Displaying items by tag: coronavirus

Uzbekistan: Imported cement has begun to enter Uzbekistan after the government ended a ban on the ‘import of cement products’ on 23 May 2020. Uzbekistan Daily News has reported that the protectionist measure was lifted due to a spike in cement demand from the construction sector following an easing in the country’s coronavirus lockdown.

India: Birla Corporation has recorded a consolidated net profit of US$25.8m over the three months ending 31 March 2020, the fourth quarter of the Indian fiscal year 2020, up by 52% year-on-year from US$16.9m in the fourth quarter of the fiscal year 2019. Sales were US$223m, down by 5.5% from US$247m. This was due to the impacts of the coronavirus outbreak, which ended dispatches from late March 2020.

Birla Corporation said, “Despite muted market conditions, the company was able to raise price realisation through judicious adjustment of geographic and product mix aimed at increasing the share of blended and premium cements.”

Birla Corporation’s full year net profit for the fiscal year 2020 was a record US$66.7m, nearly doubling from US$33.7m in the fiscal year 2019.

Vietnam: Producers sold 29.2Mt of cement between 1 January and 30 April 2020, down by 7% year-on-year from 27.3Mt over the corresponding period of 2019. The Vietnam National Cement Corporation (VICEM) has reported that domestic sales fell by 4% to 19.3Mt (66% of total sales) and exports fell by 11% to 9.90Mt (34%), according to the Việt Nam News newspaper. April 2020 cement sales were just 8.08Mt, including 2.42Mt of exports, due to the effects of the coronavirus lockdown on cement demand from construction.

Japan: Sumitomo Osaka Cement’s net profit in the fiscal year that ended on 31 March 2020 was US$102m, up by 40% year-on-year from US$72.7m in the fiscal year 2019. Sales fell by 2.4% to US$2.28bn from US$2.34bn. This was due to the collapse in cement demand following the coronavirus state of emergency declared in Tokyo and six other prefectures on 7 April 2020.

Brazil: Votorantim Cimentos recorded a loss of US$68.4m in the first quarter of 2020 compared to a loss of US$2.71m in the corresponding period of 2019. However, sales rose by 2.4% year-on-year to US$465m from US$454m.

Votorantim Cimentos said that it is ‘closely monitoring the situation’ resulting from the coronavirus outbreak and is ready ‘to institute new measures should they be needed.’ It said that it has ‘a solid liquidity position, reinforced by available revolving credit facilities, amounting to US$500m.’

“The company is in a strong position to combat the impacts of the COVID-19 crisis,” it said.

India: JK Lakshmi Cement’s profit in the first three months of 2020, the fourth quarter of the Indian fiscal year 2020, was US$13.0m, up by 150% year-on-year from US$5.21m in the corresponding period of 2019. Sales were US$151m, down by 11% year-on-year from US$169m. The Press Trust of India has reported that the coronavirus outbreak had a ‘marginal impact’ on the results.

JK Lakshmi Cement said, “The company's concerted efforts in improving product mix, market optimisation, enhancing the premium products sales, reducing logistic costs and improving plant efficiency parameters enabled the company to post better returns. Softening of petcoke prices also helped the company to improve its margins.”

India: UltraTech Cement’s sales have been negatively affected by coronavirus-related lockdowns in the fourth quarter of its financial year. Its net sales fell by 13% year-on-year to US$1.40bn in the quarter to 31 March 2020 from US$1.61bn in the same period in 2019. The cement producer was forced to shut down certain plants in March 2020, usually one of the busiest months of the year. Plants started to reopen in late April 2020.

The cement producer’s annual net sales rose slightly to US$5.48bn in the financial year to 31 March 2020. Its profit before interest, depreciation and tax (PBIDT) grew by 27% year-on-year to US$1.31bn from US$1.03bn. It also reported that it reduced its net debt and earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) ratio to 1.7 from 2.83.

Nigeria: Lafarge Africa says it is preparing for reduced revenue in the second quarter of 2020 due to subdued activity in the construction sector caused by lockdown measures related to the coronavirus outbreak. Its revenue grew by 10% year-on-year to US$164m in the first quarter of 2020 from US$149m in the same period in 2019. Its profit after tax more than doubled to US$20.8m. First quarter sales were driven by growing cement sales that compensated for slowing aggregate and concrete sales. Managing director Khaled El Dokani said that despite, short-term disruptions due to the epidemic, the subsidiary of LafargeHolcim was confident of the resilience of its business.

Zimbabwe: Lafarge Cement Zimbabwe has predicted a 30% year-on-year decline in sales volumes in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic. All Africa News has reported that Lafarge Cement Zimbabwe is expecting to rely on foreign investment-led projects to stimulate a base level of cement demand to sustain the company’s operations.

Lafarge Cement Zimbabwe said, "The ripple effects of the lockdown and border closures are still to be fully quantified, but the business expects to continue to feel the effects of the COVID-19 outbreak into the second half of 2020."

Peru: Cementos Pacasmayo has reported a first-quarter profit of US$3.14m in the first quarter of 2020, down by 65% year-on-year from US$7.00m in the same period of 2019. Sales fell by 4.4% year-on-year to US$87.9m, from US$92.0m. Despite having increased by 13% year-on-year in the first two months of 2020, cement, concrete and precast sales volumes fell by 6.0% to US$81.5m from US$86.7m.

Cementos Pacasmayo said that it has suspended all production and sale of its products since 16 March 2020 in response to the national state of emergency due to the coronavirus outbreak. It said, “We are unsure when operations will be allowed to restart.”