India: UltraTech Cement has received US$94.6m-worth in commitments on a planned sale of its commercial papers. Reuters News has reported that the papers will reach maturity in November 2022.

Germany: Loesche has published its Sustainability Report of its performance in 2021. The supplier’s Scope 1 and 2 CO₂ emissions declined by 6.1% year-on-year to 229t from 244t in 2020 and by 19% over the two years from 2019, when they totalled 282t. It reduced the share of Scope 2 emissions in the figure to 40% from 41% in 2020 and 45% in 2019.

Loesche offers emissions-reducing products to the global cement industry under the label Greenkey Solutions. These include its A/Fuel and H/combust ranges for alternative fuels and green hydrogen upgrades, its C/Clay range for clay calcining and grinding, its Digital/Ready 4.0! range for predictive process optimisation and smart asset management, its E/Slag range for ground granulated blast furnace slag upgrades and its S/Crete range for waste concrete recycling, as well as audits for retrofits. Together, Loesche says that its products can reduce the global cement sector’s carbon footprint by 90%. Within this, Loesche believes that calcined clay technology alone can reduce cement’s CO₂ emissions by 40% and its energy demand by 21%.

Loesche said that its launch during the year of its H₂Optimum grinding bed spraying system can reduce grinding mills’ water consumption by 50%.

Philippines: Holcim Philippines has launched its ECOPlanet 30% reduced-CO₂ cement range in the city of Davao on Mindanao. The producer also introduced its Balik-Plastic waste cement bag recycling programme, offering a collection service to customers in order to reuse waste bags as alternative fuels and raw materials in cement production at its Davao plant.

Canada: Lafarge Canada has installed its first electric vehicle charging stations at its Kent Avenue ready-mix concrete batching plant in Vancouver, British Columbia. The company’s Vancouver team built the four stations with US$39,200 in funding from Lafarge Canada and US$15,700 in funding from BC Hydro’s CleanBC Go Electric Vehicle charger rebate programme. Dow Jones Institutional News has reported that the company plans to establish 96 further stations at 30 sites in British Columbia, Alberta, Manitoba and Saskatchewan. It says that the electric vehicle charging network will enable it to eliminate 188t of CO₂ emissions by 2028.

Lafarge Western Canada chief executive officer Brad Kohl said "We are thrilled that Western Canada has opened the first electric vehicle charging stations to kick-start this exciting effort planned across our Canada operations to advance our goal of net-zero as part of our environmental commitments."

Second quarter results have been released for many of the European-based cement producers, so we’ll take a look at how they are doing so far in 2022. The general trend for the companies sampled here is that revenue is up, cement sales volumes are down and earnings are varied. Added to this, ready-mixed concrete (RMC) and aggregate sales volumes have risen for most of these organisations. Each producer did well in the US, less well in Europe and differently elsewhere. Concurrently, input costs for raw materials, energy and logistics have been rising and this has been passed on to consumers fairly consistently as price rises.

Graph 1: Sales revenue for selected European-based multinational cement producers in the first half of 2022. Source: Company financial reports.

Graph 2: Cement sales volumes for selected European-based multinational cement producers in the first half of 2022. Source: Company financial reports.

Graph 3: Ready-mixed concrete sales volumes for selected European-based multinational cement producers in the first half of 2022. Source: Company financial reports.

Holcim is currently in a state of transition with responses from regulators on big divestments in India and Brazil expected in the second half of 2022 alongside its diversification into light building materials. Both North America and Europe did well for the group in the first half of 2022, particularly the former, where cement sales volumes rose, unlike the other regions. Asia Pacific was more problematic with inflation and pricing issues reported. Cement demand was also said to be ‘softer’ in China and the Philippines compared to the first half of 2021. The region’s recurring earnings before interest and taxation (EBIT) also fell.

HeidelbergCement’s half-year results were less upbeat with cement sales volumes down by 2.6% on a like-for-like basis, RMC sales volumes stable and aggregates sales volumes up by 1.7%. One point to note here is that HeidelbergCement divested its business in the western US in late 2021 and the graphs above do not show like-for-like changes. However, one reason for the dour tone was that higher input costs had led to a 11.4% drop in the group’s result from current operations before depreciation and amortisation (RCOBD) to Euro€1.53bn. It blamed this on its inability to raise prices sufficiently to counter ‘significantly’ higher costs of energy and transport.

Cemex benefitted from its strong presence in the Americas but even this wasn’t enough to shield it from the negative effect upon earnings of higher energy costs and supply chain disruptions. So, net sales increased in Mexico and the US but operating earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) fell. In Mexico this was blamed on a higher base for comparison in 2021. In the US a declining EBITDA margin was attributed to higher energy costs and supply chain headwinds from maintenance, imports and logistics. Interestingly though, Cemex managed to raise both sales and earnings in its Europe, Middle East, Africa and Asia despite cement sales volumes slipping. It said it was able to do this due to well executed price rises.

