Displaying items by tag: construction

India: Construction work has yet to return to normality following the easing of the coronavirus lockdown in Uttar Pradesh as cement and other materials have not reached building sites. The Hindustan Times has reported that restrictions to the movement of goods across state and district borders have caused extensive disruption of supply chains. The website for travel permits needed by workers who do not live at the site at which they are employed has reportedly crashed multiple times due to oversubscription, leading to some staffing issues. Confederation of Real Estate Developers Association of India (CREDAI) deputy chair Uttar Pradesh West Amit Modi said, “We can only resume work once these things get back to normal."

UK: The government has encouraged construction work to resume from 11 May 2020. Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said, “Those who can’t work from home - thinking particularly the construction and manufacturing sectors - we are encouraging to go back to work now.” The advice follows the Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s speech of 10 May 2020, in which he announced the easing of the nation’s coronavirus lockdown as it moves into its second phase. Johnson said that a second spike in infections would lead to a return to full lockdown.

Germany: HeidelbergCement has reported a fall in first quarter revenues by 7% year-on-year in 2020, to Euro3.93bn from Euro4.24bn. Revenues fell by 6% in Western and Southern Europe and by 10% in the Asia-Pacific region, but rose by 11% in North America, by 2% in Northern and Eastern Europe and Central Asia and by 3% in Africa-Eastern Mediterranean Basin.

HeidelbergCement Managing Board
Chair Dominik von Achten said that, after year-on-year sales increases across all business lines, “from mid-March our sales volumes were significantly impaired by the effects of the coronavirus pandemic, such as state-imposed production downtimes and construction stoppages on major infrastructure projects.” Total cement and clinker sales over the period were 27.7Mt, down by 3.0% year-on-year from 28.6Mt.

Thanks to its COPE coronavirus action plan, HeidelbergCement says that it has reduced 2020 spending by Euro1.0bn. It says that it has Euro5.7bn of financial liquidity.

Pakistan: Producers dispatched 3.52Mt of cement in April 2020, down by 24% year-on-year from 4.61Mt in April 2019. Domestic consumption was 3.27Mt, down by 19% from 4.04Mt due to the coronavirus outbreak. The Business recorder newspaper has reported that cement producers were already ‘struggling to survive due to extremely high input costs.'

The All Pakistan Cement Manufacturers Association (APCMA) said, "The decline in construction activities around the world, including in Pakistan, contributed to a downfall in demand, however, the cement sector even otherwise was operating under acute distress."

India: Construction has stalled in Tamil Nadu because consumers are reportedly unable to buy cement. The supply chain has been disrupted because police have shut shops across the state following breaches of social distancing rules after the partial easing of the coronavirus lockdown.

Ramco Cements Managing Director Arrakundal Dharmakrishnan said, “We have instructed our dealers that they must follow social distancing norms.”

In neighbouring Telangana, chief minister Kalvakuntla Rao has extended the lockdown period to 29 May 2020, subject to a review on 15 May 2020 that may result in the resumption of construction works and the re-opening of non-essential shops.

Colombia: Cementos Argos’ first quarter profit was US$1.00m, down by 73% year-on-year from US$3.76m in the corresponding period of 2019. Sales fell by 0.2% to US$545m from US$547m. The volume of cement it sold fell by 6.1% to 3.62Mt from 3.86Mt in the corresponding period of 2019. The company launched RESET, a savings initiative in response to the coronavirus outbreak, which aims to save between US$75.0 and US$90.0m in 2020.

Cementos Argos’ CEO Juan Esteban Calle said, “Given the US$154m-strong cash position of the company, the saving initiatives within RESET, the support from our stakeholders, and the passionate commitment of our more than 7000 employees, we firmly believe that Argos is fully prepared to face the current market conditions.”

Colombia’s coronavirus lockdown ended on 13 April 2020 for infrastructure projects and on 27 April 2020 for cement production and residential and commercial construction. On 5 May 2020 Cementos Argos said that domestic demand was at 50% of pre-lockdown levels.

India: The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) has asked the government to restart home and road building to help cement producers. The Press Trust of India newspaper has reported that all construction work has stalled since 25 March 2020 due to the coronavirus lockdown. The FICCI believes that Indian cement demand is currently set to decline by 10-12% year-on-year. To relieve the sector, the FICCI urged the Indian government to lift the lockdown in metropolitan areas in order to allow the continuation of residential construction, which accounts for 60-65% of cement demand.

To protect domestic producers from any import dumping post-crisis, the FICCI has suggested that Indian cement sales should be subsidised. It also requested a ‘relaxation of environmental emission norms’ until mid-2022 ‘to save the industry from additional capex expenses.’

Oman: Cement producers have reacted positively to anti-dumping measures implemented by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry. The Oman Observer newspaper has reported that the measures, which consist of quality screening, have, since coming into force on 1 March 2020, been ramped up in construction, with a general restriction of the movement of goods due to the coronavirus. Raysut Cement said, “These measures will enable Raysut Cement and our peers Oman Cement to operate at full capacity. We hope that the authorities will continue to strictly enforce this measure in the interest of fair market competition.”

Raysut Cement said that it is ‘Aggressively pushing ahead’ with its US$30m Port of Duqm grinding plant project, which is due for commission in March 2021. “It is a good time for countries like Oman to become self-sufficient in the domestic availability of a strategic commodity like cement,” it said. On 4 May 2020 Raysut Cement announced plans to lobby the government for a gas or electricity subsidy.

Oman’s cement demand is currently 20-25% below pre-lockdown levels.

France: Cem’In’Eu has announced plans to establish a Euro23.0m grinding plant at Portes-lès-Valence in Drôme department. The La Tribune newspaper has reported that the plant will receive imported clinker produced at Adana Çimento’s 5.2Mt/yr integrated Adana plant in Turkey by river and rail from the port of Sète. Cem’In’Eu president and Vincent Lefebvre said that the location “allows us to be in the middle of a Lyon-Marseille-Montpellier triangle but also to be connected to the Alpine valleys.”

The grinding plant is due for commissioning in mid-July 2021, however the coronavirus has delayed the start of construction.

Switzerland: LafargeHolcim has reported sales of Euro5.03bn in the first quarter of 2020, down by 11% year-on-year from Euro5.66bn in the corresponding period of 2019. Cement sales over the period fell by 10% year-on-year to 45.0Mt from 50.0Mt. The group’s earnings before interest and taxation (EBIT) was Euro249m, down by 14% from Euro290m.

LafargeHolcim CEO Jan Jenisch said that the results showed the group’s ‘resilience, despite the COVID-19 outbreak in China’ in January 2020. Other markets were disrupted from mid-March. “I am confident that LafargeHolcim will emerge from this pandemic as an important contributor to economic recovery as building activity gets back to normal,” he added.

LafargeHolcim’s coronavirus action plan consists of a Euro380m year-on-year capex reduction, a Euro285m year-on-year fixed cost reduction, realisation of energy price reductions, a review of all third party products and services and a reduction of net working capital in line with the level of activity.