Displaying items by tag: Thailand

Thailand: Executives from 50 administrative bodies in Nakhon Ratchasima Province have discussed how to dispose of 638,060t of accumulated garbage. A report on 'proper and practical methods' for disposal of the rubbish must be sent to the Office of Natural Resources and Environmental Policy and Planning by 30 July 2015.

The Comptroller-General's department has calculated that Nakhon Ratchasima will need US$6.19m in the 2016 fiscal year to dispose of the accumulated trash. Ranongrak Suwanchawee, president of the Nakhon Ratchasima Provincial Administrative Organisation, said that officials had agreed to transport and dispose of the garbage at a TPI Polene cement plant in Saraburi Province. This meant 29,000 trips to carry the trash in trucks plus the digging and levelling of a tip. The organisation has estimated that Nakhon Ratchasima would need a budget of about US$7.33m, slightly more than the department calculated.

Thailand: Siam Cement Group (SCG) has confirmed that it is preparing to appoint Roongrote Rangsiyopash as its next president. The SCG board has agreed to maintain Roongrote's position as executive vice-president and end his top position at SCG Paper as well as announce the promotion of two other SCG executives to replace Roongrote, according to the Bangkok Post. Roongrote will end his tenure as president of SCG Paper on 1 July 2015.

"It is a process that we've been planning for several years, and it's clear the company wants Roongrote to replace me, as he is one of the company's more competent resources," said Kan Trakulhoon, SCG's current chief executive and president, who will retire at the end of 2015. "Roongrote is expected to oversee all SCG businesses from now on."

Roongrote joined SCG after graduating from university in 1985. He ran several of the company's businesses before being officially promoted to the latest position of SCG Paper president. He was also a director of Thai-German Industry and PTT Chemical.

Thailand: Holcim has sold its stake in Siam City Cement (SCC) for US$681m. The sale of its 27.5% stake in the Thai company will result in a pre-tax gain of roughly US$378m. The sum was booked in the first quarter. Jardine Matheson Group, a Hong Kong conglomerate, bought 24.9% of SCC from Holcim, while institutional investors purchased 2.6%. Holcim had held a stake in SCC since 1998 and began selling off its investment in 2012. It said that the sale wasn't related to its pending US$44bn union with Lafarge.

Thailand: Swiss cement maker Holcim Ltd has launched an up to US$741.4m selldown of shares in Thailand's second-largest cement company Siam City Cement (SCC). Holcim is selling 63.3 million SCC shares through its Thai Roc-Cem Ltd unit at an indicative range of between US$10.73 and US$11.68, according to Thomson Reuters.

Thailand: Siam Cement Group (SCG) has commissioned Loesche to deliver an LM 56.3+3 C vertical roller mill for the grinding of clinker for its existing cement plant in Ta Luang, Thailand.

The new mill will be designed for the production of 200t/hr of Portland cement type I at 3600 Blaine as well as 150t/hr Portland cement type III at 4500 Blaine. The scope of the delivery also includes premium parts such as the mill motor, the mill fan and an LSVS-classifier.

Commissioning of the LM 56.3+3 at SCG's Ta Luang cement plant is expected to take place in December 2015.

Thailand: Siam Cement Group (SCG) has posted a smaller net profit for 2014 than 2013, although it expects earnings to rise substantially in 2015, largely due to cement demand from the government's planned infrastructure projects, said president and chief executive Kan Trakulhoon.

SCG's net profit in the fourth quarter of 2014 was US$271m, up by 11% from the same quarter in 2013, as greater margins for petrochemicals helped offset losses incurred from high inventories. However, for the entirety of 2014, SCG's net profit was down by 8% at US$1.03bn.

Trakulhoon said that cement demand would rise by an estimated 6% to 42Mt in 2015. "Our forecast is based on GDP growth of around 4% in 2015 and we expect demand for cement to start rising in the second half of the year," said Trakulhoon. With greater demand at home in 2015, SCG sees cement exports to other Asean countries falling to 4Mt, down from 4.4Mt in 2014.

SCG plans to issue up to US$91.9m in bond debt in April 2015. The bond issue will be separated into two tranches, worth US$45.9m each, of three- and four-year bonds. "The money raised by the bonds is expected to be used up by the company's investment plans in 2015," said SCG. It also aims to raise the ceiling of its bond issuance by US$1.53bn to US$7.66bn, with the funds used to finance expansion in Thailand and throughout Southeast Asia.

According to its five-year plan for 2013 - 2018, SCG has set aside US$6.13 – 7.66bn in its budget for investment expansion such as mergers and acquisitions. More than US$1.53bn is to be spent in 2015 on investment in mostly Asean countries. "We will still focus on cement and construction material products, as we see a great opportunity in 2015 when the Asean market becomes a single and bigger market," said Trakulhoon. SCG spent US$1.38bn on investment in 2014, down slightly from US$1.53bn in 2013.

