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Luis Carlos Arias Laso appointed as Chief Financial Officer of Grupo Cementos de Chihuahua
Written by Global Cement staff
31 May 2017
Mexico: Grupo Cementos de Chihuahua (GCC) has appointed Luis Carlos Arias Laso as its new Chief Financial Officer. Luis Carlos Arias has worked for GCC since 1996 in the Planning, Finance, and Corporate Treasury functions. He holds an undergraduate degree in financial administration and an MBA, both from the Tecnológico de Monterrey (ITESM). He is also a graduate of the senior management program of the Instituto Panamericano de Alta Dirección de Empresas (IPADE).
Austria: Scheuch Group says that it completed its 2016 – 2017 fiscal year with an order intake over Euro200m, it’s highest incoming order value ever since the company was founded in 1963. The air and environmental engineering company intends to set up a branch office in Germany concentrating on the metal industry and to strengthen the links between its two new subsidiaries in the US.
Brazil: Votorantim’s net revenue from its cement business fell by 14% year-on-year to US$731m in first quarter of 2017 from US$848m in the same period in 2016. The cement and steel producer blamed the continuing decline on an 8% drop in cement consumption which triggered lower sales volumes and prices. Negative currency exchange effects also contributed to the situation as the country continued to suffer from the on going political crisis and the resulting negative effects on the local economy. The company’s adjusted earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) for its cement division decreased by 49% to US$60.9m from US$119m.
Outside of Brazil the group started up a 1.2Mt/yr expansion project in Turkey in April 2017. In North America its good performance driven by strong demand and cost optimisation helped to offset the group’s overall performance. In China the group sold ‘non-core’ assets worth Euro30m in May 2017.
Pakistan: Power Cement has ordered a 7700t/day production line from FLSmidth for its plant at Nooriabad. The new line will be the third production at the site run by Arif Habib Group. The engineering, procurement and supply contract includes a complete range of equipment from crushing to packing and cement loading. No value for the order has been disclosed.
The order includes an ATOX 55 vertical mill for raw grinding, an ATOX 25 vertical mill for coal grinding, an EV 250x250 Hammer Impact Crusher, stacker and reclaimer systems for storage, a ROTAX-2 rotary kiln with low NOx ILC calciner, a JETFLEX burner prepared for future refuse derived fuel (RDF) use, a FLSmidth Cross-Bar cooler and two OK 39-4 vertical mills for cement grinding. Commissioning for the project is scheduled for the end of 2018.
Egypt: Egyptian Cement has started negotiations to secure a US$221m loan to finance the construction of its first cement plant in Sohag province. The cement division of Egyptian Group is dealing with a consortium comprising the National Bank of Egypt, Banque Misr, CIB and Arab African International Bank, according to the Al Mal newspaper. The total cost of the new 2Mt/yr plant is estimated at US$276m. Egyptian Group’s chief executive officer Ahmed Abu Hashima set up Egyptian Steel in 2010.