Displaying items by tag: Ukraine
Ukraine: Data from the State Statistics Service shows that cement production grew by 23% year-on-year to 1.53Mt in the first quarter of 2019. Production accelerated in March 2019, according to the Ukrainian News Agency. Annual cement production fell by 1% to 8.93Mt in 2018.
HeidelbergCement reported to be selling assets in Ukraine
11 February 2019Ukraine: Germany’s HeidelbergCement is selling its assets according to sources quoted by Interfax-Ukraine. It is reportedly selling to local investment group Concorde Capital and the deal will be completed during March and April 2019. The building materials local subsidiary, HeidelbergCement Ukraine, has not commented on story. The company operates integrated plants at Kryvyi Rih and Amvrosiyivka and a slag grinding plant at Kamyanske. Its loss rose by 14.4% year-on-year to around Euro14m in 2017.
Buzzi Unicem’s sales rise by 2.4% to Euro2.87bn in 2018
08 February 2019Italy: Buzzi Unicem’s net sales rose by 2.4% year-on-year to Euro2.87bn in 2018 from Euro2.81bn in 2017. Its cement and clinker sales volumes increased by 4.3% to 27.9Mt from 26.8Mt. Ready-mix concrete sales fell by 3.6% to 11.8Mm3 from 12.3Mm3.
It attributed cement and clinker sales increase to acquisitions in Italy and Germany and good market conditions in the Czech Republic, Poland and Russia. However, poor weather hampered business in the US and a ‘strong’ decrease in business levels was reported in Ukraine. In Italy the cement producer benefited from its acquisition of Cementizillo in the second half of 2017. In Germany it purchased Seibel & Söhne and noted demand for oil well cements.
Ukrainian cement production falls slightly to 8.93Mt in 2018
25 January 2019Ukraine: Data from the State Statistics Service shows that Ukrainian cement production fell slightly, by 1% year-on-year, to 8.93Mt in 2018 from 9.3Mt in 2017. In December 2018 production fell by 19.9% year-on-year to 0.35Mt, according to the Ukrainian News Agency. The country has 15 companies producing cement with a combined production capacity of over 20Mt/yr.
HeidelbergCement sale now on
16 January 2019More details from HeidelbergCement this week on its divestment strategy. It has sold its half-share in Ciment Québec in Canada and a minority share in a company in Syria. A closed cement plant in Egypt is being sold and it is working on divesting its business in Ukraine. Altogether these four sales will generate Euro150m for the group. Chairman Bernd Scheifele said that the company expects to rake in Euro500m from asset sales in 2018. It has a target of Euro1.5bn by the end of 2020.
In purely cement terms that is something like seven integrated plants. So the usual game follows of considering what assets HeidelbergCement might consider selling. The group offered a few clues in a presentation that Scheifele was due to give earlier this week at the Commerzbank German Investment Seminar in New York.
First of all the producer said that it was hopeful for 2019 due to limited energy cost inflation, better weather in the US, the Indonesian market turning, general margin improvement actions and sustained price rises in Europe. It then said that its divestments would focus on three main categories: non-core business, weak market positions and idle assets. The first covers sectors outside of the trio of cement, aggregates and ready-mix concrete. Things like white cement plants or sand lime brick production. Countries or areas it identified it had already executed divestments in included Saudi Arabia, Georgia, Syria and Quebec in Canada. Idle assets included depleted quarries and land.
The first obvious candidate for divestment could be the company’s two majority owned integrated plants in the Democratic Republic of Congo. These might be considered targets due to the political instability in the country. However, this is balanced by the potential long-term gains once that country stabilises. Alternatively, some of the plants in Italy seem like a target. The company had seven integrated plants, eight grinding plants and one terminal in 2018.
The presentation also pointed out the sharp rise in European Union (EU) Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) CO2 emissions allowances, from around Euro5/t in 2017 to up to Euro20/t by the end of 2018. In late 2018 Cementa, a subsidiary of HeidelbergCement in Sweden, said it was considering closing Degerhamn plant due to mounting environmental costs. The group reckons it can fight a high carbon price through consolidation, capacity closure, higher utilisation, limited exports and pricing. It also pointed out that it is a technology leader in carbon reduction projects. It will be interesting to see how environmental costs play into HeidelbergCement’s divestment decisions.
