Displaying items by tag: Siam Cement

Vietnam: Siam Cement Group (SCG) has donated four mobile pressure chambers for use by medical staff to collect samples without coming into contact with patients at the Da Nang Centre for Disease Control in Da Nang, South Central Coast Region. Viet Nam News has reported that the equipment has already been successfully used for mass sample collection in Thailand.

SCG subsidiary Vietnam Construction Materials general director Nopporn Keeratibunharn said, “Amid the rise of Covid-19 in the central area, SCG deeply understands and shares the responsibility to support and protect the local medical workforce via our innovation and expertise. When collecting samples, the medical workforce is prone to get in contact with the virus in micro-droplets from talking, sneezing, and coughing during the swab. Designed and built by SCG, these mobile positive-pressure chambers aim to avoid direct contact between the sample-collecting staff and the person providing the sample.”

Thailand: Siam Cement Group’s (SCG) sales revenue from its cement business fell by 6% year-on-year to US$2.82bn in the first half of 2020. However, its earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) grew by 5% to US$405m. The cement division of the group said that sales were hit by coronavirus-related lockdown measures. However, earnings benefitted from efficiency improvements and lower energy prices. Overall both sales revenue and earnings fell for the group across all business division in the reporting period.

Indonesia: Thailand-based Siam Cement Group (SCG) and PT Marindo Inticor have announced the launch of PT Renos Marketplace Indonesia, a digital marketplace to connect Indonesian customers with SCG’s products. Online Stock Business News has reported that ownership of the company is shared 51:49 between SCG subsidiary Better Bee Marketplace Company Limited and PT Marindo Inticor. The joint venture has registered capital of US$1.26m.

Many people have been adapting to home working over the last few months due to the coronavirus pandemic and the resulting lockdowns. The digital tools have been present for years but current events were all that was needed to force everyone to try it out en masse, moving much of the back office, supporting and managerial functions to the homes of staff. Some of this communal clerical working may never come back in the views of some commentators. Other functions related to networking, such as sales or knowledge transfer, have moved to different channels like webinars and social networking or have resorted to older methods like using the telephone more. The balance between real world and remote networking may change but a return to some level in favour of the former seems likely.

The core processes of cement manufacture are resistant to this trend as workers need to be on site to mine limestone and maintain production lines. Although, that said, Global Cement Magazine has covered examples of remote commissioning and maintenance of equipment at plants in recent issues. Prior to this there has been steady work on remote monitoring of equipment and plants by both suppliers and producers and moves by cement companies to focus on digital operation such as LafargeHolcim’s ‘Plants of Tomorrow’ Industry 4.0 from 2019 or Cemex’s work on autonomous cement plant operations with Petuum.

Some ways in which cement companies have coped with social distancing recently have been revealed as they have published their best practice guides. Last week, for example, Holcim Philippines was promoting its various online customer interaction tools including its existing sales platform and a new online customer engagement program to ‘provide updates on the company’s directions, share knowledge and best practices on Health and Safety and to bond with business partners while quarantines are in place.’ Other companies have done similar things like the Cemex Go platform. On the supplier side there have been various announcements as companies have pushed their digital offerings. Meanwhile, the companies offering automation or remote operation products have been handed a unique stage to promote their wares.

Another example of cement companies trying something new in digital is the pilot that was announced this week by Siam Cement Group with the Bank of Thailand to test out payment systems using a central bank digital currency (CBDC). This likely has very little to do with the cement industry and much more to do with the sheer size of that conglomerate in Thailand. As the second largest company in the country, it’s an obvious target to try out something new like this at scale. The project will run from July 2020 until the end of the year. It will build on work that the central bank has carried out on Project Inthanon, a project between the bank and the eight financial institutions to study and develop a method for domestic wholesale funds transfer using wholesale CBDC. Any benefits using a CBDC eventually bring to Siam Cement Group and other producers in the country are likely to be limited to finance departments but savings are always welcome wherever they arise.

One cautionary note to consider though is that introducing changes to national currency systems can have impacts upon cement companies through general effects to the economy as a whole. The classic example of this in recent years is that of banknote demonetisation in India in late 2016. Cement production growth declined for about half a year at the time due to the disruption it caused.

