Displaying items by tag: US
Brazil: Votorantim Cimentos recorded consolidated sales of US$2.59bn during the first half of 2023, up by 51% year-on-year from US$2.37bn in the first half of 2022. The group reported that cement demand was ‘strong’ in the US and ‘stable’ in Spain, however the Brazilian and Canadian markets were ‘challenging.’ Its costs also rose, by 4.2% to US$2.1bn from US$2.02bn. Despite this, Votorantim Cimentos’ net profit grew by a factor of 11, to US$112m from US$10.1m.
James Hardie publishes Sustainability Report 2023
10 August 2023Australia: James Hardie has published its Sustainability Report 2023, recording its progress towards achieving its sustainability goals up to the end of the 2023 financial year on 31 March 2023. The producer's Scope 1 and 2 CO2 emissions dropped by 26% compared to 2019 levels, against a new target of a 42% drop by 2030. Environmental product declarations (EPDs) covered 94% of its sales, ahead of a target for the year of 80%. The company launched a new goal to include 30% minority-identified people in its US management.
Chief sustainability officer and vice president, environmental social and governance, Jill Kolling said “Sustainability is a continuous journey, but a necessary one to drive value for our stakeholders, while delivering on our ambition to be a more resilient company. From our boardroom to our manufacturing plants, we are giving sustainability a place at the table to drive meaningful impact and instill accountability across all facets of our organisation.”
Heidelberg Materials North America concludes granulated blast furnace slag supply agreement with Levy Group of Companies
10 August 2023US: Heidelberg Materials North America and Levy Group of Companies signed a granulated blast furnace slag (GBFS) supply contract on 9 August 2023. Under the contract, Levy Group of Companies will supply Heidelberg Materials North America with 400,000t/yr of GBFS for use in its slag cement production. Deliveries will begin in early 2024. Heidelberg Materials North America says that it has upgraded its Speed cement plant in Indiana to increase the efficiency with which it grinds GBFS. Following the inauguration of its nearby 2.4Mt/yr Mitchell cement plant in June 2023, Heidelberg Materials North America plans to transition the 1Mt/yr to 100% speciality and slag cement production. Levy Group of Companies will supply the GBFS from steel industry sites in the Midwest Region.
Heidelberg Materials Midwest US president Axel Conrads said “Our agreement with the Levy Group of Companies to secure a consistent supply of slag granules will help us accelerate the transition of the Speed plant to slag cement production and better meet the increasing demand for more sustainable cement products in the growing Midwest market.”
Contractor dies at Heidelberg Materials North America's Port Everglades cement terminal
07 August 2023US: Heidelberg Materials North America reported the death of a man at its Port Everglades cement terminal in Florida on 5 August 2023. Local press has reported that the body of the man was found inside equipment, where he is believed to have fallen. He was an external contractor who had been carrying out repair work. Authorities are currently investigating the tragedy.
Heidelberg Materials North America said "We are working closely with the appropriate authorities to ensure a thorough investigation into the cause of the accident."
US: Prometheus Materials' microalgae-based biocement has demonstrated 12 times greater sound absorption than ordinary Portland cement (OPC). Prometheus Materials produces its biocement at ambient temperature, with no process CO2 emissions.
US: CRH subsidiary Oldcastle APG has acquired France-based Saint-Gobain's fence, railing and decking business in the US. The business consists of two production locations, in Buffalo, New York, and Orem, Utah. Together, the sites employ 210 people. The business generated US$65.6m in sales in 2022.
Saint-Gobain said that the divestment serves to advance its profile optimisation strategy under its Grow & Impact plan.
The release of the half-year financial results from many of the larger multinational cement producers in Europe and North America gives us the usual opportunity to examine how well the year has gone so far. In summary, each of the companies highlighted here increased its sales and earnings on a like-for-like basis. However, in many cases, but not all, sales volumes of cement fell. Notably, both Holcim and Heidelberg Materials did not appear to release these figures. Heidelberg Materials did say though that its sales volumes declined in all business lines as “a result of the global economic down-turn.” In Holcim’s case, on top of whatever else has been going on over the last six months, the group has continued to divest cement assets as it realigns its portfolio. One more interesting point to note is that, instead, Holcim and Heidelberg Materials highlighted their reductions in CO2 emissions at the start of their half-year reports.
Graph 1: Sales revenue for selected multinational cement producers in the first half of 2023. Source: Company financial reports.
Holcim continued to expand its light building materials business segment in North America as well as picking up some aggregate and ready-mix concrete assets in North America and Europe. Its sales grew fastest in North America, although Europe generated more sales overall. Elsewhere the other geographic business areas all held up. The group’s Solutions & Products division, the one responsible for the light building materials, lost sales and earnings year-on-year. This was blamed on the “normalisation of buying patterns” in the roofing market in North America in late 2022 and carrying into 2023, leading to destocking in various distribution channels. How this might effect the group’s ongoing diversification strategy remains to be seen.
