Displaying items by tag: Russia

Russia: Eurocement Group has reported that it has produced more than 11.5Mt of cement in the first six months of 2013, a year-on-year rise of 5%, in its 16 cement plants in Russia, Ukraine and Uzbekistan. Cement shipments have increased by 7% in the period.

The Russian-based cement producer announced plans to upgrade all of its production facilities to make cement using a dry-process by 2018. Currently only 25% of its plants use the dry process. Eurocement also plans to increase its annual cement production capacity by 4Mt/yr.

According to Russian newspaper Kommersant, half of Russia's regions are not meeting housing construction targets due to a lack of building materials. The country needs more than 20 new cement factories, according the government, but companies are refusing to build new plants due to a lack of potential returns on investment. Eurocement responded to the claims by saying that it is cheaper to modernise existing plants.

Russia: The State Corporation Bank for Development and Foreign Economic Affairs (Vnesheconombank) has agreed with HSBC Bank to extend additional credit facilities worth up to Euro25.2m for the construction of a cement plant in the Kaluga region by the Kaluga Cement Plant company. Credit facilities are to be extended for a total period of up to eight and a half years against insurance coverage of Denmark's Export Insurance Agency, EksportKreditFonden. This project will help to develop production facilities and create new jobs.

Russia: The Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) has rejected a claim against Pikalyovsky Cement over an application submitted by BaselCement-Pikalyovo. The FAS dismissed the claim because it saw no violations of the law.

BaselCement-Pikalyovo, located in Pikalyovo in the Leningrad region, halted production in 2009 due to a shortage of raw materials. The situation then was settled by the then Prime Minister Vladimir Putin when a supplies treaty was signed.

In January 2013 BaselCement-Pikalyovo applied to the FAS with a claim accusing Pikalyovsky Cement of breaking the antimonopoly law. Allegedly Pikalyovsky Cement had imposed low prices on BaselCement-Pikalyovo for the supply of nepheline slime. BaselCement-Pikalyovo later said that Pikalyovsky Cement revoked its order for nepheline in January 2013 and that this threatened to halt the operations at BaselCement-Pikalyovo since the cement producer is its sole customer.

Russia: HeidelbergCement has increased its holding in the Russian cement company CJSC Construction Materials from 51% to 100%. The German cement producer did not disclose the cost of the acquisition.

"The purchasing of the remaining 49% in CJSC is another good example of our strategy of low risk bolt-on acquisitions," said Bernd Scheifele, chairman of the Managing Board of HeidelbergCement.

CJSC Construction Material, located in Sterlitamak in the Russian republic of Bashkortostan, has a cement production capacity of 1.8Mt/yr using a dry production process. It employs 760 people. HeidelbergCement acquired a 51% stake in the Russian cement company in the fourth quarter of 2010.

Nepal: The Nepalese Ministry of Industry intends to petition the Russian government for a US$11.5m grant to upgrade equipment at the Udayapur Cement Factory, the country's largest state-owned cement plant.

"The loan that we are looking for from the Russian government is solely to replace machine equipment parts," said Uma Kanta Jha, secretary of Ministry of Industry. Previously the ministry asked the Russian government for a grant for the Janakpur Cigarette Factory.

Key problems besetting the Udayapur Cement include a lack of raw materials, ageing machinery, overstaffing and mounting debts. The Nepalese government's procurement policy has been blamed for making it difficult to source raw materials from India, such as coal. Currently the factory has 549 permanent staff on its payroll. The plant incurred a loss of US$10.2m in 2010 - 2011 and has a cumulative loss of US$205m. The company last released audited financial results in 2004 - 2005.

Russia: Former President and CEO of SibCem Andrey Muraviev has been nominated for the holding company's board of directors. SibCem shareholders hoped that their decision would help the Russian cement producer to recover its market share and financial performance.

Muraviev is a US-educated Russian entrepreneur, who ran SibCem since 2004 and led the company as its president for its first four years until 2008. During these years, the company brought under its umbrella all the cement assets it controls, stepped up investment in innovative technologies and made an initial public offering.

SibCem was Russia's second largest cement producer by mid-2008. Muraviev quit as CEO in August 2008 over disagreements with SibCem's Chairman Oleg Sharykin. Muraviev is currently President of Parus Capital, a Russia-dedicated investment fund which is a member of the Investor Rights Protection Association.

"I believe SibCem is now one of the most undervalued cement companies the world. I see the main reasons for this in its low transparency and poor corporate governance, lack of new assets and inefficient personnel management," commented Muraviev on his possible return to Sibir Cement. Since Muraviev left in 2008 the company has had its entire top management team and all its directors replaced. SibCem's annual revenues also declined by 75%.

Russia: Eurocement has announced the completion of its 3Mt/yr Podgorensky cement plant in the Voronezh Region. The Russian cement producer invested Euro424m in the project that it expects to make back within 12 years. Construction took three years with completion in December 2012. The plant has generated 1000 jobs for local residents. Equipment for the plant was supplied by FLSmidth.

Commissioning and start-up work has been conducted on the plant's production facilities since the start of 2013. When the Podgorensky cement plant reaches its full operational capacity, the portion of Eurocement Group's total cement output produced by dry production will increase from 13% to 25%.

Russia: Russia's Federal Antimonopoly Service has blocked concrete producer Sibirsky Cement from acquiring a 90% stake of Iskitimtsement's voting shares, the authority has said in a statement. According to the watchdog the purchase might hinder competition within the Siberian Federal District. The Federal Antimonopoly Service also prohibited Russkaya Tsementnaya Kompaniya from acquiring a 100% stake of Iskitimtsement's voting shares, on the grounds that the merger might trigger a price hike.

In October 2012 Iskitimtsement reported a rise in its output by 23.1% year-on-year to 1.12Mt for the first nine months of 2012. Later in the same month it announced that it expected to triple its net profit in 2012 to Euro19.7m. Established in 1934, Iskitimtsement is one of the leading cement producers in the Novosibirsk Region.

Russia: Eurocement Group expects cement product consumption to grow by 12% in Russia in 2012 and by 8% - 10% in 2013, according to its president Mikhail Skorokhod.

"We expect cement product consumption to reach 64Mt this year, compared to 56Mt in 2011. There will be growth of over 12%. This is very significant growth and all construction complex needs in Russia are covered by high quality cement from Russian manufacturers," he said. The forecast for the rise in cement consumption in 2013 is 8%-10%, to around 70Mt, this highest output in the post-Soviet period, according to Skorokhod. The production capacity of cement plants in Russia has grown by around 20Mt/yr since 2009.

Skorokhod estimated that the rise in cement prices over the 'past few years' was comparable to the rise in the cost of natural monopoly services and tariffs, from 7% to 15% per year. He predicted that the price of cement would also fall by this range as new capacity comes on line.

Eurocement announced its plans to invest US$388m in a 1.3Mt/yr plant Sverdlovsk plant on 3 December 2012. The Russian construction materials group has 16 cement plants in Russia, Ukraine and Uzbekistan with a combined production capacity of 39.2Mt/yr of cement.

Russia: Eurocement Group plans to invest around US$388m towards building a 1.3Mt/yr plant in the Sverdlovsk Region, according to the region's government. The project at the Nevyansky Tsementnik plant is expected to be finished by 2015. It will create around 1000 jobs for the construction and around 400 jobs for the operation of the line. Eurocement will invest its own and borrowed funds into the construction.