Displaying items by tag: Portland Cement Association

US cement consumption may have disappointed some in the first quarter of 2013 but solid growth lies ahead, according to the Portland Cement Association (PCA). Just how solid that growth will be remains open to interpretation.

PCA chief economist Ed Sullivan forecast 8% growth in cement consumption at the start of 2013. Now's its been halved to just 4%. Yet he's standing by the hint of good news ahead, upping the growth from 2014 to 9.7%.

Figures from the major US cement producers present a mixed picture. The major multinational cement producers mostly suffered from the weather in early 2013. Lafarge saw its cement sales in North America drop by 23% year-on-year for the first half of 2013 to 4.4Mt from 5.7Mt in the same period of 2012. Cemex's cement sales in the US rose by 3% but no specific figures were released. Holcim's cement sales in North America fell by 7% to 5Mt from 5.4Mt. HeidelbergCement's cement sales in the North America grew by 5% to 5.7Mt from 5.4Mt.

Of the rest, Texas Industries reported a rise in cement shipments of 29% to 2.23Mt from 1.73Mt for the six months to the 31 May 2013. Titan saw sales in the US rise by 10% to US$258m.

Preliminary United States Geological Survey data for June 2013 suggests that the increase in portland and blended cement shipments in the US slowed in the first half of 2013. In 2011 32.1Mt were shipped, in 2012 37.0Mt were shipped and in 2013 37.2Mt were shipped.

Meanwhile the construction figures US Department of Commerce mostly suggested growth but not without the odd jitter. Construction spending fell slightly in June 2013. Total construction spending adjusted seasonally fell by 0.4% to US$869bn due to a fall in non-residential construction. Since then though the July 2013 figure hit US$901bn, the highest since June 2009.

Accordingly, in his forecast Sullivan pins his hopes on the residential sector in the near term. It has seen consistent growth since October 2012. However other industry commentators, like the American Institue of Architects, have focused on poor growth in non-residential construction.

Let's hope Sullivan's got it right.

Forget Europe! The US cement industry is back in the game and could be looking forward to growth of 8.1% in cement consumption, according to a new forecast from the Portland Cement Association (PCA). This compares to a growth of 6% in consumption the PCA predicted in the autumn of 2012 in the shadow of the US 'fiscal cliff'.

The new forecast is based upon PCA research that estimates that total residential housing starts will reach 954,000 units in 2013. To give an idea of how badly the 2007 financial crisis hit the US residential housing market, according to US Census Bureau data in 2005 a total of 2,068,300 total housing start units were recorded. In 2007 this fell to 1,355,000 units. By 2009 this levelled out at 554,000, the lowest figure since at least 1960. A loose comparison with Spanish cement consumption in 2012 is worth noting here, when it too hit levels not seen since the 1960s.

The PCA's report predicts US cement consumption of 78.5Mt in 2013. As we pointed out in our overview of the US Cement Industry in the May 2012 issue of Global Cement Magazine, in 2006 the cement consumption of the United States was 122Mt. When the financial crisis hit, consumption nearly halved to 67Mt in 2009. The prediction for 2013 is a great improvement but the levels of 2005 are still a long way off. Currently, the Global Cement Directory 2013 places US cement production capacity at 114Mt/yr.

Other encouraging signs for the US cement industry include the sale of two Lafarge plants to Eagle Materials in September 2012 and less industry anxiety over US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) emissions legislation. Lafarge choosing to sell plants in Missouri and Oklahoma with the US market starting to recover suggests that the French producer may have had its doubts. Yet Eagle Materials certainly thought the plants were worth the price tag of US$446m.

In summary the signs are broadly positive for the US cement industry at the start of 2013 although the dizzy heights of consumption of the early 2000s seem a long way off. US cement producers may take comfort from recent news stories from Beijing about efforts to contain air pollution from a cement plant. Hopefully for them it will be a case of 'been there, done that'.

US: Gregory M Scott has become the president and chief executive of the Portland Cement Association (PCA), effective from 2 January 2013. Scott joined the PCA in January 2012 as the senior president of government affairs and was promoted to president in September 2012.

Scott holds a background in trade association leadership with legislative campaigns on federal transportation, environmental and energy issues. Most recently he served as executive vice president and general counsel for the National Petrochemical and Refiners Association (NPRA) in Washington, DC. Prior to joining the NPRA, Scott served as vice president of National Strategies, Inc, a trade association representing CEOs of Fortune 100 firms on corporate finance and tax issues.

He began his career serving on the staff of Senator Timothy E Wirth. From 1991-2008 Scott was a partner/member of Kelley Drye Collier Shannon, where he gained extensive expertise in petroleum refining and motor fuel marketing as well as legislative and regulatory issues.

Scott received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Colorado College in Colorado Springs and a law doctorate from the American University's Washington College of Law in Washington, DC.

US: The Portland Cement Association (PCA) has announced that its board of directors has elected Cary O Cohrs, current president of American Cement Company, to be its new chairman during the association's autumn board meeting in Washington, DC. Cohrs succeeds Aris Papadopoulos of Titan America. John Stull, president and CEO of Lafarge North America Inc, was elected vice chairman.

"It is not only a pleasure but a great honour to serve as chairman of the board," Cohrs said. "We may be just beginning to emerge from the recession, but the prospects for cement and concrete are incredibly positive. With our shift in leadership from Skokie to Washington comes a greater focus on advocacy and government affairs. But we also must maintain our focus on national and local promotion initiatives and continue to drive gains in both market share and market size."

Cohrs has decades of experience in the cement industry. In 2000 he was appointed vice president of operations for Florida Rock Industries, where Cohrs also served as plant manager and construction manager. He also was a corporate project manager for Essroc Materials Inc, responsible for the installation and commissioning of capital projects in six cement plants and two grinding plants.