Oman: Raysut Cement’s loss after tax rose to US$243m in 2022 from US$33.6m in 2021. Its expenses more than doubled to US$361m from US$168m. Its sales revenue dropped by 12% year-on-year to US$118m from US$134m.

The release of financial data for 2022 follows the intervention by the Capital Market Authority (CMA) in late 2022. In November 2022 the regulator publicly called on the cement producer to urgently address 'material misrepresentations' in its financial results for the second quarter of 2022. It then replaced the company’s board of directors and appointed a temporary one in December 2022 following an audit. This is the second time the CMA’s history that it has taken such action, according to local press.

Brazil: Data from the Brazilian National Cement Industry Association (SNIC) shows that sales of cement fell by 3% year-on-year to 63.1Mt in 2022 from 64.4Mt in 2021. Sales fell in the Nordeste, Sudeste and Sui regions but grew elsewhere. Exports declined by 14% to 0.40Mt from 0.47Mt. SNIC has blamed the falling sales on a declining real estate sector, high inflation rates and a poor response from a new house-building campaign. It also attributed the Football World Cup in late 2022 as having a detrimental effect on national cement sales! SNIC forecasts sales growth of 1% in 2023 despite considerable market uncertainty.

Paraguay: Ernesto Julián Benítez Petters, the president of Industria Nacional del Cemento (INC), has reassured the market that the company can continually to operate normally despite low water levels in the Paraguay River. He reported that, in the fourth quarter of 2022, boats were loading with 1.5m of draft, according to the Última Hora newspaper. This has meant that barges can only accommodate around half of their normal capacity. Benítez Petters added that it is uncertain when the river will recover its previously normal water levels.

The state-owned cement producer says it has enough raw materials to keep its plant operating at Villeta as it has used more barges to cope. It also conducted maintenance works at the docks of both its Viletta and Vallemí plants in 2021. Widening work at the Paso Queso on the river is a long term goal of the government.

Indonesia: Solusi Bangun Indonesia (SBI) has ordered two EC22 cement silos from Germany-based Claudius Peters. The silos have a volume of approx. 17,200m³ and will be installed by contractor PT Hutama Karaya (Persero). The scope of supply includes all process equipment for the silos from conveyors to filters.

SBI is a subsidiary of Semen Indonesia Group. It is expanding the export capacity of its integrated cement plant at Tuban by building a new terminal. The group has a cement production capacity of 65Mt/yr.