Global Cement News

Saudi Arabia: Saudi Cement’s sales revenue rose by 26% year-on-year to US$194m in the first half of 2019 from US$154m in the same period in 2018. Its net profit after Zakat and tax grew by 12% to US$59.9m from US$53.4m.

Vietnam: Kien Giang province has granted an investment licence to Siam City Cement Vietnam for a limestone and clay mining project and a clinker kiln project in Kien Luong district. Both projects have a combined investment of around US$470m, according to the Viet Nam News newspaper. The subsidiary of Thailand’s Siam City Cement Group operates five plants in the country following its acquisition of Holcim Vietnam in 2017.

UK: Cemex has invested around Euro1m on relocating and upgrading its Eversley ready-mixed concrete plant. The new plant will be located at the Bramshill Quarry in Hampshire reducing the need for truck journeys to the fomer site nearby. The unit is being replaced with a Liebherr 2.25 mobile mix plant. The plant will have a storage capacity of 300t of cement, and 240t of aggregates. It will increase production from 80m³/hr to 24m³/hr. The inclusion of a central mixer will also enable special products such as traditional sand cement screed and flowing screeds like Supaflo to be produced, increasing the product range available.

Germany: HeidelbergCement’s profit fell in the first half of 2019 due to non-recurring effects related to the divestment of its assets in Ukraine. Its profit fell by 33% year-on-year to Euro291m in the first half of 2019 from Euro435m from in the same period in 2018. Its revenue rose by 9% to Euro9.21bn from Euro8.43bn. Its sales volumes of cement fell slightly to 61Mt and ready-mixed concrete sales volumes grew by 6% to 24.4Mm³. Its profit fell by 33% to Euro435m from Euro291m.

“In general, the market dynamics weakened slightly in the second quarter in comparison with the first quarter. Nevertheless, we were able to improve our result in the second quarter because of our strong global positioning. Good margins in Asia, as well as Western and Southern Europe, more than compensated for the weaker business due to adverse weather conditions in North America and the Africa-Eastern Mediterranean Basin Group area,” said Bernd Scheifele, the chairman of the managing board of HeidelbergCement.

Pakistan: Lucky Cement has counteracted mounting costs with increased export sales. Its gross sales rose slightly to US$420m in its financial year to 30 June 2019. Its profit after tax fell by 14% year-on-year to US$65.2m from US$75.8m from the same period in 2018. Its cost of sales grew by 11% to US$190m from US$211m. Its cement sales volumes fell by 1.8% to 7.67Mt. However, its export sales increased by 60.9% to 1.82Mt.

The cement producer said that the first shipment of machinery from China’s Sinoma to its new 1.2Mt/yr integrated plant project at Samawah in Iraq. A power plant has also been ordered from Finland’s Wärtsilä. Commercial production at the site is planned for mid-2020.