Global Cement News

US: Eagle Materials Inc has reported financial results for fiscal year 2014, which ended on 31 March 2014. Company revenues were up by 40% year-on-year to US$898.4m and net earnings grew by 50% year-on-year to US$200m, reflecting improved sales volumes and stronger sales prices across all business lines. Annual revenue and earnings improvement also reflects the acquisition of assets, including cement plants in Missouri and Oklahoma on 30 November 2012.

Fiscal 2014 operating earnings from cement were up by 94% year-on-year to US$89.5m, while revenues from cement, including joint venture (the Texas Lehigh Cement Company LP) and intersegment sales, grew by 44% year-on-year to US$438.2m. Cement sales volumes reached a record 4.6Mt for the year.

Operating earnings from cement during the fourth quarter of fiscal 2014 were up by 422% year-on-year to US$12.0m. The earnings were impacted by US$4.5m associated with the annual maintenance outage at the Illinois cement plant, whereas 2013's fourth quarter cement earnings were impacted by US$14m, associated with maintenance costs at the recently acquired cement plants cement plants in Missouri and Oklahoma. Cement revenues for the quarter, including joint venture and intersegment revenues, grew by 10% year-on-year to US$81.7m. Cement sales volumes for the fourth quarter were up by 4% year-on-year at 803,000t.

The prospects for the East African cement industry have risen this week following the formal agreement to build a new railway line linking the port city of Mombasa and Nairobi in Kenya. The US$3.8bn project will replace the existing 100 year old narrow gauge track with work scheduled to start in October 2014 and a completion date in 2018. The second phase of the project is then intended to extend the line to neighbouring inland countries including Uganda, South Sudan and Rwanda among others.

The bottom line here from Reuters' reporting is that the new line will cut freight costs by more than half to US$0.08/t per km from US$0.20/t per km. Anybody considering sending freight along the 610km line could see their costs drop from US$122/t to US$49/t. With the average cement price in Kenya reported at US$75/t at the start of 2014, these kind of prices seem unlikely to throw the market to the mercy of overseas imports. Moving one tonne of cement along the full length of the line would cost more than half of the selling price. Yet the effect on input costs or transport over smaller distances may have an effect, especially if the inland extension actually gets built.

Kenya has four integrated cement plants with a production capacity of 3.4Mt/yr. Of these three - ARM Cement, Bamburi Cement (Lafarge) and Mombasa Cements are on the coast – and only one plant, the East African Portland Cement Company, is based inland in Nairobi. In addition National Cement and Savannah Cement both run clinker grinding plants near Nairobi.

A number of plants are being built. Most recently, Savannah Cement announced plans in April 2014 to build a clinker production plant. The East Africa Portland Cement Company plans to build a plant in Kajiado for operation by 2016. Nigeria's Dangote Cement has a 1.5Mt/yr cement plant planned to start operation in 2016 in Kitui, between Nairobi and the coast with ARM seeking funding to build a 2.5Mt/yr cement plant in the same region. Cemtech, a company owned by India's Sanghi Group, has plans to build a plant in West Pokot County in western Kenya but the project has been delayed due to issues with land acquisition.

Despite all this development activity Kenyan Bureau of Statistics figures suggest that more cement is being produced in the country than is officially being consumed. In 2013, 4.8Mt of cement was produced but only 3.94Mt was consumed. Yet both production and consumption have more than doubled since 2004 from 1.87Mt and 1.27Mt respectively. With the Kenyan construction sector averaging a growth rate of 6.45%/yr between 2004 and 2012, it looks likely that consumption will continue to rise and all these new cement plants are poised to benefit form this.

The old Ugandan railway, which the new railway seeks to replace, started construction in 1896 and was backed by the British government. It was nicknamed the 'Lunatic Line' given the harsh terrain and the high worker fatalities. The perils facing the project were capped by a pair of man-eating lions who attacked workers as depicted in the book 'The Man-Eaters of Tsavo' and eventually made into a film called 'The Ghost and the Darkness' starring Michael Douglass. Then as today the potential benefits of connecting the African coast to the interior were seen as high.

Switzerland: Onne van der Weijde, Area Manager for India until 25 April 2014, and member of Holcim Senior Management, will leaves Holcim effective from 1 June 2014. The member of the Holcim Executive Committee, Bernard Terver, responsible for the Indian Subcontinent, will take over direct responsibility for the country.

South Africa: Investors have confirmed that construction has started on a new 1Mt/yr cement plant by Mamba Cement in Northam, Limpopo. Nedbank Capital and the Bank of China Johannesburg are providing US$107m of debt capital to fund Mamba, according to Business Day. Equity was provided by majority shareholder Jidong Development Group, the China-Africa Development Fund and by Women Investment Portfolio Holdings.

Nedbank Capital's infrastructure, energy and telecommunications head Mike Peo said that construction had already started and the project was expected to be completed by 2016.

"We obviously had a very hard look at the South African cement market. This plant is very close to Johannesburg, a primary market, so the transport costs and the actual cost point at which it can compete is going to be very attractive," said Peo. He added that the outlook for cement demand was 'extremely good' driven by government's infrastructure plans and the provision of housing.

Nigeria: Final approval for a new national cement standard has been given by Olusegun Aganga at the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment. Following a short grace period all cement manufactured locally or imported must meet the approved standards and will be tagged 'NlS 444-1'. The implementation of a new standard for cement follows a battle between cement industry stakeholders regarding whether poor quality cement had been to blame for building collapses.

The highest grade - CEM I 52.5R, 52.5N, or 52.5 - will now be used for the construction of bridges. The second highest grade - CEM II 42.5R, 42.5N or 42.5 grade – will be used for the casting of columns, beams, slabs and for block moulding. The lowest cement grade - CEM I & II 32.5R, 32.5N or 32.5 cement grade – will be used only for the plastering of buildings.

According to the ministry, the new guidelines would, "Enable the end users make the right choice; help to avoid unethical application of the different types of cement; enhance proper identification of the different cement classes and enhance traceability as well as guide users." The ministry added that the standards were reviewed because they had attained the five-year mandatory period for review, as well as concerns over the quality of cement in the Nigerian markets.