The downside of this increased reliance on digital products and platforms is increased exposure to cybercrime. There was a rare good-news story in this area recently when Schmersal Group revealed that it had intercepted a network attack in progress in May 2020. It promptly took its IT network offline and disconnected its various systems, from the telephones, to its business software, to its production processes and automated storage systems, at all of its locations. Systems were then gradually cleansed and restored over the next two weeks. Schmersal’s response is commendable but chillingly it ended its press release by saying that, “the attack demonstrated that standard protection from antivirus programs and a firewall is powerless in the event of a targeted attack with previously unknown malware.” Companies had the same vulnerabilities before the pandemic but the increased reliance on digital platforms has heightened the potential risk. As we mentioned last time we covered this topic companies that admit to large scale malware attacks are hard to find most likely because it looks bad. Although since that article was published, Buzzi Unicem admitted that a ransonware attack on its information systems originating from its Ukrainian operations were delaying its financial disclosures in mid-2017.

In the longer term it will be interesting to see how much of the altered working patterns or methods created by the coronavirus lockdowns remain afterwards. The current situation isn’t quite like the ‘disruptive innovation’ business theory pedalled by Clayton M Christensen that has led in-part to established companies setting up start-up incubators to try and spot the next big new thing. Yet, existing trends are being sped up and this may lead to some surprises that were coming down the road anyway. For example, buying someone shares in video networking tool Zoom would have made a nice Christmas present this year! Hindsight is a wonderful thing.

Thailand: Siam Cement Group (SCG) will participate in a pilot run a of prototype payments system developed by Siam Commercial Bank (SCB) that integrates central bank digital currency (CBDC) into the group’s procurement and financial management systems. CoinDesk News has reported that the Bank of Thailand will launch the project in July 2020 and conclude it by January 2021. The bank said, “The project marks an important step in broadening CBDC’s scope and adoption to wider audiences, starting with large corporates.”

Thailand: Siam Cement Group’s (SCG) planned sale of up to 30% of shares in its subsidiary SCG Packaging has received the approval of the Securities and Exchange Commission. SCG is awaiting better market conditions for the sale, after it postponed the initial public offering (IPO) in mid-March 2020 following the coronavirus outbreak. The company said, “Once the overall situation becomes clearer and more conducive, SCG will proceed with its IPO and the listing of its shares on the Stock Exchange of Thailand.”

SCG said that it is selling the shares to raise funds for ‘international and domestic business expansion.’

Thailand: Siam Cement Group (SCG) recorded a profit of US$215m in the first three months of 2020, down by 40% year-on-year from US$358m in the corresponding period of 2019. Sales were US$3.23bn, down by 6.0% from US$3.44bn.

On 30 April 2020 SCG withdrew its sales forecast for 2020 and reduced its budget for the year to US$1.85bn, down by 14% from US$2.15bn. SCG president and CEO Roongrote Rangsiyopash said, “SCG cannot give a figure for revenue this year because we don't know yet how long the COVID-19 outbreak will last and how much it will affect the economy.” Rangsiyopash said that SCG is ‘prepared to cut its investment even more’ in a worst-case scenario.

Mexico & Thailand: Cemex and Siam Cement have made changes to upcoming shareholder meetings in relation to the coronavirus outbreak. Mexico’s Cemex intends to reduce attendance at its general shareholders meeting in late March 2020 and introduce hygiene protocols. Thailand’s Siam Cement has postponed indefinitely its annual general meeting of shareholders scheduled for early April 2020. Its board of directors plan to set a new date when the “situation is resolved.”

Vietnam: A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to build public private collaborations towards a circular economy for plastic waste management was signed in Hanoi on 19 February 2020. The agreement, the first of its kind in Vietnam, was signed by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, Dow Chemical Company Vietnam, Siam Cement Group (SCG), and Unilever Vietnam International.

Deputy Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Vo Tuan Nhan said the average use of plastic per capita in Vietnam is not as high as that of developed countries in the world. However, with a population of nearly 100 million and an incomplete solid waste management infrastructure, plastic waste has been a big challenge for developing countries like Vietnam. It is likely that SCG will act as an off-taker of non-recyclable plastic residues, burning them as an alternative for fossil fuels in its cement kilns.

Thailand: Siam Cement (SCG) has recorded a profit of US$2.64bn in 2019, down by 13% year-on-year from US$3.05bn in 2018. Revenue fell by 8.5% to US$14.1bn from US$15.4bn.