Global Cement News

US: Eagle Materials has reported its financial results for the second quarter of its 2016 fiscal year, which ended on 30 September 2015. Its revenue grew by 16% year-on-year to US$329m and its net earnings fell by 41% to US$29.8m, reduced by US$26.2m post-tax due to non-routine items related to the oil and gas proppants segment. Eagle Materials' adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) grew by 14% to US$110m.

Eagle's construction products and building materials businesses continued to perform well during the second quarter of 2016, with the Cement and Paperboard businesses reporting record quarterly operating earnings and the wallboard, concrete and aggregates businesses reporting year-on-year improvements. Demand for building materials and construction products remains strong in each of its regional markets. Cash flow from operations improved by 12% and was used to fund the Skyway acquisition, make capital improvements, pay dividends, reduce debt and repurchase shares.

The decline in oil prices during the summer adversely impacted US oil and gas drilling activity, leading to further reductions in demand and pricing for proppants. As a result, it recorded impairments to several intangible assets originally booked in connection with its acquisition of CRS Proppants and revalued downward certain raw sand inventory values. The impairments and inventory revaluation charges totalled approximately US$37.8m pre-tax.

Operating earnings from Cement for the second quarter of 2016 were a record US$48.6m, some 26% higher than the same quarter in its 2015 fiscal year. The earnings increase was driven by an 8% increase in average net cement sales prices and record quarterly cement sales volumes. Cement revenues for the second quarter, including joint venture and intersegment revenues, grew by 13% to US$165m. Cement sales volumes grew by 1% to a record 1.5Mt.

Kenya: ARM Cement has posted an after tax loss of US$4.62m for the first nine months of 2015 compared to a US$10.8m profit at the same period of 2014. The company said that the losses were largely attributable to the depreciation in regional currencies against the US Dollar.

ARM Cement's revenue for the first nine months of 2015 rose by 7% year-on-year to US$115m thanks to increased cement sales in Kenya and in Tanzania. While domestic cement demand grew by more than 10% during the period, "the sharp depreciation of both the Kenyan and Tanzanian currencies in the nine months has resulted in an unrealised exchange loss," said ARM Cement in a statement. "The fundamentals for continued economic and construction sector growth remain strong despite the recent currency depreciation and increase in interest rates."

Nigeria: Aggressive African expansion projects by Dangote Cement have started to yield positive gains as for the first nine months of 2015 as its turnover grew by 17.8% year-on-year to US$1.83bn. During the period, Dangote Cement exported 3.7Mt of cement to neighbouring countries.

Peru: UNACEM's net income grew by 16.2% in the first nine months of 2015 due to higher prices and lower costs.

UNACEM posted a US$55m profit as its sales rose by 5.5% to US$419m in the first nine months of 2015. The company cut its operating costs by 5.7% and its sales costs by 0.6%. Unacem's cement production rose by 6.4% to 1.43Mt in the third quarter of 2015, while its clinker output increased by 7% to 1.32Mt.

UNACEM, which competes in Peru with companies like Cementos Pacasmayo and Cementos Yura, said that it increased its domestic market share to 50.8% in the third quarter of 2015 from 50.3% in the previous three months. Its capital expenditure totalled US$63.6m in the first nine months of 2015, including investments at its Condorcocha and Atocongo plants and the Carpapata 3 hydroelectric project.

UNACEM, which sold US$625mn in 2021 bonds in October 2014 to finance its expansion projects, has an installed cement production capacity of 7.6Mt/yr. Peru's cement production rose by 1.4% to 10.7Mt in 2014, according to cement producers association Asocem. Exports climbed by 37.4% to 306,277t. Construction and cement companies are anticipating that a government drive to award public-private partnership concessions for more than US$20bn, in addition to projected infrastructure repairs after the approaching El Niño phenomenon, will drive industry growth.

South Korea: Sun Cement Co Ltd has placed another order for a Loesche vertical roller grinding mill to grind granulated blast furnace slag.

At the Mokpo cement plant in South Korea, in order to ensure more cost-effective production, plans have been made to replace the current outdated ball mill with a new grinding plant. For this reason, Loesche has been commissioned to deliver a LM 35.2+2 CS mill. The vertical roller grinding mill will produce slag cement with a fineness of 4600 Blaine, at a capacity of 45t/hr. The capacity of the gearbox will be 1600kW.

The delivery of the key parts to Sun Cement Co Ltd is planned for the end of 2015.