Displaying items by tag: delay

Bolivia: Antonio Pino, Vice Minister of Hydrocarbons, says that a new gas pipeline will have to be built to supply the Potosí cement plant at Chiutara. This may delay the start of the new plant to as late as early 2022, according to the El Potosí newspaper. The 1.3Mt/yr integrated unit was previously planned to start operation in February 2020.

The project was supported by the country’s previous government administration through the creation of Empresa Publica Productiva Cementos de Bolivia (ECEBOL. The plant is being built by Sociedad Accidental Imasa Polysius, a joint venture created by Polysius and Imasa.

India: The India Cements, south India's largest cement maker by volume, has stated that it may have to delay its planned capital expenditure projects, if the Indian economy continues its relative ‘slump.’ The company’s proposed projects include an investment of US$195m on a greenfield plant in Madhya Pradesh and a grinding plant in Uttar Pradesh.

India is going through what many consider to be a ‘unprecedented’ economic slowdown following GDP growth of ‘a mere 5% in the third quarter of 2019, a six year low. This has led to a slowdown in government spending, directly affecting cement consumption and capacity utilisation rate at The India Cements’ plants.

“We may hold back capital expenditure," said N Srinivasan, the company’s Vice Chairman and Managing Director. “I want to expand. I want to go there, but I want to be sure before I go!"

India: UltraTech Cement’s net sales grew by 15% year-on-year to US$1.42bn in the quarter to 30 June 2019 from US$1.23bn in the same period in 2018. Its profit before interest, depreciation and tax rose by 61% to US$402m from US$250m. Its local sales volumes increased by 3% to 17.3Mt from 16.8Mt but exports fell by 7% to 0.6Mt from 0.65Mt.

It said that it had fully integrated its UltraTech Nathdwara Cement subsidiary with its systems and processes. The plants it acquired from Jaiprakash Associations in June 2017 were operating in line with its existing plants and had achieved break-even profit before tax during the reporting quarter. The commissioning of its 4Mt/yr Bara grinding plant in Madhya Pradesh has been delayed to late 2019.

Philippines: Eagle Cement says that the opening of its new Malabuyoc integrated 2Mt/yr plant in Cebu has been delayed by six months to mid-2021. The new unit had been scheduled to start operation in late 2020, according to the BusinessWorld newspaper. The holdup has been blamed on delays in obtaining permits for the project. However, the company intends to start selling cement in the Visayas region by the end of 2020 as originally promised.

John Paul L Ang, the president and chief executive Officer (CEO) of Eagle Cement, made the comments at the cement producer’s annual stockholders' meeting. Work on the new plant started in late 2017. Once complete the new line will bring the company’s total cement production capacity to 9.1Mt/yr. The project also includes port facilities and cement terminals that will serve markets in Visayas and Mindanao. Eagle Cement also operates an integrated plant at San Ildefonso, Bulacan and a grinding plant at Bataan.

UAE: RAK Cement has postponed its acquisition of Newtech cement and the Al banna quarry due to incomplete financing. It previously announced the purchase in late February 2019. It planned to buy the assets for around US$123m.

Kazakhstan: The Rudny cement plant plans to start production in early December 2018. Arkhimed Mukhambetov, governor of the Kostanay region, attended the launch ceremony of the unit, according to the Trend News Agency. It has reportedly had a total investment of US$100, double the previous amount published in local media. The 0.5Mt/yr plant has been postponed several times since 2010 due to a lack of finance. The company’s director, Artem Maklasov, said that a consignment of up to 0.3Mt of cement from the plant will be sold to Ufa in Russia. Subsequently, cement from the plant will be sold in Kostanay region and in southern Russia.

Brazil: Votorantim Cimentos, Brazil's largest producer of cement and other construction materials, is still evaluating its production loss after a recent 11 day truck drivers' strike, as well as calculating the impact of minimum freight prices. Brazil’s cement sector is highly dependent on road transport, with 96% of total shipments leaving plants by road, around 54Mt/yr.

"(The strike) will certainly impact the company's annual production," Walter Dissinger, Votorantim Cimentos president said. He added that Votorantim’s cement sales fell nearly 20% in May.

Venezuela: Production at FMC Venezolana’s Pertigalete plant has dropped to 30% while repair work is being unertaken on its line 6. The production line was orignally shut down in February 2018 for upgrades to its filters, according to the El Tiempo newspaper. However the maintenance work has been delayed while the plant waits for a crane. At present only line 7 is operational at the site.

Kazakhstan: The opening of the Rudny Cement plant has been delayed to 2018. The regional government said that the US$44m project is in the final stage of completion, according to Interfax. The 0.5Mt/yr plant has been postponed several times since 2010 due to a lack of finance. The most recent plan was to start production by the end of 2017.

Saudi Arabia: The Arabian Cement Company (ACC) says that the construction of new cement mills at its Rabigh plant has been delayed to the third quarter of 2018 from the fourth quarter of 2017. The delay has been blamed on, “…the contractor's failure to comply with the timetable.” The second-phase of the project, to build a new clinker production line, is under review. The cement mill order was placed with China National Building Material (CNBM) in 2015.