Global Cement News

France: Gerard Lamarche, managing director of Groupe Bruxelles Lambert, will be appointed to the board of Lafarge at a meeting on 15 May 2012. He will replace Thierry de Rudder.

Lamarche, aged 50, graduated from the University of Louvain-la-Neuve in Belgium. He also completed the advanced management programme at the INSEAD Business School. He began his professional career in 1983 with Deloitte Haskins & Sells in Belgium, and became mergers and acquisition consultant in the Netherlands in 1987.

From 1995 he became the special projects advisor to the president and secretary of the Suez board of directors and participated in the merger between Compagnie de Suez and Lyonnaise des Eaux in 1997. He was later appointed the new Group's senior vice president in charge of planning, control and accounts management. He was appointed senior executive vice president – finance of the Suez Group in 2004, becoming executive vice president, CFO of GDF SUEZ, and member of the Management and Executive Committees of the GDF SUEZ Group in July 2008. Lamarche is also a director of Total and Legrand.

Egypt: Italcementi subsidiary Suez Cement has announced that workers at two of its factories in Suez and Katamiya started a strike on 14 March 2012. The strike has halted shipping at these plants although production has not been affected. In a separate statement Suez Cement said that strike action at its Tourah plant ended on 20 March 2012.

Saudi Arabia: Government spending and increased economic activity will fuel strong demand for cement in 2012, according to a new report from NCB Capital.

The report, which concentrated on Southern Cement and Saudi Cement due to their spare capacity and high stock levels, indicated that cement prices increased by an average of 14.1%. Demand is anticipated to grow by 10% in 2012 and by 8% in 2013, driven by increasing government spending on infrastructure projects combined with private projects. Sales are expected to grow by 10.8% in 2012 to reach 52.2Mt.

According to the report, market activity is shifting from the central region to the western region of the country. The western region is now the centre of mega projects such as the Haramain railway, Jeddah's new airport and major drainage and other infrastructure projects. Demand in the central region nonetheless remains strong but has stabilised.

Fuel shortages remain the key supply constraint. Cement industry players believe the reason for the ongoing higher prices faced by retail buyers is mainly due to higher costs from the transportation companies. For example, a transportation company's truck that was able to make two trips a day to the cement factory can now only make one trip every three days due to the high demand and backlog at the local cement plant, thus increasing the cost for transportation companies. It is believed that prices will remain elevated in the short term due to the supply constraints and also in the medium term due to the strong demand outlook.

The economics team at NCB estimated that the 2012 government spending was 13% higher than budgeted at U$S280bn in addition to the US$32bn allocated to build 500,000 housing units. "We believe the elevated levels of government spending, particularly housing projects, will boost demand for cement," the report said.

Turkey: Cement producer Adana Çimento has reported that its profit after tax fell by 25% to US$42m in 2011 from US$56m in 2010.

Sales revenue rose by 2% to US$173m in 2011 from US$169m in 2010. Total revenue rose by 6% to US$182 from US$171m. Adana Çimento has recorded profit for the last three years. Notably, the exchange rate between the Turkish Lire and the US Dollar has risen by 22%, to 1.89 per dollar in 2011 from 1.55 in 2010.

Liberia: Dangote Cement Liberia, a subsidiary of the Nigerian conglomerate Dangote, has officially signed up for a US$35m cement plant in Liberia.

Speaking during the signing ceremony held in Monrovia at the head office of the National Port Authority (NPA) on Bushrod Island, the president of Dangote, Alhija Aliko Dangote, disclosed that his company will employ hundreds of Liberians and other nationals. Operation is expected to commence by the end of April 2012. Signing on behalf of the Liberian Government, the Managing Director of the NPA, Madam Matilda Wokie Parker lauded the initiatives being applied by the company to invest the economy.

The opening of a new cement factory in Liberia will bring the total number of cement plants to two. The existing plant, the Liberia Cement Corporation (Cemenco), currently employs 63 workers.