Displaying items by tag: Siam City

Thailand: Siam City Cement has appointed Ranjan Sachdeva as its Group CEO from the start of May 2024. He succeeded the previous CEO, Aidan Lynam, on an acting basis in January 2024. He will also continue to work as the Group Chief Financial Officer until a replacement is found.

Sachdeva has worked for Siam City Cement since 2017, first as the Group Head Internal Audit and Compliance and then as the Group Chief Financial Officer, from April 2023. Prior to this he worked in procurement and audit roles for Holcim in India. He has also spent time at Vedanta and Nestle during his career. He holds a bachelor of engineering from the Thapar Institute of Engineering & Technology and a master of business administration (MBA) degree from the University of Leicester, among other qualifications.

Sri Lanka: Siam City Cement subsidiary Insee Cement says it is ramping up production at its 0.4Mt/yr Galle grinding plant. The unit in Southern Province opened in 2018. The Daily FT newspaper has reported that the grinding plant, along with Insee’s Puttalam integrated plant, will have the production capacity to serve 100% of domestic demand. The producer added that production and supply of its products had returned to normal following disruption caused by coronavirus-related lockdown measures.

Insee Cement sales, marketing and innovation executive vice president Jan Kunigk said, “Our contribution to uplifting the nation’s economy is of immense value in rebuilding Sri Lanka during post-pandemic recovery. Insee Cement’s ability to efficiently deliver our full capacity of high-quality cement needed by individual house builders and concrete business partners has always been ensured.”

Vietnam: Kien Giang province has granted an investment licence to Siam City Cement Vietnam for a limestone and clay mining project and a clinker kiln project in Kien Luong district. Both projects have a combined investment of around US$470m, according to the Viet Nam News newspaper. The subsidiary of Thailand’s Siam City Cement Group operates five plants in the country following its acquisition of Holcim Vietnam in 2017.

Philippines: Companies including Japan’s Taiheyo Cement, Thailand’s Siam City Cement and China’s Anhui Cement have been linked to the sale of Holcim Philippines. Local companies include Eagle Cement and DMCI Group, according to sources quoted by the Philippine Star. Non-binding offers were have been submitted in February 2019 but it is not clear which companies were involved. However, no agreement has been reached on price yet. LafargeHolcim has reportedly looking at selling its business in the Philippines as part of a review of its operations in South-East Asia.

Thailand: SCG’s building materials division growth has been driven by government spending. The cement producer said that demand for Ordinary Portland Cement grew by 7% year-on-year in the third quarter of 2018. Its revenue from sales grew by 4% year-on-year to US$4.14bn in the first nine months of 2018. However, its earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) fell by 5% to US$481m.

Thailand: Siam City Cement Group has hired US company Avaya and Thai technology company Loxley to upgrade its communication infrastructure. The project was intended to help the cement producer manage the transformation into a multinational company with operations in Thailand, Sir Lanka, Bangladesh and Vietnam and 1500 workers. Products from Avaya have enabled employees in different regions to connect via a range of devices and channels via varied internet connections in different territories. The project has also enabled employees to use video conferencing to collaborate and to reduce the need for travel.

“With our rapid expansion across the region, we wanted a cost-effective solution that would enable us to meet our sustainable development objectives while driving our digital transformation journey,” said Khun Ittaya Sirivasukarn, chief executive officer (CEO) of Insee Digital, the IT subsidiary of Siam City Cement.

Cambodia: Chip Mong Insee Cement has launched its new plant in Kampot province. Prime Minister Hun Sen in the Banteay Meas district of Kampot attended the event, according to the Phnom Penh Post. The US$262m plant has a cement production capacity of 5000/day or nearly 2Mt/yr. The plant is a joint venture between Chip Mong Group, which owns 60% of the shares, and Thailand’s Siam City Cement. The project is intended to meet growing demand for cement in the country.

