Displaying items by tag: Semen Indonesia

Take a moment to spy on the Citeureup cement plant in Indonesia. It's gargantuan! The Indocement site is one of the largest cement factories on the world. It has nine production lines with a cement production capacity of 11.9Mt/yr.

The news this week that Indocement intends to stop production at three cement production lines at its Citeureup plant strikes an uncertain tone. The decision underpins the impression of a readjusting Indonesian cement market despite the HeidelbergCement subsidiary saying that the capacity will be replaced by a new 4.4Mt/yr line at the site at the end of 2015. Temporarily reducing production capacity by 35% may not seem much on a industrial site that can produce more cement than many countries! However, a single factory this massive is likely to be particularly vulnerable to market changes.

Zooming out to the national picture, Indocement reported that its revenue dropped by 6.6% year-on-year for the first half of 2015. Domestic sales volumes of cement fell by 8.1% as domestic cement consumption in the country generally fell by 4.2%. The cement producer blamed the falls on economic stagnation and delayed government spending on infrastructure projects.

In its outlook Indocement lamented the loss of subsidies on electricity and fuels in Indonesia. Back in 2014 the government raised electric prices via a tariff under the previous administration before lowering them slightly. Then the new government raised fuel prices in November 2014 by removing subsidies with the intention of siphoning the savings to infrastructure spending. At the time a Semen Indonesia representative told the Jarkata Post that he expected cement sales to rise by 6% in 2015. This estimate had already followed a downward adjustment of predicted sales in 2014 due to familiar sounding delays in infrastructure projects (due to an election year) and a slowing economy.

In addition to this the government also imposed price cuts on cement on state-run producers in January 2015. Semen Indonesia then saw its domestic sales volumes fall by 5.3% in January – May 2015 to 9.91Mt. Subsequently Semen Indonesia saw its net profit drop by 21% year-on-year to US$163m for the first half of 2015. Around a month before its mid-year results it reported to local media that it was concentrating on exports in 2015. Reported exports have risen by over 700% to 0.18Mt in January – May 2015. Other producers such as LafargeHolcim have also reported 'challenging' market conditions. Nationally, cement demand dropped by 3.8% year-on-year to 22.9Mt for the first five months of 2015 according to Indonesian Cement Association data. This was the biggest fall since 2009.

All in all it sounds like the good times may be gone for the Indonesian cement industry, at least for now. The local economy as a whole is in a recession following two consecutive quarters of declining growth in gross domestic product (GDP). Yet cement producers are still forlornly hoping for infrastructure spending to kick in. Throw in worries about the effects of a US interest rate rise on Indonesian borrowing and the situation is looking dicey. Indocement's Citeureup complex may seem even more outsized in a year's time.

UPDATE:  A reader has pointed out that we linked the aerial photo at the start of this article to the smaller of the two cement plants in the area. This has now been changed. Note the trucks queuing to enter the plant.

Indonesia: Semen Indonesia has appointed its operational director Suparni as its new CEO. The state-owned company has taken the decision after receiving 69.6% votes from 76.1% its overall shareholders, according to The Jakarta Post. Suparni replaces Dwi Soetjipto, who has joined the oil and gas company Pertamina. The shareholders also appointed Rizkan Chandra to the board of directors.

A couple of news stories this week from Myanmar present an opportunity to look at the country. Lafarge has opened a cement repacking plant in the Thilawa special economic zone (SEZ). Upcountry meanwhile, Anhui Conch has had a joint venture approved by the government for an upgrade to an existing cement plant in Kyaukse.

Towards the end of 2013 the government announced that 13 companies were to establish joint ventures with the local state-owned cement plants. In addition the Myanmar Investment Commission had approved the construction of nine new cement plants with an aim of a target cement production capacity of 10.53Mt/yr. Following this, Siam Cement Group's on-going investment in a 1.8Mt/yr plant is due for completion in 2016. Semen Indonesia have been pushing for a joint venture since mid-2014 although it was still trying to agree terms in September 2014, according to local media. Italcementi's chief executive Carlo Pesenti also expressed his company's interest in setting up a joint venture in early 2014.

Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) investment bank CIMB placed cement demand in Myanmar at 4Mt in 2012 and a local cement production capacity of 3Mt/yr. Cement consumption was placed at 76kg/capita for the country's population of 52.8 million. In contrast, Thai cement engineering supplier LV Technology reported demand of 6Mt in 2012. CIMB recorded Myanmar's capacity utilisation rate at 60%. Cement sales were broken down as 95% by bag and 5% by bulk.

This kind of supply-demand gap excites foreign investors. Neighbouring Thailand has a consumption of 515kg/capita, Myanmar imports cement from Thailand, Indonesia and India and the country's GDP growth rate is currently estimated to be around 8%.

Yet what's notable about Myanmar's industry are the high number of small, low production capacity cement plants. Many of them are wet process plants. Only one plant is reported as being capable of producing over 0.5Mt/yr with the Siam Cement plant project due to significantly bust this record when it is commissioned in 2016. Limited limestone deposits in the country may also make plants larger than 1.5Mt/yr unviable. Fuel is also an issue, with LV Technology advocating a wholesale industry conversion from state-subsidised gas to coal due to power shortages and impending competition issues.

In 2015 Myanmar is set to enact free trade tariffs from its ASEAN membership. Without protection or preparation, its cement plants could face serious consequences from cheaper imports from Thailand, Indonesia and Vietnam. The move by the government to encourage joint ventures with foreign partners looks like one way to mitigate this. In a market report in 2013 CIMB described the situation for investors as 'high-growth, high-barrier.' This seems to be an apt description given the experiences of Semen Indonesia.

