Global Cement News

South Africa: An order by South African competition authorities to delay cement industry statistics by three months will negatively affect perceptions of economic activity in the country, according to industry newcomer Sephaku Cement.

The CEO of Sephaku Pieter Fourie said that the directive by the South African Competition Commission to the Cement and Concrete Institute that it delay the publication of its quarterly national cement sales figures by three months made 'no sense'. The institute represents the four major cement producers in South Africa: Pretoria Portland Cement, AfriSam, Lafarge and NPC-Cimpor.

Sephaku, a Nigerian-backed newcomer, is building an integrated cement production facility in the Limpopo province, where it intends to produce cement from the fourth quarter of 2013. It says that cement sales form a large component of construction activity in South Africa and are a leading economic indicator. Sephaku believe that the change in reporting will affect related economic predictions.

Stephan Olivier, CEO of AfriSam, commented that the change in industry reporting was a bid to make it difficult to use the data for anti-competitive behaviour. Simon Roberts, chief economist and manager of the commission's policy and research division, said that companies had previously used the data provided by the institute to 'monitor' their cartel agreement.

Projects by Nigerian-backed Sephaku and a new Chinese-backed empowerment entity, Conticem, will boost South Africa's capacity by nearly 5Mt/yr. Both Sephaku and AfriSam anticipate a better industry outlook in 2012 but uncertainty remains over the government's ability to accelerate its infrastructure plans.

Camargo Corrêa's ongoing bid for Cimpor must be creating nightmares for Brazil's anti-cartel authorities.

If the takeover goes through, Camargo Corrêa's Brazilian market share will rise from 24% to 37% according to data from the Global Cement Directory 2012. Together with industrial conglomerate Grupo Votorantim, who already own 21% of Cimpor, this share would amount to 72% of the country's total cement capacity.

As covered in this week's Global Cement Weekly #44 Jose Barros Franco, chief executive of Intercement a subsidiary of Camargo Corrêa, has explicitly denied that Camargo had a pre-agreement with Votorantim to split up Cimpor assets. However, he did not rule out a deal in the future to jointly manage the company. This implies that companies representing nearly three-quarters of the Brazilian cement market might be working together to at least some degree!

In October 2011 Camargo Corrêa denied that it was in talks to buyout Cimpor. According to one source at that time, Camargo Corrêa planned to take over Cimpor's operations in Brazil while Votorantim was considering taking assets outside of Brazil. Currently analysts expect the same thing to happen now if the takeover goes through, especially given any possible anti-competitive attention in Brazil.

With operations in four continents Portugal's Cimpor holds 77% of its global capacity outside of Brazil. If the takeover does actually happen, then the key question is this: how much of Cimpor's international operation does Votorantim want in return for helping its competitor Camargo Corrêa to grow back at home in Brazil?

Ukraine: The supervisory board of Eurocement Ukraine has appointed Vitalii Horholiuk to the post of acting director-general. The board dismissed the application of the deputy director-general and director of engineering Ihor Nikolaenko. Nikolaenko has occupied these positions since June 2010. Former Eurocement Ukraine director-general Demis Galchev was relieved from the position on 31 January 2012. Since that time the post has been vacant.

Germany: With effect from April 2012 Roger Meier has been appointed sales director of FLSmidth Sample Processing Technology, Wuppertal, Germany (formerly Pfaff AQS). Roger Meier will also be responsible for coordinating the common sales effort for FLSmidth Brno (formerly Autec) and FLSmidth Wuppertal.

FLSmidth Sample Processing Technology designs and manufactures a wide range of products for every stage of the sample processing chain in cement, steel and other minerals sectors. Previously Roger Meier has held a position as Building Materials Segment Manager and Industrial XRD Applications Manager at PANalytical BV, in the Netherlands.

Saudi Arabia: Yanbu Cement has announced that its first-quarter net profit for 2012 rose by 43% year-on-year to US$38.6m. Earnings per share for the first three months of the year rose to US$0.37 from US$0.26 in the year earlier period. It added that its first-quarter operating profit surged by 44% to US$39.9m.

Meanwhile Yamama Saudi Cement has said that its first quarter profit surged by 54% compared to the first quarter of 2011 to US$74.1m due to higher sales and better operational efficiency. Its first-quarter earnings per share came in at US$0.37 compared to US$0.35 in 2011, according to a statement. Its operating profit for the three-month period rose to US$76.5m, compared to US$49.1m in the same period of 2011, a year-on-year rise of 55%.