Heidelberg Materials was more upfront about the specifics of its cement business in the first half of 2023. Sales volumes fell in all business lines. For cement, the largest falls were reported in the Western and Southern Europe Group area due to a ‘significant’ decline in residential construction followed by the Africa-Eastern Mediterranean Basin area although a slight increase was recorded in deliveries in Asia-Pacific. That last region benefited from the local subsidiary increasing its cement and clinker deliveries in Indonesia. This was reportedly due to the company leasing the Maros cement plant in September 2022. The plant serves markets in the east of the country. Overall, despite the falls in revenue in many regions, the group pushed up its prices sufficiently to keep net sales revenue and earnings growing well.
Cemex, meanwhile, was keen to shout about its improved earnings in all of its regions. It attributed this to its price strategy, lowering input cost inflation and the growing effects of its investments portfolio and its Urbanisation Solutions business. Each of the group’s main regions – Mexico, the US and Europe – performed well, with Mexico growing sales the fastest, the US driving up earnings the most and Europe, Middle East, Africa and Asia holding growth steady despite demand issues. Pricing was cited as a main issue for the success of each region.
Vicat’s sales and earnings rose due to increased sales volumes of cement and higher prices. At home in France, the company successfully fought off falling cement sales volumes with price rises, particularly due to energy price inflation. North America, the group’s other big market, grew strongly, boosted by the ramp-up of production and sales from the new kiln at the Ragland plant in Alabama. Finally, Titan experienced a similar situation to the other companies featured here, with increasing demand driving sales and further helped by prices. Earnings then grew in turn. Unlike the other companies, the US contributed a much larger share of sales for Titan than Europe or elsewhere. Back home in Greece the company’s sales and earnings benefited from increased sales volumes across all business lines. Both Vicat and Titan had mixed experiences in Egypt and Türkiye, with negative currency exchange effects causing problems in both countries, despite demand mounting in the latter.
On the basis of these financial results, it has been a positive first half for the larger cement companies based in Europe and North America. Cement sales volume growth has been mixed, where known, but price rises have compensated for this, leading to higher earnings. Whether these companies can continue to pull off this trick as or if global inflation starts to slow down is very much an ongoing question. As mentioned at the start, some of the companies also led their half-year reports with emission figures and many of them prominently highlighted forthcoming sustainability projects. These companies may be making most of their money in Europe and North America but there is clearly an awareness that these regions are also leading globally in implementing CO2 emission legislation.
US: The United States Geological Survey has reported that the US consumed 40.5Mt-worth of cement shipments in the first five months of 2023. This corresponds to a 4.3% year-on-year fall from five-month 2022 volumes of 41.5Mt. Blended cement, primarily Type IL Portland limestone cement (PLC), accounted for 37% of shipments, compared to 16% in the corresponding period of 2022. Total demand rose by 4.3% year-on-year and by 19% month-on-month to 10.2Mt in May 2023. Imports of cement and clinker totalled 10.5Mt. The leading source of imported cement and clinker were Türkiye, which supplied 3.34Mt (32%), Canada, which supplied 1.58Mt (15%), and Vietnam, which supplied 1.3Mt (13%).
US production of clinker dropped by 2.1% to 29.5Mt in the first five months of 2023, from 30.1Mt a year earlier.
France: Vicat's consolidated sales were Euro1.91bn in the first half of 2023, up by 9% year-on-year from Euro1.76bn in the first half of 2022. The group's earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) rose by 17% to Euro314m from Euro269m. Vicat said that it recorded generally 'resilient' sales volumes and price rises across most of its markets. Volumes dropped in France and Switzerland. During the half, Vicat's specific CO2 emissions per tonne of cement fell by 3.6% year-on-year to 571kg/t from 591kg/t.
Chair and chief executive officer Guy Sidos said "The group has not yet returned to its pre-crisis margins rates. I’d like to thank all our teams for their unwavering commitment enabling us to reach our industrial, financial and climate targets." He added that Vicat is on track to achieve its CO2 emission target of 497kg/t of cement by 2030.
Regarding its outlook for the current 2023 full year, Vicat said "The group is targeting further significant sales growth, with its markets overall expected to display resilience and reflect the full benefit of the price hikes in selling prices implemented in 2022 and the fresh increases introduced in 2023." It added "The performance in 2023 will reap the benefit of the full impact of the new kiln at the Ragland plant in the US, the elimination of the non-recurring costs incurred in 2022 and the stabilisation in energy costs."
Mexico: GCC’s sales rose by 15% year-on-year to US$608m during the first half of 2023. The company’s cement volumes rose by 6.9% in Mexico, but fell by 11% in the US. Its earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) rose by 27% to US$196m.
GCC’s chief executive officer Enrique Escalante said “Despite persistent weather-related challenges during the quarter, GCC achieved year-on-year growth in both top and bottom-line, attributable to the successful execution of our pricing and cost strategies, along with our focus on operational excellence.” He added “We remain vigilant in monitoring demand and economic dynamics in the US, planning to ensure we’re positioned to capture opportunities, while we take advantage of the momentum we’re seeing in the Mexican market.”