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Lafarge Malaysia confident for future despite subdued economy 26 October 2015
Malaysia: Lafarge Malaysia Bhd has said that it will be able to achieve a targeted level of growth despite the overall subdued economic situation.
CEO Thierry Marie Robert Legrand said this was possible because of continued government spending in several key projects such as the Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) and Light Rail Transits (LRT) lines after the Budget 2016 was announced.
"We are cautiously optimistic of growth this time. The growth has been quite good in the past few years and this is expected to continue," said Legrand. He added that property projects were also continuing and would help it sustain its business.
Ciments de Bizerte reports sales and production growth in the first nine months of 2015 26 October 2015
Tunisia: Ciments de Bizerte's sales increased by 2.3% year-on-year to US$160,937 in the third quarter of 2015. Clinker production grew by 47.5% to 55,050t during the quarter.
Domestic sales in the first nine months of 2015 grew by 21.8% to US$3.64m. Total sales grew by 4.25% to US$832,581 due to falling exports, which was mainly due to fluctuation of the Algerian market and the virtual absence of demand from the Libyan market.
Africa: Lafarge Africa Plc has reported a profit after tax of US$146m for the first nine months of 2015, compared with US$156m recorded in the corresponding of 2014.
The company said that Ashaka Cement's results were affected by unrest during the start of 2015 and that Ashaka Cement has since returned to normal operations. It added that industrial performance was strong, with stable plant operations across the board. The South African business continues to be cash generative. However, a volume slow down impacted the profit, with after tax profit from consolidated operations declining by 67% to US$17.6m in the third quarter of 2015. Lafarge Africa said that United Cement, which was included on an equity basis, brought the post tax profit to US$16.6m.
Lafarge Africa concluded the second tranche of the acquisition of Four Mills of Nigeria's 15% stake in Unicem. This brings Lafarge Africa's ownership stake in Unicem to 50%, while LafargeHolcim owns the remaining 50%. The acquisition has brought about an expansion in the Lafarge Africa scope in Nigeria.
"In spite of the challenging business environment and competitive situation, our company has delivered a good performance during the year. Our business expansion is remarkable and we are optimistic that our company will continue to deliver strong value to our shareholders," said the CEO of Lafarge Africa, Peter Hoddinott. According to him, Lafarge Africa will continue to leverage its strong brands, technological advantage and support from the global group. The expansion plans are on track, with Unicem's second line set to come on stream in 2016.
US: Residents living near Essroc's cement plant and quarry at the south end of Martinsburg, West Virginia have claimed that dust coming from the plant has coated their vehicles and made it difficult to keep them clean. "If I wanted my vehicle to stay clean, I would have to go to the car wash every day," said Thompson Street resident Melissa Kneisly.
According to local media, Essroc officials said that they have taken multiple steps to keep dust from becoming airborne and leaving their facilities after receiving multiple complaints from nearby residents. The increased number of trucks hauling clinker to Pennsylvania caused the extra dust to be kicked up from the loading of the trucks and transportation on the roads, according to Environmental Manager Bradley Blasé. In recent weeks, the number of trucks leaving the plant has nearly doubled to 50/day as a result of a special operation. Besides truck traffic, Blase also cited dry and unfavourable weather conditions for contributing to the dust problem. Plant Director Heinz Knopfel said that the plant has increased the sweeping of roads and watering as part of efforts to contain the dust.
Jake Glance, a spokesman for the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), said that the agency is aware of the dust situation and has had an inspector from the Division of Air Quality looking into the issue for several days. "The situation is still under investigation and right now, the DEP cannot speculate on what the dust is or where it is coming from," said Glance.
LafargeHolcim completes squeeze-out of Lafarge S A 26 October 2015
Switzerland: LafargeHolcim has successfully implemented the squeeze-out of Lafarge S A. With this, the shares of Lafarge S A are now delisted from Euronext Paris. The completion marks an important and final step in the merger process of the group's legacy companies and allows LafargeHolcim to continue focusing on delivering the synergies and progress with the integration.
With the successful squeeze-out, LafargeHolcim Ltd now owns 100% of the share capital and voting rights of Lafarge S A. Following the re-opened offer period, LafargeHolcim Ltd already held 96.41% of the share capital and at least 95.25% of the voting rights of Lafarge S A.
LafargeHolcim had offered the remaining shareholders of Lafarge S A a cash indemnification of Euro60 for each Lafarge S A share (net of costs) or a share indemnification of 9.45 newly-issued LafargeHolcim Ltd shares for 10 Lafarge S A shares. In this context, LafargeHolcim has issued a total of 633,776 registered shares with a nominal value of Euro1.85 each from authorised capital and acquired 10,086,921 shares of Lafarge S A for Euro60 each.