Buzzi Unicem reported growth in sales revenue and earnings despite falling cement sales volumes. It attributed this to a ‘strong’ increase in prices. However, it noted that the mounting energy costs had contributed to a decline in its EBITDA margin. Deliveries for the half-year grew in the US, Central Europe, Poland and the Czech Republic. They fell in Italy and, unsurprisingly, Ukraine. Also, despite the growth in deliveries in Poland and the Czech Republic in the reporting period, Buzzi Unicem said that a slowdown in Europe had become evident in the second quarter of 2022 and was particularly evident in Italy, Poland and the Czech Republic. In Ukraine the group reported that activity had resumed at its Volyn plant in the north-west of the country following the Russian invasion in February 2022. The Nikolayev plant, in the south, though continued to remain idle. Sales volumes halved in the country year-on-year. Given the circumstances it seems amazing that they didn’t fall by more frankly.

Finally, Vicat had a tougher time of it than some of the other companies featured here. Its sales revenue grew significantly, as a result of higher prices, but earnings tumbled. The latter was blamed on a high base for comparison in the first half of 2021 and the energy situation. A few non-recurring capital intensive projects at various plants, including the start-up of the Ragland plant’s new kiln in the US, didn’t help either.

Much of the above leaves an uncertain outlook for the second half of 2022. All of the cement producers here expect to increase their sales revenue and raise their prices. Most of them though are rather more circumspect or downright pessimistic about what the state of their earnings will be. The companies covered here are multinational but with a focus on Europe and the US. We have omitted plenty of regional producers elsewhere around the world in this roundup that have already published their results, such as India-based UltraTech Cement or Nigeria-based Dangote Cement. The other big market that is missing is China, where the producers are mostly yet to publish their half-year results. We will return to cover these topics in future weeks.

Oman: Ghose Jotirmoy Pratul Krishna has resigned as the chief executive officer of Raysut Cement. The company will announce the appointment of his successor from mid-August 2022. In a statement the cement producer said that recent news circulating on social media had nothing to do with it or its subsidiaries and that the situation referred to a time before the executive joined the company in late 2017. It added that its current CEO was currently in Oman. Ghose was previously the managing director of Binani Cement in India.

US: Taiheiyo Cement subsidiary CalPortland has concluded a deal with Martin Marietta Materials for the acquisition of the latter's Tehachapi cement plant in California for US$250m. The deal also covers two business centres.

Taiheiyo Cement said "We expect the US cement business to continue to have strong demand from the private sector in view of projected economic growth and chronic housing shortages going forward. Additionally, we expect the infrastructure demands to accelerate as a result of the passing of the more than US$1tn infrastructure investment bill by the US Congress. Further, California is likely to have even greater growth because it will host the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics. The planned acquisition of Martin Marietta Materials' assets is intended to ensure that we capture this increased demand. It is an essential element in maximising our future corporate value."

Colombia: Cementos Argos recorded sales of US$1.26bn in the first half of 2022, up by 13% year-on-year from US$1.11bn in the first half of 2021. Its earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) fell by 16% to US$221m from US$264m. The group's US sales accounted for 62% of its revenues during the six-month period. They rose by 5.4% year-on-year to US$776m from US$736m in the first half of 2021. Cementos Argos' US business' EBITDA fell by 25% to US$133m from US$177m. Colombia contributed sales of US$304m, 24% of group revenues, up by 15% year-on-year from US$263m in the first half of 2021.

Cementos Argos' first-half 2022 cement sales totaled 8.17Mt, down by 5.2% from 8.62Mt in the first half of 2021. Its US cement volumes fell by 1.2% to 3.06Mt, its Colombian cement volumes by 6.2% to 2.98Mt and its Caribbean and Central America cement volumes by 22% to 2.13Mt.

Chief executive officer Juan Estaban Calle said "We are convinced of the great opportunity that lies ahead to lead the industry in sustainability and generate greater value for our shareholders and all stakeholders. The calcined clay pilot that we are starting in the USA is another important milestone in our roadmap to produce carbon-neutral concrete by 2050. The results of the second quarter were very positive both in terms of revenue growth and volumes, driven, mainly, by the solidity of demand in the US and the good dynamics of the Colombian economy amidst a challenging situation of high inflation and increase in interest rates."

Saudi Arabia: Southern Province Cement's first-half 2022 sales were US$150m, down by 42% year-on-year from US$193m. Increased operating costs diminished the company's net profit by 42% from US$68.4m to US$39.9m.

India: Gujarat Sidhee Cement has stopped production at its Sidheegram cement plant in Gujarat for at least one week. The producer will use the suspension for repair and maintenance of the plant.