One of the ideas aired by several speakers at last week's 6th Brazilian Cement Congress was that using cement as a construction material is inherently a sustainable option.

The reasons for this included the durability of cement's construction products and the role cement plays in improving the living standards of a country. For example, under the onslaught of extreme weather like hurricanes, concrete structures are more likely to remain standing. Or, for a country like Brazil with sections of society living in long-term 'temporary' buildings in its favelas or shanty towns, providing affordable cement to help the country build better housing for its inhabitants is the only sustainable future that could be considered.

Perhaps in line with this concept of cement-as-sustainable-construction-material we see Semen Indonesia this week announcing expansion plans in three countries in South and Southeast Asia.

In West Sumatra a Semen Indonesia subsidiary has started building a 3Mt/yr cement plant in Padang. Then in Bangladesh Semen Indonesia revealed its intention to buy a 1Mt/yr plant. Finally, the state-owned Indonesian cement producer said that its Semen Gresik subsidiary was planning to build a new cement plant in Central Java at Rembang in June 2014. From previous press releases we can see that both new plants are FLSmidth builds. Both orders were announced in early 2014. Each has a capacity of 8000t/day.

The plans to expand outside of Indonesia echo reports that Semen Indonesia was set to buy a minority share in a Myanmar cement producer. Although the producer was unnamed as of early May 2014, Semen Indonesia CEO Dwi Soetjipto valued the stake at US$30m and the producer's production capacity at 1.5Mt/yr in comments to the Jakarta Globe.

Altogether the two new plants in Indonesia will place Semen Indonesia's total cement production capacity at 40Mt/yr by 2017 according to company figures. This would be enough to place the company within the top 20 of the world's largest cement producers by production capacity following the research from Global Cement's 'Top 75 global cement companies'.

In a nice coincidence, the company with a production capacity of 40Mt/yr on that list was Eurocement. Last week the Russian cement producer announced that it had signed contracts worth Euro387m with Chinese companies - including Sinoma, CNB, Sinomach and CAMC Engineering Co - to add 17Mt/yr cement production capacity across six plants in Russia. Another six or seven more construction agreements for cement plants are also expected to be signed in the coming months.

Certainly for the countries Semen Indonesia is focusing on – Indonesia, Bangladesh and Myanmar, with low gross domestic product per capita – providing the raw material for stronger and more durable buildings covers some of the sustainability bases. Yet if all these new plants only use fossil fuels and are subject to few environmental restrictions then that undermines some of this. However, whether all this expansion is sustainable or not, the cement industry never remains stationary.

Thank you to everyone who commented on the column in last week's Global Cement Weekly (GCW132, MINTed cement industries). Amongst the more interesting thoughts was that in a large cement producing country like the US, there are regional areas of focus. So, returning to neologisms, FACT might refer to, say, Florida, Alabama, California and Texas, four southern states with the highest cement production capacities in the union. Similar regional breakdowns could be applied to countries such as China, India or Brazil.

Following last week's look at the MINT (Mexico, Indonesia, Nigeria and Turkey) economies in the context of cement we now take a quick recap on what has been happening in the 'I' of the MINT, Indonesia.

Indonesia has a population of 238m, a cement production capacity of 47Mt and a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of US$1.29tr. Both its cement consumption per capita and GDP per capita are low by international standards suggesting that it has considerable growth potential for its cement industry as its wider economy grows.

Indonesia's biggest cement producer, the state owned Semen Indonesia (formerly Semen Gresik) has reported to local media that its unaudited net profit rose by 14% year-on-year in 2013 to US$410m. Its revenue rose by 12% to US$1.8bn. Its new 1.5Mt/yr cement plant in Tuban, East Java has been reported as being operational, bringing Semen Indonesia's cement production capacity up to 31.8Mt/yr in 2014.

The country's second biggest cement producer, Indocement, has not reported any figures for 2013 as a whole yet. However parent company HeidelbergCement did note that the Indonesian economy had slowed down as a result of falling commodity prices. Cement and clinker sales including exports rose by 0.6% in the first nine months of 2013. Around mid-2013 local media reported that Indocement was losing market share in Indonesia.

Holcim Indonesia has also not revealed its financial situation in 2013. However, like Indocement, Holcim Indonesia reported with its third quarter results that economic growth had 'temporarily' flattened in the country. Operating results had not improved on levels in 2012.

Overall domestic cement sales rose by 5.8% year-on-year to 47Mt for the first 10 months of 2013 according to data from the Indonesian Cement Association. Previous annual rises in cement production and cement consumption had started to slow in 2012.

Growth in the Indonesian cement industry is also having an effect on the larger geographical region. Australian cement producer Boral suspended clinker production at its Waurn Ponds plant in late 2012 due to cheaper imports from countries such as Indonesia. New Zealand followed suit in mid-2013 when Holcim announced plans to build cement import terminals instead of building a new cement plant at Weston.

In summary it seems likely that the cement market in Indonesia slowed down in the first half of 2013 but it still appears to be generating growth none-the-less, true to the MINT pattern. Market analysts from Kim Eng agree, pinning issues with domestic cement consumption in 2013 on capacity bottlenecks and over-crowded ports. Growth in the cement markets for the MINT countries may seem likely but in the case of Indonesia it cannot be assumed.