Cement News tagged: Corporate
Arabian Cement to start Rabigh grinding unit operations in 4Q17
Arabian Cement Co reported construction at its Rabigh grinding facility is ongoing. However, in a bourse filing the company said it expected commercial operations at the unit to start in 4Q17.
India Cements profit up 62%
For the quarter ended 30 September 2016, India Cements Ltd (ICL) reported a 62 per cent increase in standalone net profit to INR624m (US$9.17m) compared to 38.5 in the same period last year. Total standalone net income rose 6.9 per cent to INR13.14bn in the period under review, up from INR12.29bn the previous year. Total expenses were 7.9 per cent higher at INR11.35bn in the period. Meanwhi...
GCC acquires multiple Cemex operations
GCC has announced the acquisition of multiple Cemex operations in the USA. The acquisition comprises a cement plant (Odessa, Texas), two cement terminals (El Paso and Amarillo, Texas) and one construction materials business located in El Paso, Texas, and Las Cruces, New Mexico, comprised of eight ready mix plants, six aggregate plants, five asphalt plants and five distribution centres. T...
Pakistan: DG Khan and Maple Leaf projects on target
Work on DG Khan Cement Co's US$300m Hub cement plant in Balochistan, Pakistan, is progressing well. The 9000tpd works is expected to receive major shipment between October 2016 and April 2017. Commissioning is scheduled for FY2018. Meanwhile, Maple Leaf Cement Factory's 7000tpd grey clinker plant has received approval from its Board. The PKR20bn facility is due to start commercial operation...
Cimpor hit by the weakness in volumes and currencies
Cimpor's nine-month turnover fell by 28.5 per cent to EUR1379.4m and EBITDA dropped by 33.1 per cent to EUR264.6m as cement deliveries in Portugal, Brazil and Argentina declined by 35.7 per cent, 19.8 per cent and 11.7 per cent, respectively, with single-digit reductions being seen in South Africa and Egypt. Mozambique saw shipments improve by 11.2 per cent and Paraguay by 10.8 per cent. A ...
LafargeHolcim adjusts medium-term targets
LafargeHolcim has adjusted its medium-term group targets, according to the group’s 2016 Capital Markets Day statement. In the last 12 months, the company reached net sales of CHF27.8bn and sold 244Mt of cement, 289Mt of aggregates and 56Mm3 of ready-mix concrete. LafargeHolcim has identified and initiated CHF200m of additional cost savings, which enables it to upgrade its 2018 adjusted o...
Kenya: Savannah Cement to raise capacity to 2.4Mta
Savannah Cement has unveiled plans to increase its Athi River plant to 2.4Mta, almost doubling its current 1.5Mta capacity, Business Daily Africa reports. The firm says it expects the new capacity to come online by mid-2018, with the tendering process to begin in early 2017 as soon as regulatory clearance is received. The project will see the creation of a new grinding and packaging plant. ...
Consolidation needed in South African market claims PPC chief
Darryll Castle, chief executive of PPC, has said that he believes there are too many cement companies operating in South Africa, adding that necessary consolidation would leave his firm in a stronger position, the Zimbabwe Herald reports. Mr Castle told the newspaper that PPC was “keeping and eye on the whole industry” and refused to comment on claims that merger talks had been reopened bet...
Kenya: East African Portland Cement to lay off two-thirds of workforce
In a restructuring plan unveiled this week, East African Portland Cement (EAPC) has said it will lay off more than 1000 of its more than 1500 workers, reducing the firm’s headcount to just 500, the Daily Nation reports. “We are overly overstaffed with our employee numbers at over 1500 and close to 2000. By benchmarking with the rest of the industry we need only 500,” said Bill Lay, EAPC’s c...
Nigeria: Ashaka Cement to delist from NSE
LafargeHolcim subsidiary Ashaka Cement has said that it will voluntarily delist its shares from the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) after the freely-tradable proportion fell below the 20 per cent required by the bourse’s regulations, Vanguard News reports. At present, only around 15 per cent of Ashaka stock is tradable on the NSE. Ashaka made the offer to delist to head off the possibility of...
CRH revenues rise to US$22bn on stronger US construction activity
In a trading update covering the first nine months of 2016, CRH announced that its sales revenues had reached EUR20.4bn (US$21.9bn) with improved performances in its European, Asian and American operations. On a pro forma basis, accounting for new revenues generated by acquisitions from LafargeHolcim, sales were six per cent higher in the year to September 2016 than they had been in the sam...
Brazil: CSN 3Q16 revenue up 13.6% YoY
Brazilian steel and cement maker Companhia Siderurgica Nacional's (CSN) 3Q16 results improved in comparison with the year-ago quarter, primarily due to higher sales volume in the mining segment. The company's net loss contracted 80 per cent YoY to BRL106.6m (US$32.9m). CSN generated net revenue of BRL4469.2m (US$1379.4m) from all its operations, increasing 13.6 per cent YoY. Approximat...
USA: FTC approves HeidelbergCement divestiture
The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has given its approval to an application from HeidelbergCement and Italcementi for the divestiture of the Essroc Martinsburg cement plant in West Virginia and eight cement terminals, local newspaper the Morning Call reports. The plant and terminals are to be acquired by Cementos Argos for US$660m. The divestiture was required by the FTC to preserve comp...
India: LafargeHolcim increases stake in Ambuja and ACC
LafargeHolcim has increased its shareholding in Ambuja Cement through the purchase of an additional 39.1m shares, increasing the Franco-Swiss firm’s stake by 1.49 per cent to 63.1 per cent. LafargeHolcim also increased its stake in ACC – since mid-2016 a subsidiary of Ambuja – with the purchase of 7.9m shares, taking its stake to 4.5 per cent. The cost of the two purchases amounts to CHF...
Zimbabwe: PPC commissions its Harare grinding unit
PPC Zimbabwe says it expects to increase exports into the region after commissioning a US$85m grinding plant in Harare which will double the firm’s cement production capacity to 1.4Mta. "We have to intensify our efforts to try capture that market but already we are at a disadvantage because the manufacturing cost in Zimbabwe is pretty high. So to compete in those markets will be pretty dif...
UAE: National Cement Co sees 46% fall in 3Q profits
National Cement reported a 46.2 per cent drop in third-quarter net profits to AED9.85m (US$2.7m) from AED18.31m 3Q15. For the first nine months of 2016, the company posted net profits of AED73.48m, down from AED88.52m reported in the equivalent period of last year.