Displaying items by tag: market

Poland: Denmark-based chain specialist ScanChain has announced that it will be producing and distributing chains from a new facility located in Poznan in the province of Greater Poland. The company says it has ended its partnership with a partial ownership by UK-based John King Chains.

Scan Chain said “Over the past three years we have seen a great growth in new markets. We are pleased that both ScanChain and John King Chains wish to establish a strong link going forward.”

Panama: Guatemala-based Cemento Progreso, which acquired Cemento Interoceanico on 21 November 2019, has shared plans to expand its 0.25Mt/yr La Chorrera plant to 0.3Mt/yr production capacity. Noticias Financieras News has reported that the company will also establish three new concrete plants, in David, Chiriquí province, Columbus, Columbus province, and Tocumen, Panama province. Through these it hopes to serve major infrastructure projects such as the construction of a fourth Panama canal bridge and to increase its cement market share from 10%.

Madagascar: Oman-based Raysut Cement has shared plans for a US$30m, 0.75Mt/yr clinker grinding plant in Toamasina, Madagascar. L’Express de Madagascar newspaper has reported that Raysut Cement will begin construction in June 2020 and enter production at the facility in mid-2022 at the latest. Raysut Cement Indian Ocean regional director Pascal Naud said, “Madagascar’s pre-capita cement consumption is around 22kg/yr, compared to 125kg/yr on average in sub-Saharan countries. It is therefore a market with high potential for this investment.”

On 2 February 2020 Raysut Cement entered into talks with Switzerland-based Cementia for acquisition of the latter’s 75% stake in the latter’s LH Maldives cement terminal. The group said it is currently ‘developing an external growth strategy by investing in several African countries such as Kenya and Uganda.’

Switzerland: LafargeHolcim has announced a Euro1.95bn profit in 2019, up by 32% from Euro1.48bn in 2018. The profit was a company record, made possible by ‘lower restructuring costs and financial expenses,’ according to LafargeHolcim CEO Jan Jenisch. Sales were Euro25.1bn, up by 3.1% from Euro24.4bn, ‘driven by good growth in Europe and North America, good price dynamics across all business segments and higher prices in most markets,’ according to Jenisch. “We have achieved all our targets for 2019 and have moved our company to a new level of performance,” he said.

Kenya: Devki Group subsidiary National Cement has launched its second Kenyan plant in Salgaa in Nakuru county at a cost of US$58.0m. Business Daily News has reported that the 0.75Mt integrated plant will supply cement to Kenya, South Sudan and southern Ethiopia.

Devki Group chairman Narendra Raval said that the completion of a 0.75Mt/yr second line at National Cement’s 1.2Mt/yr Kajiado County plant would bring the group’s total capacity to 3.5Mt/yr in July 2020, in a speech in which he lobbied the government to ban clinker imports. “We are gearing towards fixing the country’s clinker gap and making Kenya a regional market for raw material in cement production,” said Raval. The group also produces its Simba brand cement in Uganda.

Colombia: Switzerland-based construction materials producer Sika has invested an undisclosed sum in relocating production from a concrete admixture and mortar plant in Colombia to a larger facility in Barranquilla. Sika Americas regional manager Christopher Ganz said, “Our latest investment in Barranquilla will help us capture the potential of the dynamic construction market in the Caribbean region. Our aim is to grow more quickly than the construction market in this region.” The market grew by 15% in 2019.

Sika also manufactures building products for the Colombian market at facilities in Bogotá, Medellín and Duitama.

India: Market researcher Fortune Business Insights has forecasted market growth of 5.2% in the cement industry to US$463bn in 2026 from US$313bn in 2019. It conjectured that global improvements in road quality and investments in high-grade products will drive growing demand. The industry will meet this demand through advances in cement production and a reduction in the number of companies consolidating operations.

In India, the government’s ‘Housing for All by 2020’ scheme is set to kick-start consumption.

Fortune Business Insights' report is available here.

Zambia: Jimmy Khan, the chief executive officer (CEO) of Lafarge Zambia, has complained about production overcapacity and competition to the president of Zambia. He said that local cement consumption is 2.2Mt/yr compared to production of 5Mt/yr, according to the Lusaka Times newspaper. He made the visit to the president of the country to inform him of a 25% rise in the price of cement. Khan blamed the price hike on business losses.

However, Khan praised the government for its infrastructure development and said that the subsidiary of LafargeHolcim has moved much of its despatches from road to railway. At present the cement producer has a 33% market share. It also intends to continue using the Mpulungu Port in Northern Province to export cement to the east African market.

Bolivia: Fábrica Nacional de Cemento (Fancesa) plans to target markets in La Paz and Cochabamba. It will open agencies in the locations in early 2019, according to the Correo del Sur newspaper. The cement producer operates a plant at Sucre in the south of the country.

Spain: Jesús Ortiz, the president of Oficemen the Spanish cement association, forecasts that exports of cement will drop by 20% year-on-year in 2019. He has blamed the situation on high electricity prices, according to the El Economista newspaper. He predicts that the local industry will have a capacity utilisation rate of 53% in 2019. He added that residential house construction was growing, but that the share of non-residential building had fallen.