Global Cement News

US: Eagle Materials’ revenue rose slightly to US$1.11bn in the nine months to 31 December 2018. Revenue from its Heavy Materials business, including cement, fell slightly to US$564m. Overall cement sales volumes remained stable at 4.41Mt. Operating earnings decreased by 10% to US$153m from US$170m.

“Adjusting for the effects of unusual weather trends during 2018 and a shift in the timing of wallboard price increases and related buying activity, we estimate that the overall market demand for our building materials, notably cement and wallboard, remained in positive territory in 2018, with growth rates in the low single digits,” said chief executive officer (CEO) Dave Powers. He added that in the quarter from October to December 2018 margins had been negatively affected by higher costs due to maintenance outages at two plants and upgrades to emission control equipment.

Saudi Arabia: Qassim Cement’s sales fell by 32% year-on-year to US$114m in 2018 from US$167m in the same period in 2017. Its profit decreased by 49% to US$37.4m from US$73m. It blamed the fall in sales and profits on lower cement demand and lower prices due to competition.

Sweden: HeidelbergCement’s subsidiary Cementa has completed a feasibility study into electrifying its cement plant at Slite in Gotland as part of its Cemzero project. A report from the first phase of the project has been submitted to the Swedish Energy Agency.

The study found that using electricity to supply heat during the clinker production process is possible using plasma technology, although this needs to be tested on a larger scale. Using an electrified process was found to be competitive compared to other options for achieving high reductions in carbon emission. The production cost of cement would be doubled approximately but the research suggested that this might only mean a small percentage increase to the end cost of a building or an infrastructure project. Finally, the study reported that any future electrification of the Slite plant would work well with a planned expansion to wind turbine generation at the site. It would improve the energy balance and reduce the maximum power surplus that might occur.

Cementa and energy company Vatenfall will now look at how to build a pilot plant.

Peru: Chile’s Cementos Bío Bío plans to build a US$20m grinding plant at the Port of Matarani near Arequipa. The cement producer has all the necessary permits in place and it intends to open the unit in the first half of 2020, according to the Diario Financiero newspaper. Spain’s Cemengal will supply a Plug & Grind mill for the project. The plant will have a production capacity of 0.2Mt/yr, although there are plans to double this if the market supports it.

Peru: UNACEM’s sales rose by 5.7% year-on-year to US$586m in 2018 from US$555m in 2017. Its cement sales despatches grew by 1.3% to 5.06Mt from 4.99Mt. Its operating profit fell by 13% to US$184m from US$211m. It blamed the fall in profit on reduced dividends from a subsidiary in Ecuador and other businesses. During the year the cement producer made upgrades to its Atocongo Thermal Plant and to dusting system for the coolers on kilns 2 and 3 at its Condorcocha cement plant.