Global Cement News

Oman: FLSmidth has received an order worth US$38m from Oman Cement Company for the supply of milling equipment for a cement plant located in Rusayl Industrial Area, 60km from Port Sultan Qaboos, Muscat.

The order includes a 150t/hr closed circuit ball mill system that consists of two 8000t capacity cement silos. The scope of supply also includes a high-efficiency central drive for the ball mill and a dynamic separator and fabric filters to reduce dust emissions.

"Infrastructure growth in Oman has created a huge demand for cement. Oman Cement Company are already upgrading their existing production lines and now want to set up a fifth cement grinding unit. FLSmidth has a strong service capability and presence in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries and therefore has good relations with the company," said group executive vice president Bjarne Moltke Hansen.

The order will be booked by the Cement division and contribute to FLSmidth's earnings until mid-2015.

UK: Aventas Group (formerly part of Quinn Group of companies) is to invest Euro16m in its Quinn Cement plant in Cavan.

Aventas said that it has appointed contractors PJ Carey to convert the landmark cement plant, near Ballyconnell, to use solid recovered fuel, primarily cardboard, textiles and plastics. The fuel will replace more expensive South African coal and according to plant manager Barry King will reduce carbon emissions by 20%. 100 construction jobs will be created in the conversion. The investment is part of an overall spend of Euro30m - 50m which Aventas plans to make in upgrading and maintaining the plant over the next five years.

Aventas said confidence in the future of the plant has risen following the performance of the construction industry supplies division of the group. It recently opened a depot in Rochester from where it is hoping to triple its penetration of the British cement market. Aventas Group chief executive Paul O'Brien said the British market currently consumes about 10Mt/yr of cement, with Quinn Cement due to capture about 1% or Euro9.6m of that in 2014. The company hopes to triple its UK turnover in coming years.

Romania: Romania's Carpatcement Holding, a HeidelbergCement subsidiary, said that it plans to invest Euro15m in 2014 in increasing energy efficiency, in environmental projects and personnel development.

In 2013 the company's sales fell by 14% due to a national decline in infrastructure projects, domestic spending and in foreign direct investments.

HeidelbergCement has invested more than Euro450m in Romania since 1998. Between 2008 - 2009 it invested Euro100m in raising its cement production capacity to nearly 7.15Mt/yr. In Romania the Germany-based company produces cement, concrete and aggregates in its three units, Carpatcement Holding, Carpat Beton and Carpat Agregate.

Thank you to everyone who commented on the column in last week's Global Cement Weekly (GCW132, MINTed cement industries). Amongst the more interesting thoughts was that in a large cement producing country like the US, there are regional areas of focus. So, returning to neologisms, FACT might refer to, say, Florida, Alabama, California and Texas, four southern states with the highest cement production capacities in the union. Similar regional breakdowns could be applied to countries such as China, India or Brazil.

Following last week's look at the MINT (Mexico, Indonesia, Nigeria and Turkey) economies in the context of cement we now take a quick recap on what has been happening in the 'I' of the MINT, Indonesia.

Indonesia has a population of 238m, a cement production capacity of 47Mt and a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of US$1.29tr. Both its cement consumption per capita and GDP per capita are low by international standards suggesting that it has considerable growth potential for its cement industry as its wider economy grows.

Indonesia's biggest cement producer, the state owned Semen Indonesia (formerly Semen Gresik) has reported to local media that its unaudited net profit rose by 14% year-on-year in 2013 to US$410m. Its revenue rose by 12% to US$1.8bn. Its new 1.5Mt/yr cement plant in Tuban, East Java has been reported as being operational, bringing Semen Indonesia's cement production capacity up to 31.8Mt/yr in 2014.

The country's second biggest cement producer, Indocement, has not reported any figures for 2013 as a whole yet. However parent company HeidelbergCement did note that the Indonesian economy had slowed down as a result of falling commodity prices. Cement and clinker sales including exports rose by 0.6% in the first nine months of 2013. Around mid-2013 local media reported that Indocement was losing market share in Indonesia.

Holcim Indonesia has also not revealed its financial situation in 2013. However, like Indocement, Holcim Indonesia reported with its third quarter results that economic growth had 'temporarily' flattened in the country. Operating results had not improved on levels in 2012.

Overall domestic cement sales rose by 5.8% year-on-year to 47Mt for the first 10 months of 2013 according to data from the Indonesian Cement Association. Previous annual rises in cement production and cement consumption had started to slow in 2012.

Growth in the Indonesian cement industry is also having an effect on the larger geographical region. Australian cement producer Boral suspended clinker production at its Waurn Ponds plant in late 2012 due to cheaper imports from countries such as Indonesia. New Zealand followed suit in mid-2013 when Holcim announced plans to build cement import terminals instead of building a new cement plant at Weston.

In summary it seems likely that the cement market in Indonesia slowed down in the first half of 2013 but it still appears to be generating growth none-the-less, true to the MINT pattern. Market analysts from Kim Eng agree, pinning issues with domestic cement consumption in 2013 on capacity bottlenecks and over-crowded ports. Growth in the cement markets for the MINT countries may seem likely but in the case of Indonesia it cannot be assumed.

Denmark: FLSmidth has announced the appointment of Eric Thomas Poupier to a newly created position in group executive management, as group executive vice president, business development. Poupier will take up his new position on 15 January 2014.

Since 2011 Poupier has been a manager at Bain and Company in Stockholm, managing projects for Nordic clients. From 2007 to 2011 he was a consultant for Bain and Company and specialised in reorganisation, growth strategy, sales force effectiveness and performance improvements. Over 2005 to 2007 Poupier completed a full time MBA study in the USA and in 2005 he held the position of purchasing manager for Bosch Group in Changzhou, China. Previous to 2005 Poupier had a number of managerial positions in strategic purchasing within the Bosch Group in Germany.

Eric Poupier brings with him a broad experience within business and strategy development as well as within purchasing and change management. The new business development position in group executive management was created in an effort to strengthen FLSmidth Group's competitiveness by focusing more on effectiveness, strategy development and integration.