UK: Breedon Group’s revenue grew by 32% year-on-year to Euro1bn in 2018 from Euro759m. Its profit rose by 13% to Euro75.2 from Euro66.3m. It sold 2Mt of cement and its ready-mixed concrete sales fell slightly to 3.2Mm³.

“We can be justifiably proud of our results. We outperformed the Great Britain market in sales volumes of all our key products, grew our revenues and underlying earning before interest and tax (EBIT), and once again generated strong cashflow, enabling us to pay down a material proportion of our post-Lagan debt by the year-end,” said executive chairman Peter Tom.

The building materials manufacturer said that the integration of Lagan Cement into the group enabled it to export cement from Kinnegad in Ireland to the UK. In early 2019 it intends to import cement from Kinnegad to a new terminal in Runcorn. Investments in the reporting year included an expansion of its transport fleet in the UK, a new mobile plant at its Hope quarry and the next stage of a four-year project to replace plant control systems at the Hope cement plant. Its single largest investment in 2019 will be the replacement of the raw mill drive at the Hope plant.

Breedon Group operates two cement plants, around 80 quarries, 40 asphalt plants, around 170 ready-mixed concrete and mortar plants, nine concrete and clay products plants, four contract surfacing businesses, six terminals and two slate production facilities. It employs nearly 3000 people and has nearly 900Mt of mineral reserves and resources.

Spain: Oficemen the Spanish cement association has blamed falling cement exports in 2018 on rising electricity and CO₂ emissions prices. The association said the European Union CO₂ price tripled to Euro24.60/t at the end of 2018 from Euro7.80/t at the start of the year, with an average price of Euro16.00/t of cement. Exports fell by 12% year-on-year to 8.1Mt in the 11 months of the end of November 2018. Cement consumption grew by 8% year-on-year to 13.4Mt in 2018. It forecasts growth of 3 – 6% in 2019.

France: Eric Olsen, the former human resources chief of Lafarge says that charges of financing a terrorist organisation by have been dropped against him. French prosecutors have been investigating Lafarge’s conduct in Syria, according to the Agence France Presse. In late 2017 Olsen and two other former executives were charged with ‘financing a terrorist organisation’ and ‘endangering the lives of others’. The second charge still stands against Olsen although he is reportedly challenging it.

The investigation is attempting to determine whether LafargeHolcim’s predecessor company Lafarge Syria paid terrorist groups in Syria during its civil war and how much managers knew about the situation.

Oman: Raysut Cement’s sales revenue rose by 27% year-on-year to US$236m in 2018 from US$187m in 2017. However, its operating profit fell by 85% to US$7.02m from US$17.5m. It blamed this on lower prices due to imports from the UAE, higher packaging costs, higher shipping costs and other general costs. Its cement sales volumes increased by 13% to 3.33Mt from 2.94Mt. The cement producer noted that excess production capacity in the UAE reduced prices in that country as well as in northern Oman.

Nigeria: Aliko Dangote, the president of Dangote Cement, says that his company is targeting exports of US$600m/yr to sub-Saharan Africa. He made the comments at the Dangote Cement Distributors’ Award Night in Lagos, according to the Nigerian Guardian newspaper. He added that Dangote Cement will become the largest exporter of cement in the region in 2019. It plans to focus on African countries with limited limestone reserves. The company is building new terminals at Onne and in Lagos. He also expressed hope that congestion at the Port of Apapa would be cleared soon to help the company meet its export targets.

Kenya: Trade and Industrialisation Cabinet Secretary Peter Munya says that the government has started work on a rescue strategy for the East African Portland Cement (EAPCC). It has conducted due diligence to reduce the company’s losses and looked into changing the management and upgrading its Athi River plant, according to the Standard newspaper. The cement producer reported a US$12m loss in the half year to 31 December 2018. It also has debts of US$108m.

The EAPCC is planning to sell land it owns for up to US$150m but the government does not believe that this will be sufficient to revive the company. It is currently operating at 50% of its production capacity due to financial restraints. It also plans to further reduce its workforce to cut costs.

South Africa: Sephaku Cement’s revenue fell by 3.1% year-on-year to US$161m in 2018 from US$167m in 2017. Its net profit dropped by 19% to US$3.3m from US$4.07m. The subsidiary of Nigeria’s Dangote Cement said that the general poor economy in the country led to an estimate 5 – 10% decline in industry sales volumes. It blamed ‘intense’ competition between clinker grinding plants, producers and importers. Its sales volumes of cement fell by 6.4%.

Egypt: Suez Cement’s sales rose by 15% year-on-year for Euro375m in 2018 from US$326m in 2017. It reported a profit of Euro6.14m in 2018 compared to a loss of Euro57.2m in 2017, according to Mubasher.

Philippines: Eagle Cement says that it is not involved in any discussion for the acquisition of Holcim Philippines. However, it did say that its chairman Ramon S Ang had expressed interest in a potential purchase of the subsidiary of LafargeHolcim. Eagle Cement made the announcement following local media reports that Ang had formally submitted a bid to buy Holcim Philippines. In January 2019 LafargeHolcim was said to be to be considering selling its business in the country.

Kenya: ARM Cement has extended its bidding period to mid-march 2019 following requests by potential buyers. Administrator PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), which took over the cement producer in August 2018, originally set the deadline to the end of February 2019, according to the Business Daily newspaper. Bidders have asked for a longer period to complete due diligence tests and decide what they think the value of the company is.

14 companies have already made non-binding bids for the cement producer. These will later be shortlisted before a winning bidder is selected. No bidders have publicly been announced but Nigeria’s Dangote Cement and Oman’s Raysut Cement are believed to be interested, according to local media.