Finally, a tweet by Sasja Beslik, the head of sustainable finance at Nordea, flagged up a few cement companies as being the worst companies for increasing CO2 emissions between 2011 and 2016. HeidelbergCement was 19th on the list after LafargeHolcim and CRH. Sure, cement production makes CO2 but it’s far from clear whether the data from MSCI took into account that each of these companies had expanded heavily during this time. In HeidelbergCement’s case it bought Italcementi in 2016. Cement companies aren’t perfect but sometimes there’s just no justice.
HeidelbergCement reports progress on divestments
14 January 2019Germany: HeidelbergCement says it has made good progress with its ‘portfolio optimisation’ process. The company closed the divestment of its 50% share in Ciment Québec and its minority participation in Syria in December 2018. In addition, a former cement plant area near Cairo in Egypt has been auctioned, and the divestment of its Ukrainian business has been signed. The divestments in Egypt and Ukraine are expected to complete in 2019. Altogether these divestments will have a value of Euro150m and are expected to have a ‘slightly’ positive effect on operating earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) in 2019.
“We deliver on our action plan and have accelerated our efforts to improve our portfolio and generate cash in order to speed up deleveraging,” said Bernd Scheifele, the chairman of the managing board of HeidelbergCement. The cement producer has a divestment target of Euro1.5bn by the end of 2020.
Strong Ukrainian sales in October
26 November 2018Ukraine: Ukrainian cement production in October 2018 increased by 13.8% year-on-year to 0.96Mt in October 2018, according to the State Statistics Service. The figure was 7.4% higher than in September 2018. Over the first 10 months of 2018, the production of cement increased by 0.1% year-on-year to 7.86Mt.
CRH earnings driven by American markets so far in 2018
20 November 2018Ireland: CRH’s sales rose by 3% year-on-year to Euro19.9bn in the first nine months of 2018. Its earnings before interest, taxation, deprecation and amortisation (EBITDA) increased by 2% on a like-for-like basis to Euro2.5bn. The building materials producer said that its earnings had been supported by growth in the Americas despite poor weather. It added that ‘momentum’ remained positive in Europe and demand had improved in Asia. However, its EBITDA dropped by 44% in Asia.
By region the group reported falling cement sales volumes in the UK and Ukraine. Sales volumes rose in most other European territories, with particular growth in Hungary, Germany, Poland, Serbia and Switzerland. In the US it said that its newly acquired Ash Grove Cement assets and ones in Florida had performed in line with expectations. However, sales in Canada fell due to poor weather. Sales in the Philippines rose by 3% due to rising cement sales volumes and prices following growing demand. However, here earnings were hit by higher fuel and power costs.
HeidelbergCement signs upgrade project with CTP Team in Ukraine
31 October 2018Ukraine: HeidelbergCement has signed a contract with Italy’s CTP Team to upgrade its Kryvyi Rih plant. The project includes replacing the existing filtering system and relevant dust handling for drying drum four. CTP Team will supply a new baghouse equipped with SWAP technology for the cleaning of bags with low-pressure compressed air. The new filter is intended to comply with new local environmental regulations. It will be designed specifically to fit with the existing electrostatic precipitator housing. No value for the deal has been disclosed.
Ukrcement says that most wrongly labelled cement is counterfeit
19 September 2018Ukraine: Ukrcement, the Ukrainian cement association, has found in a study that over 80% of cement with the wrong labelling was counterfeit. The research was conducted on 50 cement bags for the consumer market, according to Interfax. 82% of cement proved to be counterfeit, over 50% of the samples were below the declared weight and 56% had weaker strength and did not comply with the В.2.7-46 -2010 national standard for minimum compressive strength.
The association said that the risks of using counterfeit cement vary from loss of time and revenue in smaller projects to a direct threat to human life in larger projects such as high-rise buildings. Local regulations require that cement bags include five items: the name of the producer, the conventional designation of cement, the designation of the normative document, the net weight and a conformity mark.