Bangladesh: PN Iyer has been appointed as the chief executive officer (CEO) of Thailand’s Siam City Cement’s operations in Bangladesh. Iyer has worked previously for ACC and Holcim. He holds qualifications with the Harvard Business School, the IMD Business School and the University of Calcutta.

Austria: Ghassan Broummana has been appointed managing director of A TEC Group from 1 October 2013. As managing director Broummana will be responsible for sales and marketing within the A TEC and A TEC GRECO group.

Broummana started his career in 1987 designing and starting-up cement plants. In 1996 he joined Holcim Group Support in Switzerland where he developed and implemented various corporate initiatives. In 2004, he moved to Holcim's subsidiary in Thailand, Siam City Cement, to start up a new business unit preparing alternative fuels and raw materials from industrial and household waste.

In 2009 Broummana joined the managing committee and executive committee respectively of Holcim's subsidiaries in India, ACC and Ambuja Cements. Here he restructured Techport, the unified technical support service centre that provides expertise to both ACC and Ambuja Cements with the aim of improving the efficiency and effectiveness of over 25 integrated cement plants and grinding stations and managing all the major capital expenditure projects for both companies.

Broummana holds a Diploma in Electrical Engineering and a Diploma in Wirtschafts-Ingenieur (MBA) from the University of Dortmund. He has also completed a 'Program for Executive Development' at IMD-Lausanne and 'Advanced Management Program' at Harvard Business School, US.

Just before the end of 2012 Holcim sold shares in companies it owned in Thailand and Guatemala. It reduced its stake in Siam City Cement Company (SCCC) in Thailand from 36.8% to 27.5% and it sold its entire 20% minority stake in Cementos Progreso in Guatemala. For the sale of these two share packages Holcim received approximately Euro310m.

This is interesting given that Asia-Pacific was the Switzerland-based multinational's biggest sales area in 2011 and because sales of cement rose by 6% in Latin America in 2011. Similarly in 2012 from January to September the two regions propped up the group's profits. Why would Holcim sell stakes into two of its most profitable regions?

In its third quarter report in 2012 Holcim repeatedly described Thailand as 'encouraging' following floods in 2011. It added that it had focused increasingly on the cement market in the country and strengthened its position in neighbouring countries that resulted in lower clinker exports.

According to the Global Cement Directory 2013 SCCC has a capacity of 31Mt/yr, 65% of Thailand's total capacity of 48Mt/yr. SCCC predicted in December 2012 that domestic cement demand would increase by 5-10% in 2013. The company is currently planning to build new plants in Indonesia and Cambodia and is considering investing in Myanmar. In Indoniesia Holcim is the third biggest producer after Semen Gresik and HeidelbergCement subsidiary Indocement.

Meanwhile in Central America, Cementos Progreso was the sole producer in Guatemala with 2.5Mt/yr from two plants. This was set to double with the commissioning of a third plant towards the end of 2012. However, Holcim retains seven plants in southern Mexico (12Mt/yr), both of El Salvador's plants (2Mt/yr) and a plant in Costa Rica (1Mt/yr).

With Holcim's strong presence in Central America and the North American market reviving leaving Guatemala makes sense with the group's debt reduction programme in mind. The situation in Thailand is more complex, so unsurprisingly Holcim has reduced its stake rather than leaving completely. SCCC's expansion plans outside of Thailand suggest, that although growing, the market is maturing. In one such potential expansion target, Indonesia, Holcim is already a major producer.

In its press release announcing the sales in Thailand and Guatemala, Holcim attributed the decision to its ongoing debt reduction programme. As part of its 'Leadership Journey' the group intends to save Euro1.25bn by the end of 2014. Other savings in 2012 included reducing management in Europe, layoffs and closures in Australia, a plant closure in Hungary, further delays on the decision to build a new plant in New Zealand and layoffs in Spain. The management changes in Europe alone contributed a Euro99m chunk of Holcim's target saving of Euro124m for 2012.

Yet it's worth considering that a week after the sales of its shares Holcim's subsidiary in India, Ambuja Cements, announced investments of Euro277m in India. Perhaps the best way to save money is to make more money.