Displaying items by tag: Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe: Lafarge Zimbabwe says that a ‘critical’ incident occurred at its Manresa plant in Harare on 11 October 2021 when the roof collapsed over a cement mill. It reported no fatalities or injuries. However, the subsidiary of Switzerland-based Holcim warned that the incident might have an impact on its business performance for the last quarter of 2021. It added that it had already started taking action to repair the structure and restart the mills.

The Herald Zimbabwe newspaper reports that there has been a “general low visibility of the company’s cement in the market.” It added that the company started building a new cement mill at the plant in March 2021 with an expected commissioning date of March 2022.

Zimbabwe: Precious Murena has stepped down as the chief executive officer (CEO) of Lafarge Cement Zimbabwe to “pursue new interests outside the Holcim Group.” She was originally appointed to the role in early 2020. Amr Elmowafy Aly Mowafy, currently the chief financial officer, will assume the position of Acting CEO in the interim period until a replacement is found.

Murena joined Lafarge Cement Zimbabwe in 2011 and worked in various roles including the Industrial Relations & Welfare Manager and Human Resources & Communications Director. She was the first female Zimbabwean to become a CEO of the company.

Zimbabwe: Lafarge Cement Zimbabwe has appointed John Stull as a non-executive director. Previously he worked as the chief executive officer of Holcim Philippines from 2018 until 2021. He is currently the Area Manager - East, South Africa & Indian Ocean for Holcim.

Stull, an American national, holds over 29 years’ experience with Holcim Group having joined it in 1992 as the operations manager at the Alpena plant in Michigan, US. Since then he has worked in a variety of executive roles around the world. He holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Akron and an Advanced Management Degree from Harvard University.

Zimbabwe: PPC Zimbabwe has received US$11.2m from the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe as part of a legacy debts repayment scheme. The debt accrued due toregulations blocking the repatriation of revenue outside the country due to foreign exchange shortages, according to the New Zimbabwe newspaper. The debts were assumed by the central bank between 2016 and early 2019. At the time PPC Zimbabwe was left with a legacy debt of US$21m to its parent company PPC in South Africa. PPC expects the remainder of the debt to be repaid by the end of 2022.

South Africa: PPC’s group revenue grew by 3% year-on-year to US$625m in its financial year to 31 March 2021 from US$607m in the same period in 2020. Group earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) increased by 16% to US112m from US$96.6m. Sales and earnings rose due to a recovery in cement sales, particularly outside of Zimbabwe, and general cost cutting.

Cement sales in South Africa benefited from retail demand in the inland region, while the coastal regions experienced a lagged recovery in demand. In Rwanda, the group’s Cimerwa subsidiary reported ‘strong’ cement sales due to the roll-out of government projects, retail demand and exports to the Democratic Republic of Congo. Operations in Zimbabwe were hampered by high inflation
and a shortage of foreign currency.

“Despite the difficult trading conditions in most of our markets, our businesses have benefited from a recovery in cement demand, resulting in improved financial performance,” said chief executive officer Roland van Wijnen. He added that the group has worked on capital restructuring and refinancing projects. It has concluded an agreement with PPC Barnet's lenders, which terminates their right to recourse to PPC, signed agreements for the sale of PPC Lime and an aggregates business in Botswana and agreed with its lenders in South Africa to defer the equity capital raise in South Africa from March 2021 to September 2021.

Zimbabwe: LafargeHolcim subsidiary Lafarge Cement Zimbabwe has said that cement demand has increased by 34% quarter-on-quarter in the third quarter of 2020 following the end of the national coronavirus lockdown. Business Weekly News has reported that the company said that cement demand in July 2020 was the highest in that month since July 2003 due to a 7% year-on-year sales rise.

Company chair Kumbirai Katsande said, “As business activity progressively continued to gain momentum into the third quarter of 2020, the demand for cement consequently outstripped supply, causing considerable supply backlog.” Katsande said that the shortage will ease as demand decreases “associated with rainfall” in the fourth quarter of 2020.

Zimbabwe: The National Social Security Authority (NSSA) has lifted a prohibition order which it issued to Livetouch Investments subsidiary Diamond Cement after the death of a worker on 6 March 2020 at the company’s 0.4Mt/yr Redcliff grinding plant. The incident brought to light “sub-standard safety and security arrangements.” The Chinese-owned company had also failed to register any employees under the NSSA’s Workers’ Compensation Insurance Fund (WCIF) and the National Pension Scheme (NPS).

The New Zimbabwe newspaper has reported that the NSSA lifted the prohibition order in mid-September 2020 after the company was found to have complied with its registration and safety requirements. NSSA communications officer Tendai Mutseyekwa said, “After a joint visit by the NSSA’s Occupational Safety and Health Inspectorate and the Compliance Inspectorate, the company registered with the NSSA schemes. They subsequently settled their subscriptions for the two NSSA schemes from the effective date of 4 April 2017, when the company started operating.”

A police investigation into the fatality continues.

Zimbabwe: LafargeHolcim subsidiary Lafarge Zimbabwe and China National Building Materials (CNBM) subsidiary CBMI have announced the signing of a contract for the establishment of a 0.7Mt/yr-capacity grinding plant at the 0.5Mt/yr Manresa cement plant in Harare. CBMI executive director and general manager Tong Laigou said that, when completed, the plant “will significantly increase the market occupation rate, competition and influence power of Lafarge Zimbabwe, and will also ease the cement supply tension in the country.”

South Africa: PPC has delayed the publication of its annual results for the year to 31 March 2020 for a second time due to a “restructuring and refinance project.” It now expects to publish the results by late September 2020. It previously delayed reporting its financial results when the Johannesburg Stock Exchange allowed it to delay releasing the figures because of challenges created by the coronavrius pandemic. The cement producer also said it has found errors in its financial reporting for the year that ended in March 2019 due to mistakes made in valuing operations in Ethiopia and Zimbabwe and a miscalculation of the accounting of a foreign-exchange transaction in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

The group expects that revenue for the year to 31 March 2020 will decline by no more than 5% year-on-year from US$605m in the same period in 2019. Earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) are expected to fall by up to 20% from US$113m.

In an operational update for April to July 2020 the group said that it ramped up cement operations in May 2020 following the relaxation of coronavirus-related lockdowns in most of its territories. It attributed strong growth in cement sales volumes in June and July 2020 due to a reduction in imports as well as pent-up demand. Similarly, sales volumes were strong outside of South Africa, particularly in Zimbabwe and Rwanda, and in the DRC to a lesser extent.

Zimbabwe: The Environmental Management Agency (EMA) has ordered Lafarge Cement Zimbabwe to stop operations at its integrated Harare plant due to abnormal dust emissions. As part of the order the plant has been requested to notify local stakeholders and the community of any new developments or incident that may affect them, according to the NewsDay newspaper. It will also be required to report daily dust emissions readings to the EMA every two weeks.

The cement producer said it experienced an unexpected surge in dust emissions during a trial of using saw dust as an alternative fuel at the plant between July 30 and 1 August 2020. It added that immediate action was taken to control and contain the emissions and the incident was reported to EMA in line with regulatory requirements.