Displaying items by tag: Suez Cement Group

Egypt: Suez Cement says that it has ‘merged its legacy’ with that of parent company Heidelberg Materials by adopting the latter’s name. Specifically, the replacement of ‘cement’ with ‘materials’ is intended to underline its pioneering role in the path to carbon neutrality and digitalisation, according to the company.

Chief executive officer Mohamed Hegazy said “We have always been and will continue to be a company that is much more than cement. We are progressive minds with the ambition to drive transformation. We push the boundaries to strengthen innovation and deepen partnerships with our customers and other stakeholders.”

Egypt: Heidelberg Materials subsidiary Suez Cement has invested US$16m in upgrading its operations towards increased alternative fuel (AF) use since 2010. The producer uses AF in the burners and kilns of all three of its cement plants, at Helwan, Kattameya and Suez. Meanwhile, Suez Cement has invested US$60m in dust control measures over the same period. Other on-going investments include US$25m in the construction of a waste heat recovery (WHR) plant at the Helwan cement plant. The company is committed to reaching a 24% reduction in its CO₂ emissions between 2019 and 2030.

Technical director Omar Khorshid said “We are committed to pursue initiatives to broaden our range of innovative and eco-friendly building solutions, advance operational efficiency through digitalisation and strengthen customer engagement for better business results and more positive impact."

Egypt: Suez Cement has partnered with Intro Power and Utilities for the construction of a 20MW solar power plant at its Suez cement plant. From its commissioning in early-mid-2023, the installation will provide the plant with 45GWh of energy annually, 20% of its annual consumption. Suez Cement says that this will eliminate 22,000t/yr-worth of CO₂ emissions. Construction is expected to cost US$350m and commence in 2023.

Suez cement aims to achieve specific CO₂ emissions of 400kg/t of cementitious product by 2030, down by 47% from 1990 levels.

Managing director Mohamed Hegazy said “Through transitioning to renewable solar energy, we are looking at long-term economic benefits, laying the foundation for a low-carbon business and energy security, without jeopardising the health of our environment. We are proud about this new milestone and to be one of the few cement players in Egypt taking this step towards using a more affordable and cleaner energy."

Egypt: Suez Cement says it is the first grey cement company in Egypt and Africa to obtain an environmental product declaration (EPD) certificate in accordance with international ISO standard. Four certificates have been issued for cement products manufactured at the company’s Helwan, Kattameya and Suez integrated plants. These are: CEMII BP 42.5N; CEMIIIA 42.5N; CEMII AL 42.5N; and Masonry 12.5X.

“With this certification, our customers will be able to make an informed choice of one of the lowest carbon footprint materials and reduce the environmental impact of emissions in their investments,” said Mohamed Hegazy, the managing director of Suez Cement.

Egypt: Korra Energi has been awarded a contract to build a 20MW waste heat recovery (WHR) unit at Suez Cement’s Helwan plant. The WHR unit will serve both of the plant’s two production lines. Korra Energi says it will be the first WHR project for a cement company in the country. Korra Energi is an Egypt-based engineering company and a subsidiary of conglomerate Korra.

Egypt: Suez Cement has appointed Mohamed Hegazy as its chief executive officer (CEO). He succeeds Jose Maria Magrina, who has held the post for six years. Magrina will start a new position as the CEO of HeidelbergCement Trading.

Hegazy is currently the commercial director of Suez Cement. He started his career with HeidelbergCement Group in 2007 as a sales representative for Suez Cement. He took over managerial roles in the sales and marketing departments, before being nominated as commercial director in 2017.

Egypt: Suez Cement, part of Germany-based HeidelbergCement, has begun its first round of staff inoculations against Covid-19 at its plants and offices. Government medical staff supervised the sessions, which the company said were well attended.

Human resources director Sherry Bishara said, "I am pleased to take this opportunity to thank the Ministry of Health and Suez governorate Preventive Medicine Directorate for their collaboration in providing the vaccine and medical staff needed for administering the vaccine for staff and also to thank the group's medical service for facilitating the campaign.”

News has been dripping out slowly over the last few months about which assets HeidelbergCement is planning to divest. This week reporting from Bloomberg suggested that the German-based building materials producer might be seriously considering selling one or more integrated plants in Spain. The idea is reportedly part of a wider review of its portfolio in the country with the possible inclusion of cement plants at San Sebastian and Bilbao at a future date also. A proposed price of Euro300m for the national business was put forward by the sources to the reporters but it is unclear how many cement plants that figure includes.

