Global Cement News

Saudi Arabia: A new on-site power plant at United Cement Industrial Company's (UCIC) cement plant in Saudi Arabia will be operated and maintained by MAN Diesel & Turbo. MAN Diesel & Turbo was also responsible for building the 54MW power plant, near Jeddah, where five MAN 20V32/44 CR diesel engines provide electrical power for the new cement plant. A five-year contract with UCIC for operation and maintenance includes the option of an extension for another five years.

Ireland: CRH has gone to the High Court to seek the return of documents seized by the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) in a raid in May 2015.

The CCPC, supported by the Gardai (Ireland's police force), raided Irish Cement's offices as part of a probe into alleged abuse of its dominant position in the Euro50m bagged cement industry. CRH has denied the charges.

CRH has lodged court proceedings seeking a declaration that certain sections of the files seized by the CCPC were not related to the Irish Cement investigation. A spokesman for CRH said that it was seeking to have documents that were of no use to the CCPC returned to the company. "Irish Cement fully facilitated the inspection and is continuing to co-operate fully with the CCPC. In undertaking this inspection, the CCPC removed documents that are unrelated to Irish Cement and clearly outside the scope of its inspection. CRH and Irish Cement have issued proceedings to retrieve these documents from the CCPC," said a company spokesperson.

Saudi Arabia: Arabian Cement Company (ACC) is planning to build a new 10,000t/day brownfield cement line in Rabigh.

In order to increase the cement grinding capacities in phase 1, prior to the completion of the new line in Phase 2, ACC placed an order with China National Building Materials Group Corporation (CNBM) for a grinding plant, including two Loesche vertical roller mills.

The project execution will be done on a fast-track concept, which ensures a project schedule of only 13 months. Loesche will supply two large vertical roller mills of Type LM 63.3+3 with a table diameter of 6.3m and a main drive size of 7400kW. Under the fast-track concept, Loesche will not only supply the mills, but also all process related equipment like process filters, process fans, hot gas generators, as well as the complete basic engineering of the grinding plant to ensure a state-of-the-art plant design.

Indonesia: PT Semen Indonesia will commission a new cement packing plant in Pontianak, West Kalimantan, according to company Sales Department Chief Bambang Djoko.

"The packing plant will strengthen the position of Semen Indonesia in the cement industry in West Kalimantan and in the country in general. Currently the company has a 35% share of the cement market in the province," said Djoko. "Infrastructure development in Pontianak and West Kalimantan in general has been especially fast, opening better opportunities for the cement market in this region."

Mukhamad Saifudin, the Commercial Director of Semen Gresik, the parent company of Semen Indonesia, said that sales of Semen Gresik in West Kalimantan had increased by 0.5% year-on-year to 117,000t tons in the first 10 months of 2015. Saifudin attributed the increase in sales to construction of road infrastructure, shopping malls, hotels and tourist resorts in Singkawang. Starting in August 2015, sales of Semen Gresik in the province have continued to increase. Saifudin said that bagged cement accounts for 75% of the company's cement sales, indicating that the property sector accounts for the largest part of sales.

China: The largest shareholder in Shanshui Cement, Tianrui Group, has said that it could help solve the debt woes of Shanshui Cement, if it is successful in a bid to change the company's board at an extraordinary general meeting on 25 November 2015, according to Bloomberg.

Shanshui, which is at the centre of a shareholder scrap for control, failed to pay US$314m of onshore notes due on 12 November 2015. It is at least the sixth Chinese company to default in the local bond market in 2015 as borrowers struggle amid an economic slowdown. Shanshui, which is incorporated in the Cayman Islands, has decided to file a winding up petition and seek the appointment of provisional liquidators there. Two banks have asked for early repayment of Shanshui's loans and the default scare has spread to the asset-backed securities market.

Li Heping, Vice Chairman of Tianrui, said that Shanshui's filing for a winding-up petition has raised potential costs for his company because it now faces finding a debt solution. Tianrui, which holds 28% of Shanshui, would get 'nothing in return' from its stake if it didn't help, he said. China National Building Material Company and Asia Cement Corporation are also shareholders in Shanshui with 16.7% and 20.9%, respectively.

Shanshui's Chief Financial Officer Henry Li said that noteholders could try and get their money back by asking the court to liquidate Shanshui's assets, which would be the worst outcome. In addition to the US$314m that Shanshui failed to repay, the company has another US$800m onshore notes outstanding, according to Bloomberg-compiled data.