Global Cement News

Nigeria/South Africa: Onne van der Weijde, the chief executive officer (CEO) of Dangote Cement, has said that his company still interested in buying South Africa’s PPC for the ‘right’ price. Weijde made the comments on an analysts call about the cement producer’s nine-month results, according to Reuters. He added that the South African company was a good fit for Dangote Cement.

Nigeria: Dangote Cement’s domestic cement sales volumes fell by 11.8% year-on-year to 2.8Mt in the third quarter of 2017 compared to 3.1Mt in the same period in 2016. The company has blamed the fall on the country’s economic recession that ended in the second quarter of 2017.

Overall the group’s sales dropped by 10.1% to 16.5Mt in the first nine months of the year for all regions, despite strong growth outside of Nigeria. Despite this, its revenue rose by 36.5% to US$1.67bn from US$1.23bn in both Nigeria and the rest of Africa for the first three months of 2017. Earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) rose similarly.

“Dangote Cement has continued to perform strongly in 2017 with revenues up nearly 37%, despite a fall in volumes. In our key operations in Nigeria we have significantly improved our fuel mix and this has helped increase margins across the group. It is especially good for Nigeria because most of the coal we are using is mined in our own country,” said chief executive officer Onne van der Weijde. He added that the cement producer’s other African operations were performing ‘strongly’ with sales growth in Cameroon, Ethiopia and Senegal. It started operations at its 1.5Mt/yr Mfila cement plant in Republic of Congo in late September 2017.

Kenya: Quantum Global has sold its stake in Savannah Cement following approval by the Kenyan Competition Commission. This follows the sale of its stake in Seruji, the Mauritius-based firm that owns a 60% stake in Savannah Cement, according to the Standard newspaper. Quantum Global’s departure gives entrepreneur Benson Ndeta more control over Savannah Cement, which will now own Seruji. Ndeta also holds a stake in Savannah Heights, the other shareholder in Savannah.

Private equity firm Quantum Global has held the asset since 2015 through its US$1.1bn Infrastructure Fund. Savannah Cement started operating in 2012 and it runs a 1.5Mt/yr grinding plant at Athi-River near Nairobi.

Angola: Fabrica de Cimento do Kwanza Sul plant may be forced to shutdown on 1 November 2017 due to a lack of Light Fuel Oil (LFO). The plant’s operational director Edmundo Ferreira has blamed the situation on rising fuel prices, according to the Angola News Agency. The company’s management is currently neogotiating with its fuel supplier, which it says has raised the price by 260%. The plant has a workforce of 140 employees.

India: UltraTech Cement has blamed a drop in its profit on rising fuel prices. Its net profit fell by 31% year-on-year to US$65m in the second quarter of its financial year that ended on 30 September 2017, from US$94m in the same period in 2016.

Overall the cement producer’s sales revenue has risen by 6.5% year-on-year to US$2.28bn in the first six months of its 2017 – 2018 financial year from US$2.15bn in the same period in the 2016 – 2017 period. Its net profit fell by 5% to US$203m from US$214m. Its sales volumes of cement rose by 8% to 26.3Mt from 24.4Mt. It completed its acquisition of 21.2Mt/yr cement production capacity from Jaiprakash Associates in June 2017. However, no like-for-like financial figures have been released.