Displaying items by tag: Sales
Swiss cement deliveries down in 2017
08 January 2018Switzerland: Data from the Swiss Cement Industry Association (Cemsuisse) report that cement shipments fell by 2.8% year-on-year to 4.3Mt in 2017. In 2016 shipments rose by 4.2% to 4.4Mt, according to the Swiss Telegraphic Agency. An initial drop in shipments in the first half of 2017 was partly absorbed by better trading subsequently. However, the fourth quarter of 2017 saw falling sales volumes. Rail shipments increased considerably, by 53%, during 2017.
Mexico: Grupo Cementos de Chihuahua’s (GCC) cement sales volumes increased by 18.2% year-on-year to nearly 4Mt in the first 11 months of 2017 due to high US cement sales in October and November. The US generates around 75% of GCC’s revenues.
October and November US cement sales volumes rose by 31.2% compared to the same period of 2016. Overall, for the first 11 months of the year, US cement volumes increased by 28.8% from 2016. The increase reflects strong demand and GCC’s acquisitions in Texas and New Mexico in late 2016. October and November sales volumes in Mexico also grew by 10.2%, rebounding from decreases earlier in the year. However, for the first 11 months, Mexico’s cement volumes fell by 1.6%.
“GCC reached record cement sales volumes as a result of strong demand and high level of backlog in our core markets, especially West Texas, Colorado, South Dakota, and the state of Chihuahua. In addition, builders and contractors enjoyed favourable weather in October and November, which offset the effect of some weather and project-related delays in the third quarter. As a result, we are confident that GCC will significantly exceed our US volume outlook for the year and, as a result, also surpass our earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) growth target,” said GCC´s Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Enrique Escalante.
Uzbekistan to sell cement through exchanges in 2018
13 December 2017Uzbekistan: The government has ruled that cement producers must sell cement only through exchange auctions from 1 January 2018. Cement not sold through first trades can then be re-exhibited within one month before it will be allowed to be sold for export under direct contract, according to the Trend News Agency. A ban on the resale of the products purchased on the exchange is cancelled.
Ambrian forecasts 25% sales growth in 2017 for Mozambique operations
12 December 2017Mozambique: Ambrian, the UK-based owner of the Cimentos da Beria grinding plant, forecasts that its sales will rise by 25% year-on-year in 2017 from 2016. The prediction follows a poor third quarter where sales volumes fell by 16% and the company described the economic conditions in the country over the past year as ‘challenging.’ The group added that it has seen cement prices improve year-on-year and that the plant in Beira is now generating positive earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA).
However, Ambrian also reported that it is facing ‘urgent’ short-term liquidity issues owing to difficulties in moving cash resources held within the group to the company. It is currently trying to secure short term financing and a longer-term strategic partnership and investment for the group as a whole to allow it to reduce its debt and develop its business in Mozambique.
Semen Indonesia grows cement sales volumes as profits suffer
11 December 2017Indonesia: Semen Indonesia’s cement sales volumes rose by 8.1% year-on-year to 25.8Mt in the first 10 months of 2017. However, despite this the company’s profit declined due to falling prices, according to the Antara news agency. In addition production costs have risen due to higher electricity and coal prices.
Update on Bolivia
06 December 2017FLSmidth revealed this week that Cooperativa Boliviana de Cemento, Industrias y Servicios (COBOCE) has ordered a cement mill for its Irpa Irpa plant near Cochabamba. The Danish engineering firm was pleased to note that with the sale it has now delivered mills to three of the country’s five producers. Other recent orders include supplying an OK 36-4 mill to Sociedad Boliviana de Cemento’s (SOBOCE) Viacha cement plant, announced in early 2016, and a sale of a complete integrated production line at Sucre to Fábrica Nacional de Cemento (FANCESA) in late 2016.
These order reveal slow but steady growth in the local industry in recent years. However, a slowdown so far in 2017 suggests that the market is changing. National Institute of Statistics of Bolivia (INE) data shows that sales in the local market broke down in 2016 into a 42% sales share for SOBOCE, 25% for FANCESA, 19% for COBOCE, 8% for Yura and 6% for Itacamba. This changed somewhat in the first quarter of 2017 with a reduction in the sales of SOBOCE and Yura. Sales in the country are concentrated in the departments of Chuquisca, La Paz and Cochabamba, which held 70% of cement sales in 2016.
Graph 1: Cement production and sales in Bolivia, 2012 – 2017. Source: National Institute of Statistics of Bolivia.
