Displaying items by tag: Rail
Cement manufacturing cost to increase by US$0.11 – 0.16/bag
27 February 2015India: The manufacturing cost for cement is likely to go up by US$0.11 – 0.16/bag due to the proposed freight hike on various inputs and the cement itself. "The cost of production will go up in the range between US$0.11 – 0.16/bag," said a cement company spokesperson. He added that cement producers would most likely pass on the costs to their customers.
The Railway Budget proposals plan to increase freight rates of coal and slag, used in the manufacturing of cement, by US$0.74/t and by US$0.34/t respectively. A hike in cement freight rates of US$0.34/t has also been proposed, however, a reduced freight on limestone, by US$0.04/t, is also in the proposal.
"The freight rate hike is likely to increase our cost of production in the range between US$0.03 – 0.06/t. However, price is determined by demand and supply," said Mahendra Singhi, whole-time director of Dalmia Bharat Cement. Jaypee Cement's whole-time director Shiva Dixit said that although the freight rate hike would have an impact on input prices, they would wait for the main Budget to see the cost implication.
India: The Cement Manufacturers Association of India has asked the Railway Board to withdraw a 6.5% rise in freight rates that is due to start on 25 June 2014 on the basis that the cement industry cannot absorb the cost. A note to the board said that the increase would further discourage the movement of cement and input materials by rail for an already beleaguered industry.
"In the last two and a half-years, the overall transportation cost of cement has gone up by 40%. With the current 6.5% increase in the freight rates. The cement industry, reeling under tremendous price pressure with around 100Mt of idle excess capacity, cannot absorb this increase," said the note.
Railroad to African riches
14 May 2014The prospects for the East African cement industry have risen this week following the formal agreement to build a new railway line linking the port city of Mombasa and Nairobi in Kenya. The US$3.8bn project will replace the existing 100 year old narrow gauge track with work scheduled to start in October 2014 and a completion date in 2018. The second phase of the project is then intended to extend the line to neighbouring inland countries including Uganda, South Sudan and Rwanda among others.
The bottom line here from Reuters' reporting is that the new line will cut freight costs by more than half to US$0.08/t per km from US$0.20/t per km. Anybody considering sending freight along the 610km line could see their costs drop from US$122/t to US$49/t. With the average cement price in Kenya reported at US$75/t at the start of 2014, these kind of prices seem unlikely to throw the market to the mercy of overseas imports. Moving one tonne of cement along the full length of the line would cost more than half of the selling price. Yet the effect on input costs or transport over smaller distances may have an effect, especially if the inland extension actually gets built.
Kenya has four integrated cement plants with a production capacity of 3.4Mt/yr. Of these three - ARM Cement, Bamburi Cement (Lafarge) and Mombasa Cements are on the coast – and only one plant, the East African Portland Cement Company, is based inland in Nairobi. In addition National Cement and Savannah Cement both run clinker grinding plants near Nairobi.
A number of plants are being built. Most recently, Savannah Cement announced plans in April 2014 to build a clinker production plant. The East Africa Portland Cement Company plans to build a plant in Kajiado for operation by 2016. Nigeria's Dangote Cement has a 1.5Mt/yr cement plant planned to start operation in 2016 in Kitui, between Nairobi and the coast with ARM seeking funding to build a 2.5Mt/yr cement plant in the same region. Cemtech, a company owned by India's Sanghi Group, has plans to build a plant in West Pokot County in western Kenya but the project has been delayed due to issues with land acquisition.
Despite all this development activity Kenyan Bureau of Statistics figures suggest that more cement is being produced in the country than is officially being consumed. In 2013, 4.8Mt of cement was produced but only 3.94Mt was consumed. Yet both production and consumption have more than doubled since 2004 from 1.87Mt and 1.27Mt respectively. With the Kenyan construction sector averaging a growth rate of 6.45%/yr between 2004 and 2012, it looks likely that consumption will continue to rise and all these new cement plants are poised to benefit form this.
The old Ugandan railway, which the new railway seeks to replace, started construction in 1896 and was backed by the British government. It was nicknamed the 'Lunatic Line' given the harsh terrain and the high worker fatalities. The perils facing the project were capped by a pair of man-eating lions who attacked workers as depicted in the book 'The Man-Eaters of Tsavo' and eventually made into a film called 'The Ghost and the Darkness' starring Michael Douglass. Then as today the potential benefits of connecting the African coast to the interior were seen as high.
Kazakhstan considers purchase of Belarusian cement railway wagons
01 November 2013Belarus/Kazakhstan: Kazakhstan is interested in buying a 'large' batch of Belarus-built wagons for cement transportation, according to Nigmatzhan Isingarin, President of the Association of National Forwarding Agencies of Kazakhstan and the Kazakhstani Association of Freight Carriers and Wagon (Container) Operators. Isingarin met with the Prime Minister of Belarus, Mikhail Myasnikovich, on 31 October 2013. The wagons will be manufactured by the Mogilev railway car building plant.
