Global Cement News

Philippines: Ramon Lopez, the head of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), says that there is no need to impose a price cap on cement yet. However, he said that the government might intervene if the price of cement reached around US$4.6/bag, according to the Philippine Star newspaper. The DTI applied a US$4/t tariff on imported cement in mid-January 2019 for a period of 200 days in response to a surge in imports.

Peru: Cementos Pacasmayo’s sales revenue dropped slightly to US$94.6m in the first three months of 2019. Its consolidated earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) also fell a little to US$28.3m. However, its sales volumes of cement, concrete and precast rose by 5.4% to 593Mt from 563Mt. It blamed the declines in revenue and earnings on a slow down in public investment connected to a change in regional governments.

The cement producer also said that it has started selling cement in Iquitos. The capital of the country’s Amazonian Loreto region has been hard to reach due to its lack of road links. Cementos Pacasmayo said that it has been ‘aggressively’ taking advantage of a new tax law that supports its Rioja plant giving it a competitive advantage.

UK/Ireland: Breedon Group says that it has made ‘good progress’ across the business in the first quarter of 2019. Its revenue grew by 10% year-on-year to around Euro276m on a like-for-like basis. It attributed this to milder weather than in the same period in 2018. It said that it expects construction output in the UK to rise by 3% and at a higher rate in the Republic of Ireland.

US: National Cement is tendering for a new 5000t/day production line at its Ragland plant in Alabama. The subsidiary of France’s Vicat has reportedly had a permit for the upgrade since 2006. The plant operates one dry process kiln with a production capacity of 1.9Mt/yr.

US: Martin Marietta has benefited from aggregate sales volume growth in the first quarter of 2019. Its revenue grew by 17% year-on-year to US$939m from US$802m. Its earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) rose by 28% to US$159m from US$124m. However, the gross profit on its cement business was down and both sales and profit was down for ready-mixed concrete (RMX). Despite this the company said that its cement shipments and pricing increased 7.3% due to demand in Texas, a new Houston-area sales yard and an enhanced product line.