Annual cement sales in Bolivia have been growing consistently since 2001. Financial services company Pacific Credit Rating placed average annual sales growth at 7.72% from 1998 to 2016. In 2016 sales reached 3.7Mt. Graph 1 shows a continuation of this trend although the first half of 2017 has been weaker than 2016. COBOCE blamed the reverse in 2017 on reduced local government spending on infrastructure projects and poor weather. The producer was expecting sales to grow by 6 – 8% as a whole for 2017. However, on the basis of the figures for July and August 2017 this is not looking likely. Sales for the two months dropped by 2.5% year-on-year to 0.64Mt. A representative of FANCESA later blamed the market change on a reduction in sales supporting the construction of tall buildings in the country’s key markets as customers switched to buying ‘random’ volumes.
Sure enough local producers have started to complain about foreign exporters damaging their trade. A union head in Chuquisaca called for cement and clinker imports by Yura from Peru to be banned and concerns have been raised about concessions offered to Itacamba, a joint venture between Spain’s Cementos Molins, Brazil’s Votorantim Cement and Camba Cement. President Evo Morales inaugurated this company’s new plant in Yacuses, Santa Cruz in early 2017. The niggles about foreign exports to Bolivia seem counter-intuitive given that the country is landlocked and it has the world’s highest capital city above sea level. Usually, markets with nearby ports are most at risk from clinker and cement imports. Yet, Itacamba was planning exports to Argentina in November so the import and export markets via road and river links can’t be discounted.
Cement sales may be down so far in 2017 but overall the wider economy appears to be in rude health. After a strong decade of growth the national Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate has fallen each year since 2014, but it was still 4.3% in 2016, one of the highest in South America. If that kind of growth persists it seems unlikely that the cement industry will have trouble for long.
Peruvian sales increase in October 2017
21 November 2017Peru: A total of 925,000t of cement was sold in Peru in October 2017, an increase of 12.1% compared with sales in October 2016 and 3.3% above sales in September 2017, according to data from Asocem. Cement production stood at 922,000t, 6.3% higher than October 2016 and 4.4% higher than September 2017. Domestic sales stood at 873,000t, 5.8% higher than in October 2016 and 4.4% compared to September 2017. Cement production hit 8.19Mt in the first 10 months of 2017, 2.1% down year-on-year. Domestic cement sales reached 7.85Mt in the first 10 months of 2017, 1.5% down year-on-year. Total sales, including exports, reached 8.15Mt in the first 10 months of 2017, 1.9% down year-on-year.
Akhangarancement improves in first nine months
06 November 2017Uzbekistan: Akhangarancement produced 1.44Mt of cement and 1.04Mt of clinker in the first nine months of 2017. This is 1.8% (25,449t) and 2.9% (29,147t) more than in the same period of 2016. The company also increased cement shipments to final customers by 2.6% to 11.46Mt.
"The plant has consistently increased its production since the beginning of the year. Excellent results were achieved thanks to the well-coordinated work of the whole team, the effective operation of technological equipment and quality repairs," said Gennady Kulikov, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Akhangarancement. "Further implementation of measures to improve competitiveness is needed. This includes improving product quality, introducing best solutions and practices, improving labour productivity and minimising costs to reduce product prices."
Brazilian cement sales continue falling so far in 2017
13 October 2017Brazil: Sales of cement have fallen by 7.6% year-on-year to 40.5Mt in the first nine months of 2017 from 43.8Mt in the same period of 2016. The data from the Brazilian cement association SNIC showed that cement sales had fallen in all regions of the country with particular decreases in the North and North-East areas. SNIC president Paulo Camillo Penna commented that the rate of decline was slowing compared to 2016 and that further progress was expected in 2018. He added that fruther government infrastructure investment was necessary to encourage this trend.
Vietnam cement sales rise in first nine months of 2017
11 October 2017Vietnam: Vietnam sold 59.3Mt of cement in the first nine months of 2017, a rise of 6% compared to the same period of 2016. The country has now fulfilled 74.1% of its whole-year plan, according to the Ministry of Construction. 45.3Mt of cement was sold domestically, a 4% rise year-on-year, while 14.0Mt of cement was exported.
In September 2017, the country’s cement sales rose by 9.4% compared to August 2017 to 6.7Mt, comprising 5.2Mt of domestic sales and 1.5Mt of exports. As of September 2017, Vietnam had 3.0Mt of cement and clinker inventory, most of which is clinker.
At present, Vietnam’s cement capacity is 86Mt/yr but domestic demand is estimated at 60Mt/yr, a surplus of 26Mt/yr, according to the Vietnam National Cement Association (VCNA).