Taiheiyo Cement Corporation has taken a further step to reduce its non-cement interests by selling its 43.7% stake in the Japanese glass wool manufacturer MAG to Saint-Gobain. MAG has been jointly managed by Taiheiyo Cement Corporation and Saint Gobain for the past two years and will now be run entirely by Saint-Gobain, a much more important player in the global insulation market, that now doubles its stake to 87.3%.

In its financial year ending this week, Taiheiyo Cement Corporation is expecting its turnover to decline by 15.5% to about ¥737,000m (EUR5959m) and its operational result to fall by 55.2% to some ¥5000m (EUR40.4m). 

In the light of the considerable impairment losses being incurred on its cement assets in connection with the closure of the three works at Tosa, Sakai and Chichibu later this year, the company does not intend to day any dividend in respect of this financial year. 

That action will remove 3.11Mta of annual cement capacity and lead to impairment losses of some EUR120m. 
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