In addition to negotiating a purchase, Isingarin and Myasnikovich discussed a contract for manufacturing and supplying wagons via international leasing. Isingarin said he was satisfied with the progress in the project's implementation. So far 425 wagons have been delivered.
Brazil: América Latina Logística (ALL) plans to increase the volume of clinker and cement it transports for Votorantim Cimentos in the south of Brazil by over 30% before the end of 2013. The Brazilian logistics firm intends to increase its shipments for Votorantim to 1Mt/yr from 0.75Mt/yr, according to Brazilian news service Agência Estado.
ALL recently invested US$3.4m in trains and improving unloading bays in the southern state of Paraná and has borrowed a total of US$771m from the Brazilian Development Bank so far in 2013. The construction market represents 15% of its client portfolio in the industrial products sector.
Indian rail freight rate up by 15%
02 October 2013India: Indian Railways has raised a freight tariff of 15% on all commodities, including cement, from 1 October 2013. Designated a busy season charge in a railway notification, the tariff is due to run until June 2014. The charge precedes a review of the fuel adjustment component (FAC), applicable after every six months to adjust fuel prices, that was also due on 1 October 2013.
Sagar Cements plans US$20m railway line
26 June 2013India: Sagar Cements has prepared a US$20m plan to build a 7km-long railway line connecting its cement plant at Matampally in the Nalgonda district of Andhra Pradesh. Executive Director Sreekanth Reddy said that the proposed line is expected to be complete by 2015 and dispatches by rail are expected to rise by 20% subsequently.
In Sagar Cement's last financial year, which ended on 31 March 2013, it dispatched 1.55Mt of which 39,500t were transported by rail. Sales of Sagar's products outside Andhra Pradesh have been steadily increasing and accounted for 46% of total sales in the last financial year, according to an official spokesperson.
Indian cement price set to rise following Railway Budget
27 February 2013India: Indian cement producers are poised to pass on a 5.79% increase in the freight rate to consumers following the Railway Budget. However a cement producer quoted by the Press Trust of India said that a final decision would be taken after the Union Budget.
"With the hike in freight charges, the impact will be US$2.41/t - US$2.78/t of cement production," said Shree Cements managing director H M Bangur.
An analyst tracking the cement industry said that cement makers never absorb the hike in freight costs and these are always passed through. In the budget Railway Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal raised the freight charges for cement, diesel, LPG, steel and iron-ore by up to 5.8%.
Attacks on cement dealers reported in Kerala
11 April 2012India: Keralan cement dealers have condemned attacks on cement shops and cement vehicles allegedly carried out by workers attached to the railway goods sheds in the towns of West Hill and Kallai. They have warned they will retaliate if the attacks continue. The Kerala Vyapari Vyavasayi Ekopana Samithi (KVVES) has declared support to the dealers, organised under the banner of the Kerala Cement Dealers Association.
T Naziruddin, KVVES president, inaugurating the general body meeting of the Kerala Cement Dealers Association's Kozhikode unit, demanded the intervention of the authorities to settle the issue. District president of the association MV Sakeer Hussain, who presided over the meeting, called for an immediate end to the attacks, which he said were being carried out to press for higher unloading charges for cement at railway goods sheds.
The association has alleged that the workers were insisting that cement should be brought to the city only by trains and that vehicles bringing cement by road were being attacked to create an artificial scarcity of cement. He said that this in turn would cause hardships to those who depended on the construction sector for livelihood.
India: The Cement Manufacturers Association of India (CMA) has asked the Railway Board of India to reduce the cost of freight haulage. The CMA raised the issue in the wake of the board's decision to raise freight rates by 24%, which came into effect on 6 March 2012.
The CMA highlighted the disparity in the transportation costs of cement by rail compared to road. Other key concerns included the need to reduce the total cost by suitably lowering the classification for cement and clinker and by curtailing penalties, wharfage/demurrage charges and terminal charges.
The CMA now expects that cement prices will rise. "With this steep hike, the rail transportation cost of cement, which is already very high, will go up further including the transportation cost of input materials like coal, slag, gypsum assuming an average rail lead of 600km for the cement industry," said the CMA's President MMAR Muthiah.
According to Muthiah, transportation contributes about 20% to the operating cost of the cement industry. In addition, the industry has been highly taxed at over 60%. In the last couple of years railways have revised the classification of cement and clinker consistently from class 130 to 150 resulting in indirect freight hikes. In addition, a further burden on cement industry has been imposed by levy of various surcharges like a busy season terminal surcharge and development surcharge in the last few years.