HeidelbergCement announced in July 2020 that it had reduced the value of its total assets by Euro3.4bn following a review. It blamed this on reduced demand for building materials due to the coronavirus pandemic and the devaluation of its Hanson subsidiary in the UK, in part related to the UK’s exit from the European Union. A divestment plan followed at its Capital Markets Day event in September 2020 when it said it was simplifying its country portfolio and prioritising the strongest market positions. To this end it said it was setting up a watch list of underperforming assets to keep an eye on.

Over the next few months a number of corporate reorganisations and actual confirmed divestments occurred as well as plenty of speculation. HeidelbergCement-controlled Suez Cement started to acquire a 100% stake in its own subsidiary, Tourah Portland Cement, in September 2020. Suez Cement then sold its majority stake in Kuwait-based Hilal Cement in late January 2021. This week HeidelbergCement Bangladesh informed the local stock exchange that it is planning to amalgamate its subsidiary Emirates Cement.

Signs that European reviews had taken place could be seen later in the autumn of 2020. In November 2020 the Italian press picked up on rumours that HeidelbergCement was planning to move subsidiary Italcementi’s research centre from Bergamo, Lombardy, to Heidelberg in Baden Württemberg. Whether this was ever a serious proposition or not, this appeared to have been avoided in early February 2021 when an Italian union said it had agreed with Italcementi to keep the research centre in Italy as well as a preserving jobs generally. Meanwhile, also in November 2020, France-based subsidiary Ciments Calcia announced a major upgrade at its integrated Airvault cement plant but along with the conversion of two other integrated plants into a grinding unit and a terminal respectively, and changes at the French headquarters at Guervill.

Just before Christmas the bigger speculations started to appear in the press, with a story suggesting that HeidelbergCement was considering selling assets in California, US, with a target price of US$1.5bn for three integrated plants and associated concrete and aggregate units. That story is particularly beguiling given Cemex’s decision this month to reopen a kiln in Mexico to supply cement to the southwest US to meet shortages (See GCW 493)! Incidentally, readers should also note the story this week about a shortage of natural gas exports from Texas, US, that has caused cement plants in northern Mexico to shut down. This week, as mentioned at the start, has seen Spain added to the list of places that HeidelbergCement might be considering selling up in. The Spanish market like Italy has been rationalising heavily over the last decade particularly as export markets have dwindled. Oficemen, the Spanish cement association, reported that domestic cement consumption fell by 10% year-on-year to 13.3Mt in 2020 from 14.7Mt in 2019. On top of this Oficemen has repeatedly warned of the threat that CO₂ emissions prices pose for its members’ exports.

Group chairman Dominik von Achten told Reuters this month that the company plans to sell the first of the five assets in early-to-mid 2021. Of course he wouldn’t say where, except for adding that the company would stay in ‘rock solid’ markets like Northern Europe. Indonesia has been seen as a candidate for disposal by analysts, likely due to local production overcapacity levels and LafargeHolcim’s own departure in Indonesia 2018. All Von Achten would say on the matter was that Indonesia was an ‘important’ market for the group. Whether it’s seen as important for reducing company debt or building value remains to be seen. HeidelbergCement hasn’t exactly been shy about saying what they are doing over the last half year or so but they are only going so far and they won’t comment on speculation. So in the meantime we must wait to find out more.

Kuwait/Germany: HeidelbergCement has detailed the reasons behind the sale of its 51% stake in Hilal Cement, which has been led by HeidelbergCement subsidiary Suez Cement since 2016. The group said that the divestment represents the first step in a ‘comprehensive portfolio optimisation’ in line with its Beyond 2020 strategy.

Chief executive officer Dominik von Achten said, “We are pleased with the closing of the transaction in Kuwait.” He continued, “The focus of our portfolio management is the simplification of country portfolios and a prioritisation of the strongest market positions.”

Hilal Cement operates two cement terminals and four ready-mix plants.

Kuwait: HeidelbergCement subsidiary Suez Cement has sold its 51% majority stake in Hilal Cement. Decypha News has reported the new owner of the stake as Silver Share Real Estate. Boodai Group retains 44% of the remainder of shares.