Displaying items by tag: Southern Province

Saudi Arabia: Southern Province Cement has commenced trial operation at the second production line of its Bishah cement plant. The trial operation will continue until the plant reaches a contractual design capacity of 5000t/day of clinker. Once the trial is complete the plant's production capacity from its three lines will reach 33,000t/day of clinker. The company noted in a statement that there are neither expected costs nor financial impact for this trial operation. The date of full operation will be announced later.

Saudi Arabia: Saudi cement producer Southern Province Cement (SPC) has signed a US$190.1m contract for the installation of a second production line at its plant in Bisha.

The contract will be executed over a period of 20 months. SPC said it will use a combination of Islamic financing and its own funds to finance the project.

In May 2012 the Saudi firm signed a US$188.5m turnkey contract with China's Sinoma for a third production line at SPC's plant in Tuhama. The project is expected to take 24 months to complete.

Demand for cement is so intense in Saudi Arabia that certain producers have reported production line shutdowns in dedicated stock market statements. Notably, industry newcomer Hail Cement reported a scheduled shutdown for late October/early November 2013, Al Jouf Cement reported unscheduled shutdowns in October and June 2013 and Najran Cement reported scheduled maintenance in July 2013. Even a short delay to cement production is a newsworthy event for both investors and analysts.

Saudi cement producers have risen to the infrastructure challenges of the country's Ninth Development Plan, increasing cement production by 6% year-on-year to 42.7Mt for the first nine months of 2013. In this febrile environment, the king ordered 10Mt of cement imports in April 2013 followed by government demands for producers to build up a two-month 'strategic' inventory reserve. Unsurprisingly, as we report this week, exports of cement from Saudi Arabia have fallen by 55% for the first nine months of 2013.

At the time of Global Cement's feature on Saudi Arabia in December 2012 only two of the country's cement producers had an inventory of joint clinker and cement stock meeting the government's stockpiling request. For the first nine months of 2013 the situation remains the same although the overall inventory has increased by 18% year-on-year to 10.3Mt. This compares to the end of 2012 where inventories fell year-on-year by 14% to 7Mt.

Unsurprisingly again, the Kingdom's major cement producers have seen balance sheets bulge so far in 2013. Yamama Cement reported a 12% year-on-year rise in net profit to US$145m for the first half of 2013 on the back of local demand. Saudi Cement Company reported a 5% year-on-year rise in its net profits to US$173m and Southern Province Cement saw a 4% year-on-year rise in its net profits to US$150m for the same period. Yanbu Cement saw its net profit rise by 29% year-on-year to US$176m for the first nine months of 2013.

With more large government infrastructure contracts pending, analysts expect the Saudi cement market to remain heated. Although as NCB Capital pointed out in September 2013, uncertainties over fuel supplies for coming cement plant expansions provide uncertainty to the situation. Nobody wants a repeat of the Yanbu - Aramco spat over fuel supplies that occurred in 2011. Irony would barely describe the situation if a Saudi Arabian cement boom was dented by a lack of fuel in one of the countries with the biggest oil reserves in the world.

Global Cement will be at stand T9 at the 18th Arab-International Cement Conference and Exhibition in Jordan from 11 – 13 November 2013

Saudi Arabia: Saudi cement producer Southern Province Cement (SPC), the nation's largest cement firm by market value, posted a US$71.6m net profit for the first quarter of 2013, down from US$75.8m a year ago. Without providing exact figures, the company attributed the decrease to lower cement prices.

The cement manufacturer registered an operating profit of US$72.7m for the first three months of 2013, down from US$76.8m in the first quarter of 2012.

Saudi Arabia: Commercial ports in Saudi Arabia are ready to process more cement and clinker, according to a Ports Authority (PA) spokesman quoted by Arab News. The move supports a command issued by the King of the country in April 2013 that ordered 10Mt of cement to cope with local shortage.

The PA has set up 17 docking stations for handling and storage of cement and clinker. Jeddah, Dammam and Jubail have four stations each. Yanbu, Dhuba and Jazan are equipped with one site each. The authority has agreed with Saudi Arabia-based Southern Province Cement Company to import cement and clinker through the Jazan Port, as well as with Yanbu Cement Company for clinker imports. All the ports are required to support the cement companies in providing enough space for storage and loading.

Saudi Arabia: Southern Province Cement Company has announced the start of commissioning of its third mill at its Jazan plant, which started on 27 January 2013. It is expected that commissioning will be completed by 15 March 2013.

Saudi Arabia: Southern Province Cement has reported a 9.6% rise in quarterly profits, citing the start-up a second production line at its Tahama plant and increased demand from local markets.

Saudi Arabia's biggest cement producer by market value posted a second-quarter net profit of US$69.9m for the quarter ending on 30 June 2012, compared with US$63.7m for the same period in 2011. However profit was down by 7.75% from the first quarter of 2012, when it was US$75.7m. The company attributed this to instruction by the ministry of commerce and industry decreasing the price that t it is able to sell cement at.

Meanwhile, Saudi Cement Co posted a net profit of US$77.4m for the second quarter, a rise of 36% year-on-year. It cited growing domestic demand for cement and clinker. The Saudi construction sector has been boosted over the past year by ramped-up government spending, including a pledge to build a quarter of a million new houses as well as schools and hospitals.

Saudi Cement Co's profit fell by 10.9% compared to the first quarter of 2012, when it was US$86.8m. The company blamed the decrease on a decline in sales.

Saudi Arabia: Southern Province Cement Company has estimated that its net profit for the second quarter of 2012 will be 9.6% higher than the comparable period in 2011 at US$69.9m compared to US$63.7m.

Its estimated gross profit during the second quarter was US$71.9m compared to US$67.2m, a year-on-year increase of 7.1%. The company estimated its operating profit during the second quarter as US$69.8m compared to US$63.7m for the corresponding quarter of 2011, an increase of 9.6%.

Over the course of the six months to 30 June 2012, Southern Province estimates that its net profit will be in the region of US$154.6m compared to US$124.0m and that its operating profit will be US$146.7m compared to US$125.1m in the corresponding period of 2011.

Southern Province said that the rise in net profit for the second quarter and for the six month period was due to operation of the second production line at its Tahama plant, which had no unforeseen stoppages. There was also an increase in demand for cement in the local market.

The company noted that its second quarter 2012 net profit was marginally weaker than that of the first quarter of 2012 due to industry-wide pressure from the Ministry of Commerce to reduce cement prices.