Thailand: Siam Cement has reported a 14% drop in its net profit in the second quarter of 2014. Weak domestic cement demand and lower chemical earnings hit the company after months of political unrest. Thailand's domestic cement demand is expected to grow by 1% at most in 2014 due to a drop in construction activity and a lack of new infrastructure projects, according to Siam Cement's chief executive Kan Trakulhoon.

Siam Cement posted a net profit of US$268m in the April – June 2014 period, down from Euro310m during the same period of 2013. Cement and building materials contributed 41% to Siam Cement's profit and weak domestic demand prompted an increase in exports.

"We export more to ASEAN nations, but we don't make much profit from exports," said Trakulhoon. "This is to help support our supply chain, while we continue to run at full capacity."

Siam Cement expects its performance to be positive in 2014 on expectations that Thailand's 2015 fiscal budget will speed up infrastructure investments, while consumer confidence should recover from the fourth quarter of 2014.

"Domestic cement demand should drop by 2 - 3% in the third quarter of 2014 from a year earlier, while growth in the fourth quarter of 2014 should be flat," said Trakulhoon. He added that cement demand in Thailand for the whole of 2014 would grow by 0 - 1%.

Siam Cement is also stepping up its ASEAN expansion by revising its current US$7.8bn five-year investment plan that kicked off in 2013. The plan is being revised for approval at a board meeting in August 2014. Cement plants in Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos and Myanmar are already in the pipeline, while other building material plants are planned to reduce shipping costs through increased local production.

"There are many opportunities in the ASEAN region, including mergers and acquisitions," said Trakulhoon. "There is no limit. It depends on how fast we acquire the companies. We are open to any acquisition proposals." Trakulhoon added that Siam Cement's primary focus outside of Thailand is on companies in Vietnam and Indonesia, where operations have been especially robust. ASEAN business rose by 20% in the first half of 2014 and now accounts for 9% of Siam Cement's overall sales revenue. That proportion is expected to rise in the coming years.

Thailand: Siam Cement Group's subsidiary SCG Cement has acquired a 55% stake in Thai cement-bonded particleboard maker Panel World for US$17.2m. Panel World has an annual production capacity of 2.4Mm² and is set to double after a new production line starts operating by the end of 2014. Panel World posted a net profit of US$2.53m in 2013 on sales of US$9.81m.

"SCG is determined to increase its competitiveness and strive to be a market leader in building materials," said SCG's president and CEO Kan Trakulhoon.

Thailand: Siam Cement Group (SCG) is poised to revamp its business plans to cope with the impact of the political turmoil and adverse economic outlook, setting its sights on more exports and trading with the Asean market.

President and chief executive Kan Trakulhoon said that the country's prolonged political problems and the absence of a functioning government have affected the operational plans of SCG. According to Trakulhoon, the existing business plan called for the company to cut cement shipments from 5Mt in 2012 to 4Mt in 2013 and 3Mt in 2014, to better serve domestic consumption. However, given the unfavourable market conditions in Thailand, SCG will keep cement exports at 4Mt in 2014, with Myanmar, Cambodia and Vietnam as the target markets.

"The overall market of cement and construction materials has shrunk over the past couple of months thanks to the sluggish economy, which has been hit by the prolonged political problems,'' said Trakulhoon. "Earlier we forecast that the two industries should grow by 8 - 9% in 2014, but now we see they will grow at best by 4 - 5%."

According to Trakulhoon, sales of cement and construction materials fell by 7 - 8% during January and February 2014 against the 4 - 5% growth that SCG had projected. Normally late December 2013 until April 2014 is the peak selling season for products in this group, as people build and renovate their homes.

Cement and construction materials are expected to be harder hit in the second and fourth quarters of 2014 as the construction and property business slows down in line with tepid economic prospects and a lack of new private investments because of the absence of a new Board of Investment (BoI). Investment proposals worth US$15.3 – 18.4bn are still awaiting approval from the BoI's main board, which has yet to be appointed because of the political crisis since October 2013, when board member terms expired.

SCG itself has one project, a joint venture with a Japanese partner, which is pending approval from the BoI. The company also has two other joint venture investment projects with the Japanese investors waiting to submit the investment privileges with the BoI.

Trakulhoon said that he remains upbeat that SCG's sales revenue would grow by at least 10% in 2014, up from US$13.3bn in 2013. Domestic sales are expected to make up 65% of the group's sales revenue in 2014, with overseas sales contributing the remaining 35%, 20% of which will come from Asean nations.

Myanmar: Italcementi is considering entering the Myanmar market in the next few years, its chief executive has said. Carlo Pesenti said that the Italy–based international cement producer was negotiating with a local partner in Myanmar and studying the country's foreign investment law, in an interview with The Nation.

Italcementi is already active in Southeast Asia through its Jalaprathan Cement and Asia Cement subsidiaries in Thailand. In 2013 the country helped shore-up Italcementi's annual results with a rise in turnover of 18.1% year-on-year to Euro269m and earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) rose by 58.8% to Euro51.5m. Italcementi Thai cement shipments increased by 13.8% as an additional kiln was brought back on-stream.