Global Cement News

Canada: A man has died after falling nearly 10m from a catwalk at Lafarge Canada’s Beachville limestone quarry near Woodstock, Ontario on 23 August 2017. Walter Nuvoloni, 47, was a long-standing purchasing manager at the company. He had been in the position since 2001.

"This is a very difficult and tragic incident and we are deeply saddened at the loss of our colleague,” said Karine Cousineau, Lafarge spokesperson, in a statement. “Our thoughts are with our colleague's friends and family. Lafarge is providing the support of our employee assistance program to help co-workers cope with the loss." Cousineau added that Lafarge Canada would not be commenting further on Nuvoloni's death.

Police initially held the scene before turning over the investigation to the Ontario Ministry of Labour, which is investigating the death. Ontario Provincial Police Constable Stacey Culbert told local press that the ministry will re-contact police if the investigation deems any action to be criminal.

There is plenty to mull over on the Chinese cement market at the moment as the half-year reports for the major cement producers are being published. Anhui Conch revealed this week a glowing balance sheet with a 33% jump in its sales revenue to US$4.79bn. It attributed the boost to a ‘significant’ increase in prices and continued discipline with production and operation costs. Although CNBM is scheduled to release its results at the end of August 2017, Anhui Conch appear to be well ahead of its next largest rivals locally as can be seen in Graph 1.

Graph 1: Sales revenue of major selected Chinese cement producers. Sources: Company financial results.

Beyond the headline figures it is interesting to pinpoint the areas in China where Anhui Conch says it isn’t doing as well. Its South China region, comprising Guangdong and Guangxi provinces, suffered from competition in the form of new production capacity, which also in turn dented prices. Despite this ‘black spot’ in the company’s regional revenue still grew its sales in double-digits by 14%.

The other point to note is the growing number of overseas projects with the completion of a cement grinding plant in Indonesia, new plants being built in Indonesia, Cambodia and Laos, and projects being actively planned in Russia, Laos and Myanmar. The cement producer also opened seven grinding plants at home in China during the reporting period. It’s not there yet but it will mark a serious tipping point when the company starts to open more plants outside of China than within it. With the government still pushing for production capacity reduction it can only be a matter of time. On that last point China Resources Cement (CRC) reckoned in its half-year results that only four new clinker production lines, with a production capacity of 5.1Mt/yr, were opened in China in the first half of 2017.

After a testing year in 2016 CRC’s turnover has picked up so far in the first-half of 2017 as its sales revenue for the period rose by 17% to US$1.67bn. Despite its cement sales volumes falling by 9% to 33.6Mt, its price increased. Given that over two thirds of its cement sales arose from Guangdong and Guangxi it seems likely that CRC suffered from the same competition issues that Anhui Conch complained about.

Graph 2: Chinese cement production by half year, 2014 – 2017. Source: National Bureau of Statistics of China.

Graph 2 adds to the picture of a resurgent local cement industry suggesting that the Chinese government’s response to the overcapacity crisis may be starting to deliver growth again. After cement production hit a high in 2014 in fell in 2015 and started to revive in 2016. So far 2017 seems to be following this trend.

Returning to the foreign ambitions of China’s cement producers brings up another story from this week with news about the Nepalese government’s decision to delay signed an investment agreement with a Chinese joint venture that is currently building a cement plant in the country. With the prime minister visiting India the local press is painting it as a face-saving move by the Nepalese to avoid antagonising either of the country’s main infrastructure partners. This is relevant because the cement industries of both China and India are starting look abroad as they consolidate and rationalise. Once China’s cement producer start building more capacity overseas than at home, conflicts with Indian producers are likely to grow and present more awkward situations for states caught in the middle.

US: Ash Grove Cement has announced that its Chief Operating Officer J Randall Vance has been promoted to Chief Executive Officer. Charles Sunderland, who has held both the chairman and CEO titles, will remain as chairman of the Overland Park-based company.

Vance joined Ash Grove in 2011 as Chief Financial Officer, according to a release. In 2014, he was named as president and COO, filling a position that had been vacant since the death of Charles Wiedenhoft in 2010.

South Africa: PPC has appointed Njombo Lekula as the managing director of its Sothern Africa Cement division. The appointment is part of a number of changes to the cement producer’s executive team that have been announced in an operational update for its first financial quarter that ended on 30 June 2017. Mokate Ramafoko has also been appointed as the managing director of the Rest of Africa Cement division and Matodzi Mukwevho has been appointed as the group executive finance and business support officer in support of the chief finance officer.

Previously, Lekula was the managing director for PPC Zimbabwe following his appointment in 2013. An engineer by profession he studied chemical engineering and holds a Masters in Business Administration from the University of Stellenbosch Business School.

Ramafoko holds over 23 years of experience in the cement in the cement manufacturing, quality assurance and cement process optimisation industries. He has held various leadership positions in PPC, including working for Cimerwa in Rwanda, as well positions with Holcim South Africa. He holds a Master’s degree in Business Administration, a BSc and BSc (Hons) Metallurgy.

Mukwevho has held various positions including that of chief finance officer (CFO) at Sasol International Energy responsible for South Africa, Nigeria, Qatar, India and Uzbekistan. He also held the position of CFO at Sasol Polymers in South Africa, Iran, Malaysia, China, Hong Kong and UAE. Matodzi holds a Master’s of Business Administration and is a chartered accountant.

India: Manish Bhatia has been appointed as the chief financial officer of Prism Cement. He succeeds Pramod K Akhramka who has resigned from the company. Bhatia holds over 20 years experience in corporate finance.