Displaying items by tag: Sales

Uzbekistan: Cement sales on the Uzbekistan Commodity Exchange (UZEX) grew by 58% year-on-year to 5.9Mt in 2024, with average monthly sales exceeding 0.49Mt, according to Business World Magazine.

Ahangarantsement held 18% of total cement sales volume, followed by Kyzylkumsement (3%) and Bekabadcement (1%). Tashkent and the Tashkent region observed the highest demand for cement at 34% of purchases, followed by Samarkand (15%) and Kashkadarya (14%). Ferghana held 8%, with other regions purchasing smaller volumes.

Morocco: Cement sales rose by 9% year-on-year to 13.7Mt in 2024, according to the Ministry of National Territory and Urban Planning, Housing and City Policy.

Distribution-targeted deliveries reached 7.88Mt, based on data from members of the Professional Association of Cement Manufacturers (APC).

Taiwan: Taiwan Cement Corporation (TCC) and 100 construction firms have together launched the Low Carbon Construction Pioneer Alliance. CNA News has reported that the founding members eliminated 146,000t of CO₂ emissions altogether through their use of reduced-CO₂ building materials since November 2024. This includes despatches of 800,000m³ of Portland limestone cement (PLC) concrete by TCC, with 2.5Mm³ in cumulative orders to date. TCC first launched its PLC in October 2023, touting an emissions reduction of 15% compared to ordinary Portland cement (OPC). It since enlarged the net reduction to 24% through production modifications.

Taiwan Cement chair Zhang Anping said "TCC took the initiative to align with the Global Cement and Concrete Association and released the lowest-carbon PLC concrete in Taiwan. The CO₂ reduction is far greater than the 53% as defined by the government.”

Puerto Rico: The Puerto Rico Economic Development Bank (BDE) has reported an increase in cement sales, reaching 1.41 million 43kg bags in October 2024, the highest since March 2023. This marks a 15% rise from October 2023, with recent months averaging 1.28 million bags.

BDE President Luis Alemañy said "We see a recovery in the construction sector, particularly in cement sales, which predicts a good impact on infrastructure development and job creation in Puerto Rico. Although the 2024 fiscal year closed with a 1% decrease in cement sales compared to the previous year, the start of the 2025 fiscal year shows a 6% increase in sales between July and October. This allows us to anticipate a progressive recovery in this key sector for our economy."

Morocco: Cement deliveries in Morocco reached 11.12Mt from January - October 2024, up by 8% compared to the same period in 2023. The Moroccan Cement Association (APC) reported that cement sales in October 2024 increased to 1.3Mt, a 20% rise from 1.08Mt in October 2023. The APC has attributed this growth to high demand across various construction segments.

Argentina: Cement shipments remained below pandemic and pre-pandemic levels in October 2024, which marked the sixth decline so far in 2024, according to Clarion newspaper. October 2024 saw shipments down by 20% year-on-year and 1.1% month-on-month, according to the Portland Cement Manufacturing Association (AFCP). In October 2024, sales dropped to 907,421t. 7.9Mt of cement was sold in the first 10 months of 2024 compared to 10.7Mt in the same period in 2023. Consumption also suffered a year-on-year decrease of 20% ​​and a monthly decline of 1.3%. The industry attributes the downturn primarily to a halt in national public works, as well as rising costs such as taxes on limestone and quarry exploitation fees.

Damián Altgelt, executive director of AFCP, said "The cement sector is going through a difficult year, with a drop of close to 25% compared to 2023. We confidently hope that the macroeconomic measures that the government is undertaking will allow us to overcome this transition period soon and recover the highest levels of activity again. In the past four months we have seen around 0.9Mt of cement sold (per month), which is clearly higher than the very depressed levels we had in the first half of 2024.”

Pakistan: Cement exports from Pakistan significantly increased in September 2024, rising by 71% year-on-year to 0.98Mt, compared to 0.57Mt in September 2023. Despite this growth in exports, domestic cement sales continued to decline, falling by 18% in September 2024. Overall, cement sales for the month decreased by 5.6%, totalling 3.54Mt compared to 3.75Mt in September 2023. From July to September 2024, domestic sales were down by 20%, totalling 8.13Mt, while exports rose by 22%, reaching 2.14Mt.

Pakistan: The cement industry in Pakistan is experiencing a significant decline, with local dispatches for September 2024 projected to fall by 22% year-on-year to approximately 2.79Mt. This decline is reportedly due to a slowdown in construction activities, exacerbated by rising costs of construction materials. According to Topline Pakistan Research, local cement sales for the first quarter of the financial year 2025 are also expected to decrease by 21% compared to the same period in 2023.

