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Tongling Shangfeng Cement to expand into Kyrgyzstan 13 August 2014
Kyrgyzstan: Gansu Shangfeng Cement has announced its subsidiary Tongling Shangfeng Cement has signed a cooperation letter of intent with Zhu Rongjun to buy equities and invest in Zeth Cement in Kyrgyzstan.
Initially the two companies intend to build a 300t/day clinker production line and support cement production lines in Chui province. Tongling Shangfeng will hold 58% of Zeth Cement and Zhu will own the remaining 42%. Zhu has agreed to inject limestone mining rights and land-use rights that the company owns or controls for cement production into Zeth.
Oman: Raysut Cement has warned that the large volume of cement from the UAE to Oman is creating 'undue competition' in the local market. It has reacted to this by maintaining sales locally, increasing its profit and increasing its own exports in Yemen and Africa. The company made the announcement as part of its half-year results for 2014.
The group reported revenues of US$129m for the first half of 2014, no change in comparison to the same period in 2013. Profit before tax rose by 6.7% year-on-year to US$45m.
The group sold 1.3Mt of cement and 17,400t of clinker in the first half a 2014, a decrease of 3% year-on-year compared to total sales of cement and clinker. In the first half of 2013 the group sold 1.32Mt of cement and 27,900t of clinker. The group attributed the decline to 'severe' competition from UAE suppliers in the north of Oman. It compensated for this with increased sales in the south of the country and larger export volumes.
The Oman-based cement producer also announced new projects it is working on, including setting up a distribution terminal in Duqm, additional silo capacity at the Salalah plant and an off-shore wheel loader system to facilitate bulk cement handling.
Vissai Ninh Binh Group to export 1.5Mt of clinker to Réunion 11 August 2014
Vietnam: Vissai Ninh Binh Group has signed a contract with a French partner to export 1.5Mt of clinker to Ciment de Bourbon to serve to expressway road project on the French island of Réunion. This is the biggest contract that Vietnamese cement producers have secured to date, said Vissai Ninh Binh Group's deputy director Nguyen Tien Dat.
The clinker will be shipped at a price of US$42/t under the contract that will be effective for five years, the deputy director said. He noted that the firm has carefully considered the prices to avoid the negative impact driven by the fluctuations in prices of transportation.
Indonesia: PT Indocement Tunggal Prakarsa Tbk is preparing to invest US$150m towards building two greenfield cement plants in North Sumatra and in Pati, Central Java respectively. Each plant will have a cement production capacity of 2.5Mt/yr. The company is currently conducting a feasibility study, said Indocement's president director Christian Kartawijaya. The investment is intended to boost the company's production by 2018 in reaction to decreasing market share.
Indocement aims to boost its production capacity by about 45% to 30Mt/yr in 2018 when the two greenfield plants are expected to have begun operations. Currently the company produces 20.6Mt/yr of cement. The new plants will maintain the company's market share in Indonesia at 31%. The company will source the funding internally.
Indocement has allocated US$385m for capital expenditure in 2014 to boost cement production. In October 2013 the company started work on its 4.4Mt/yr cement plant at Citeureup. This plant is planned to start operation in the fourth quarter of 2015.
Holcim India fined US$11m for tax evasion 11 August 2014
India: Delhi Government's Revenue Department has fined Holcim India US$11m for evasion of stamp duty. It also directed the company to pay stamp duty of US$36m and a penalty of US$11m within 30 days for violation of stamp duty. Collector of Stamps (HQ) Lalit Mohan told local media that Holcim India had violated the payment of stamp duty with the merger of Ambuja Cement.
"The stamp duty on the merger order is payable at the rate of 3% on the total amount of US$1.2bn which comes out to be US$36m... The company is required to adjudicate or pay stamp duty within a period of one month which it failed to do," said Lalit Mohan in the order.
In its submission to the Revenue Department, Holcim India stated that there was no transfer of movable and immovable assets from transferor company (Ambuja Cement) with transferee company (Holcim) except shares held by transferor company in other companies have been transferred to transferee company. Subsequently the company did not see itself as liable for stamp duty.