Namibia: The Mineworkers Union of Namibia (MUN) and Cheetah Cement yesterday reached a wage agreement to end a strike that has crippled the company’s Otjiwarongo plant for the past three months. A total of 80 Cheetah Cement’s employees, which is the trading name of the Chinese-owned company Whale Rock Cement (WRC), had been striking after the company and the MUN failed to reach an agreement in negotiations about wage increases and improved conditions of service.

The agreement will see all workers receive a 5% increase in salary, as well as a 5% increase in housing allowances. “We would like to place on record that the company's generous offer is not based on an admission of affordability but rather a commitment to bring an end to the prolonged wage dispute,” said WRC’s general manager Kevin Lee said in a statement.

Other increases include the company paying 80% of employees’ medical aid contributions, the introduction of a new pension fund in January 2023 and back-pay for 12 months at employees’ new rates, to be paid by the company within 14 days.

France: Vicat’s revenue in the first nine months of 2022 came to Euro2.70bn, a 15% rise year-on-year compared to Euro2.35bn in the same period in 2021. Its revenues in France rose by 8% to Euro889m from Euro824m. Its revenue in the rest of Europe fell by 4.5% to Euro288m from Euro301m. In the Americas, Vicat’s revenues increased by 27% to Euro637m from Euro500m, while they rose even more dramatically across the Mediterranean rim, up by 57% from Euro166m to Euro260m. In Africa revenues came to Euro245m, broadly unchanged on the year. In its Asia region, including Kazakhstan and India, its revenues rose by 18% to Euro376m from Euro320m.

The group’s sales volumes of cement fell by 5% to 20.3Mt from 21.3Mt. However, price rises enabled it to increase its operational revenue by 18% to Euro1.69bn from Euro1.43bn. Similarly, concrete sales volumes fell by 4.8% to 7.48Mm3 but operational sales rose by 16% to Euro1.04bn.

Guy Sidos, the group's chair and chief executive officer said "Vicat's nine-month sales performance reflects the resilience of its markets despite a high basis of comparison in 2021. Against a backdrop of very high inflation, the group's sales posted a solid increase compared with the same period of 2021, supported by strong growth in selling prices across all its regions. In a global environment that provides little short-term visibility, especially regarding energy costs, we are executing our strategy to improve our industrial performance, make greater use of secondary fuels, reduce our carbon footprint and implement a pricing policy tailored to these new conditions."

Vicat announced that it expects its overall earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) to be lower in 2022 as a whole than in 2021 but comparable to 2020.

India: Birla Corporation has recorded a net loss of US$6.8m in the three months to 30 September 2022, against a net profit of US$10.6m in the same period in 2021. The company's bottom line was impacted by higher interest and depreciation costs on account of its integrated Mukutban cement plant, which cost US$336m. When scaled up to full capacity, the Mukutban plant will increase the company's production capacity to 20Mt/yr.

Even with a double-digit growth in cement sales by volume, Birla Corporation's third quarter profits were impaired by a sharp rise in power and fuel costs, which could not be passed on to consumers in the seasonally weak monsoon quarter. Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) for the quarter fell by 51.6% due to a substantial increase in production costs.

Denmark: Cement plant equipment manufacturer FLSmidth has reported strong fundamentals in its third quarter results for 2022. Its cement order intake increased by 8% year-on-year compared to the third quarter of 2021. Cement sector revenue increased by 7% organically and by 13% when including positive currency exchange effects. This, alongside solid performance from its mining sector, helped the group’s order intake to increase by 11% overall for the quarter.

Group chief executive officer Mikko Keto said, “The positive momentum that we saw in the second quarter has been sustained in the third quarter where we have seen robust growth in both order intake and revenue. The mining business continued to benefit from a healthy backlog and fundamentally positive market conditions, with a 53% growth in service order intake. In addition, the cement business delivered an earnings before interest, tax and amortisation (EBITA) margin of 3%. The short-term outlook has improved based on stable performance despite an emerging recession.”