on-year.

Poland's cement production capacity is 16.8Mt/yr. The industry comprises 11 cement plants that are run by eight producers. As mentioned in the Global Cement Lafarge-Holcim Merger report, the country already has two cement plants from a CRH subsidiary, Grupa Ożarów. This is pertinent because the country offers a view of how LafargeHolcim might act in competition with CRH in a national environment.

In 2014 CRH noted that cement volumes grew by 6% in the country and its Europe Heavyside sales increased by 4% year-on-year to Euro3.93bn. In the first half of 2015 CRH reported selling 'non-core' businesses from its Europe Heavyside division in Poland amongst other territories. It also reported that whilst a solid general economy and construction growth helped sales, it was under price pressure in all of its main product lines.

Interestingly, LafargeHolcim announced in late September 2015 that it was implementing a new three-year strategy in Poland. The plan is to offer its clients logistic, design and consulting services in addition to cement, concrete and aggregate sales. The choice of Poland to test this strategy in with its clear competition from CRH is instructive as this situation is now duplicated in several markets throughout Central and Eastern Europe. Lafarge too reported a 'competitive' environment in its first quarter results for 2015 before the merger with Holcim completed. Yet it noted that its cement volumes had contracted compared to the same period in 2014. This is in contrast to the SPC data for the first quarter of 2015 that suggests that cement production rose slightly compared to the same period in 2014. However, Lafarge did expect construction activity to pick up for the rest of 2015 due to infrastructure tenders based on a new EU infrastructure plan. SPC data on cement production suggests that this may be correct. LafargeHolcim's and CRH's cement plants are in slightly different parts of the country which may also explain reported differences in sales volumes in 2015.

So, we have a picture of CRH streamlining its business in Poland to help grow profits. LafargeHolcim, meanwhile, is broadening its offer with 'soft' businesses to complement its heavy divisions. The results will be worth watching.

Poland: Lafarge has appointed Jacek Patyk as new director of the Malogoszcz cement plant. He will replace Miroslaw Majchrowicz, who will be in charge of Lafarge's cement plant in Beocin, Serbia