Despite a slight month-on-month increase in dispatches from 2.75Mt in August 2024, the year-on-year data highlights a continuing slump in construction and a sharp increase in cement prices. However, there cement exports are projected to increase by 27% month-on-month and 36% year-on-year. Total cement sales for September are estimated at 3.56Mt, marking a 14% decline year-on-year but a 6% increase from August 2024. Capacity utilisation in the sector is estimated at 52% for September 2024, an improvement from August 2024’s 47% but still below the 60% recorded in September 2023.

Jamaica: Senator Aubyn Hill, minister of industry and commerce, has reported an 8% month-on-month decline in cement production from January to August 2024, citing scheduled maintenance at Caribbean Cement Company as a partial cause. The maintenance took place from 12 August to 3 September 2024. Alongside the production drop, there was also a decrease in total domestic sales during the same period. Senator Hill has urged cement importers to utilise quotas issued by his Ministry to mitigate the industry shortfall.

One surprise at the end of August 2024 was that Türkiye-based Çimsa has agreed to buy a majority stake in Ireland-based Mannok. The subsidiary of Sabancı Holding signed a deal to acquire just under a 95% stake in Mannok Holdings based on an enterprise value of Euro330m for 100% of the shares. The final purchase price will be determined later in the process, as will a potential completion date subject to the usual regulatory approvals.

Çimsa has described the deal as its “third major global initiative in the past three years” following expansions in the US and Spain. Çimsa started production at its 0.3Mt/yr white cement grinding plant in Houston, Texas in 2019. It is currently planning to set-up a 0.6Mt/yr grey cement grinding plant, also in Houston, with operation expected to start by the end of 2024. Its Spain-based business received a boost in mid-2021 when it purchased the Buñol white cement plant in Valencia from Cemex. Outside of Türkiye the company also operates a few terminals in Germany and Italy. Of interest to this article it established a subsidiary for sales in the UK in mid-2023.

Mannok was previously known as Quinn Group before it was rebranded in 2020. In addition to cement the company sells a range of construction products including PIR (polyisocyanurate) insulation, aircrete thermal blocks, roof tiles and precast concrete. The company is headquartered at Derrylin in Fermanagh, Northern Ireland in the UK but it operates in both Ireland and the UK. It runs a 1.4Mt/yr integrated plant at Ballyconnell, County Cavan in Ireland, just across the border from Derrylin. With the 17th Global CemFuels Conference scheduled to take place next week in Dublin, it is worth noting that this cement plant had a recent upgrade of interest to the alternative fuels sector. In 2023 the company said that it had installed the world’s first FLSmidth Fuelflex Pyrolyzer at a cement plant following an earlier pilot of the system back in 2018. It is used to replace coal with solid recovered fuels (SRF) in the pre-calcination stage of cement production. Later in 2023 Mannok said that the equipment was reducing its CO₂ emissions by 58,000t/yr.

As reported in the October 2023 issue of Global Cement Magazine, cement from the Ballyconnell plant is sold in both Ireland and the UK. In 2022, 35% of its sales were in Ireland, 30% in Northern Ireland and the remaining 35% in the rest of the UK. The company uses a storage unit at Warrenport in Northern Ireland to despatch cement to a 8400t cement storage and distribution at Rochester in Southern England.

Çimsa said that the acquisition is intended to help it to increase the share of its revenue in foreign currencies to over 70%. It is not a revelation that Çimsa might want to do this given the parlous state of the economy in Türkiye since 2018. Interest rates are high and the Turkish Lira has lost value. Çimsa raised the issues this has caused in its 2023 annual report. These include higher costs for imported goods and services such as energy, equipment and engineering services. In 2023 the company reported that 57% of its sales consisted of foreign currency-based revenue. The same year exports represented just under 40% of the company’s total revenue. Overall, Çimsa’s revenue fell slightly year-on-year in 2023, in part due to the divestment of a cement plant and other assets, but earnings rose significantly.

Buying Mannok gives Çimsa another route into the European Union (EU), via Ireland, and the UK. Crucially, this gives its first integrated grey cement production site outside of Türkiye. Both of these things are especially useful for an export-focused company facing increasing hurdles to sales in the guise of the EU Emissions Trading Scheme. It also helps the business to further hedge against negative currency exchange effects back home in Türkiye. So ‘Sláinte’ to Çimsa and Mannok, and good luck.

The 17th Global CemFuels Conference & Exhibition takes place in Dublin, Ireland on 18 - 19 September 2024