Cement News tagged: Corporate
Pakistan: Attock full-year profit rises
Attock Cement reported an after-tax profit of PKR2.21bn (US$21.7m) in FY14-15, up 9.5 per cent compared to PKR2bn in the last fiscal year. Revenues climbed 4.3 per cent to PKR13bn during the review period compared to PKR12.5bn, AKD Research said in its report. The company’s gross margins, which improved by 407 basis points to 33.6 per cent in FY15, also contributed to the net earnings, the r...
Vietnam: Thang Cement project wins funding
JSC Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BIDV) and North Asia Commercial Joint Stock Bank (Bac A Bank) will lend a combined VND3.15trn (US$143.5m) to construction a new cement plant in the central province of Nghe An. Tan Thang cement plant, in Qunh Luu district, is a project with a total investment of VND4.54trn. It will have a capacity of 5000tpd of clinker or 1.98Mta of cement...
Pakistan: Attock Cement plans 3300tpd plant
Attock Cement Ltd has planned an estimated capital outlay of US$120m to install a new plant with a clinker production capacity of 3300tpd, securities analyst Sajjad Hussain at BMA Capital said. Currently the company has a cash and short-term investment reserves of PKR3.8bn. The location of the new plant will be next to the existing Hub Chowki plant site in Lasbella, Baluchistan, in the west...
Buzzi Cement see stock market gains of 5%
Buzzi Unicem was the best performer of the FTSE MIB blue-chip index of the Milan Stock Exchange yesterday, trading at more than five per cent higher at EUR16/share, which is the highest price since June 2008. The rise was stimulated by Exane BNP Paribas, which raised the share price target of Buzzi Unicem to EUR21.50, keeping the "outperform" recommendation. The analysts made the reco...
Asia Cement still chasing full control of Shanshui Cement
Asia Cement plans to raise convertible debt to gain full control of China Shanshui Cement. In a filing to the Taiwan Stock Exchange, the group said it hopes to raise US$400m from a zero-coupon issue, its first equity-linked deal in just over two years. This will fund its proposed takeover of Shanshui in which it owns a 20.9 per cent stake. On Wednesday Asia Cement and state-owned China Nation...
Bangladesh: Lafarge Surma signs deal with real estate company
Lafarge Surma Cement Ltd (LSC) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Building Technology & Ideas Ltd (BTI), one of the leading real estate companies of Bangladesh. Under the agreement, BTI will use Supercrete cement in all its construction projects. Masud Khan, finance director of Lafarge Surma Cement Ltd, and Md Sharifur Rahman, executive director, Construction of BTI signed ...
Holcim Philippines' strong 2Q results
Holcim Philippines Inc's strong sales continued in the second quarter of 2015 as its plants delivered record supplies of cement. Holcim Philippines net sales from April to June rose by 9.7 per cent to PHP9.4bn (US$203m) from PHP8.6bn in the 1Q15. The company’s second-quarter net income improved by 1.6 per cent QoQ to PHP1.5bn due to higher volume and prices. Holcim Philippines President and ...
India Cements reports low demand in 2Q15
South India's largest cement maker by volume, The India Cements Ltd, on Wednesday said its profits for the quarter ended June 2015 were INR4010m (US$617.2m) from a loss of INR2960m (US$25.5m) in the comparable quarter last year. Cement producers in south India have previously found profits hard to come by with excess capacity and falling demand. "It's a quarter where price stabilisation hap...
Cemex announces divestment of operations in Austria, Hungary and Croatia
Cemex announced today that it has signed an agreement for the sale of its operations in Austria and Hungary to the Rohrdorfer Group for approximately EUR160.1m. The Austrian operations consist of 24 aggregate quarries (approximately 6.47Mt of aggregates sold in 2014) and 34 ready-mix plants (approximately 1.60Mm 3 of ready-mix sold in 2014). Cemex’s operations in Austria had net sales of ap...
Semen Indonesia may review expansion plans amid slow demand environment
Semen Indonesia has said it may review some planned expansion projects amid sluggish domestic cement demand, according to a senior company executive. “We will probably be accelerating the projects that have already started construction, but for other projects, like our regional expansion and the packing plant, we may adjust the plans,” said Ahyanizzaman, finance director at Semen Indonesia to...
Moody's assigns first-time A3 rating to Anhui Conch Cement
Moody's Investors Service has assigned a first-time A3 issuer rating to Anhui Conch Cement Company Ltd. The rating outlook is stable. "Conch's A3 rating reflects its leadership in the domestic cement industry, as demonstrated by its large production capacity and distribution networks, its strong earnings and ample cash flows, as well as sustained low debt leverage and disciplined capital spen...
PPC hosts groundbreaking ceremony for Zimbabwe plant
PPC has held a groundbreaking ceremony for a new 0.7Mta plant in Msasa, Zimbabwe. The US$80m plant will be the company’s second cement facility in the country. Speaking at the event, Njombo Lekula, the managing director of PPC, said the investment PPC was making in the Msasa plant was a vote of confidence in Zimbabwe’s future. “PPC Zimbabwe is looking to the future of the country, with tod...
Schon named PCA Vice President and Counsel, Government Affairs
Portland Cement Association (PCA) named Michael Schon as vice president and counsel for government affairs. With PCA, he will have lead responsibility for shepherding the association's regulatory advocacy efforts and for promoting the cement industry in general. Schon comes to PCA from Baker Botts LLP, where he served as senior associate in the environmental practice group. In that capacity, ...
Holcim Philippines net quarter down 7.5% YoY
Holcim Philippines Inc said Monday second-quarter net profit was down 7.5 per cent YoY, hurt by rising expenses. Holcim said the April-June quarter net profit declined to PHP1.5bn (US$33.5m) from PHP1.65bn in the year-earlier period. Second-quarter revenue rose 6.8 per cent YoY to PHP9.42bn, around half the pace of the 12 per cent YoY increase in expenses to PHP7.29bn. In the first half, ...
Chinese demand seen improving - Citi
Cement demand in China is likely to improve sequentially in the coming six months with the speeding up of infrastructure construction and more policy support, says Citi. Cement demand in China had declined 5.3 per cent YoY in 1H 2015 on slow infrastructure investments and weak property new starts, leading to an 18 per cent drop in the cement price year-to-date. Citi forecasts demand will ...
Fitch Ratings publishes Anhui Conch Cement’s Rating of 'A-'/Stable
Fitch Ratings has published Anhui Conch Cement Company Limited's (Conch) Long-Term Foreign-Currency Issuer Default Rating (IDR) and senior unsecured rating of 'A-'. The Outlook on the IDR is Stable. The rating's agency notes that Conch is one of the largest cement producers in China. Its principle business includes the manufacturing and selling of cement, clinker and aggregate products. Its c...