Global Cement News

India: UltraTech has received the green signal from the Competition Commission of India for its US$605m agreement with Jaypee Cement Corporation to purchase its Gujarat-based businesses.

UltraTech plans to acquire Jaypee's facilities, which include an integrated cement manufacturing plant at Sewagram, a captive power plant and mining leases and limestone reserves.

CCI has announced that the agreement will not affect competition in the market as companies like Lafarge and ABG Cement are initiating plants in Rajasthan and Gujarat respectively. CCI also stated that the entry of new companies counterbalances the competition market, which is affected by the merger of two similar companies, especially if the newly entered party is of ample size.

India: The State Pollution Control Board (SPCB) of Odisha has issued a show cause notice to UltraTech Cement plants at Arda village, Kirmira, for violating pollution norms and asked the company to respond within 15 days as to why action should not be taken against it.

Residents of the areas surrounding the Ultratech plant have complained that white dust released by the plant is causing health hazard. Regional Officer of SPCB, Mukesh Mahalinga, said that the show cause notice was issued after an SPCB team inspected the plant and its surrounding areas on 5 – 10 December 2013. He said that if the company management fails to submit a satisfactory explanation for the non-functioning of an dust metre in the plant, action will be taken against it.

Canada: It has been announced that a controversial new US$1bn cement plant and marine terminal, to be constructed by McInnis Cement, will be part financed by the Quebec government and two provincial agencies. The authorities will inject US$350m into the Port-Daniel facility. The other US$650m will be provided by McInnis Cement, which is owned by the Beaudoin/Bombardier family that also controls Bombardier Inc, and aircraft and rolling stock manufacturer.

The McInnis project is scheduled to produce 2Mt/yr and will employ about 2400 workers during the construction phase. The plant will employ around 400 people directly and indirectly by 2016, when it is scheduled to start operations. The company has access to a 450Mt limestone reserve.

A union official who represents about 500 workers at two existing cement plants in St-Constant and St-Basile-de-Portneuf reacted with outrage to the project. "Our members are very angry," said Daniel Roy, Quebec director of Métallos, the United Steelworkers union. "We just don't get it. The cement industry is already in an overcapacity situation and at any given time, between 100 and 150 of our members are sitting at home on temporary furlough. Here they are announcing a huge project like that. It will inevitably mean layoffs at our current plants."

Another irritated party is Lafarge, which has long complained that the McInnis project would benefit unfairly from Quebec taxpayer money and would further distort the market, which already has oversupply. In September 2013 a Lafarge executive warned that the four established players, itself, Colacem, Holcim and Ciment Québec, would be unfairly disadvantaged.

Two stories from the US have drawn our attention this week, even with a US$1.3bn cartel fine in Brazil, more new business in Africa, the possible closure of CBR's white cement plant in Belgium and strange metrological goings-on in India also in the headlines.

Firstly, it was announced that Colombia's major cement producer Cementos Argos has agreed to acquire Vulcan Materials' building material assets in Florida. Argos, active in the US since June 2011 when it acquired its Harleyville and Roberta plants from Lafarge, will more than double its capacity in the country from 2.7Mt/yr to 6.2Mt/yr and go from a small player to a significant force in the western US.

Argos may have moved at just the right time. Despite suffering disproportionately in what is often termed the 'Great Recession' in the US, Florida's cement market is fundamentally solid, with significant residential construction and a good commercial construction baseline. If the PCA's expectations that the US will consume 80Mt/yr of cement in 2014 and a release of that much talked-about 'pent-up demand' are realised, Argos could be in a position to make good sales.

Indeed, Argos' move takes on even more significance in the light of the second US story from this week, which sees Texas Industries (TXI) taken over by Martin Marietta. The acquisition, which comes on the back of a failed bid by Martin Marietta for Vulcan Materials in 2012, also makes perfect sense for the company. Indeed, Martin Marietta's chief executive, C Howard Nye, said, "We like the Texas market a lot."

And well they should. Developments around the Eagle Ford shale gas reserves in the centre of Texas have led to a building boom in terms of both new constructions and oil well cement. Despite this, TXI announced a loss of US$17.6m in the quarter to 30 September 2013, although it saw higher sales. It blamed interest repayments. There are obviously clear gains for Martin Marietta in buying TXI, but it had better have a plan to sort out TXI's finances.

For all the talk of major restructuring in China , and mergers and acquisitions in India, it is the US cement industry that is showing the most movement so far in 2014. Could this be the year when things finally look up?

US: The Board of Directors of National Cement Company, a subsidiary of Vicat Group, has elected James E Rotch as Chairman of the Board of National Cement Company. Rotch will continue in the practice of corporate law with the firm of Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP, a regional law firm with offices throughout the Southeast, including Birmingham, Alabama, in addition to his duties as Chairman of the Board.