Cement News tagged under: Cost-cutting

RSS feed

Cementos Portland considers Spanish plant closure

22 March 2013, Published under Cement News

Cementos Portland is considering the closure of one of its plants in Spain, due to the continued downturn in the Spanish cement market. Juan Bejar CEO of the company’s majority shareholder FCC, said the move could affect one of the three factories in northern Spain or one of the two plants in the Catalonia region, local newspaper Expansion reported. The company will also have to adjust its staffing levels in its concrete and aggregate divisions.

Cementos Molins to reduce workforce

15 March 2013, Published under Cement News

Spain-based cement producer Cementos Molins is to cut 56 jobs at its St Vicenc dels Horts works due to the ongoing crisis in the domestic construction market. The cutbacks will reduce the total number of employees at the plant by 29.3 per cent, according to reports in Cinco Días.

Moody’s upgrades Holcim outlook

13 March 2013, Published under Cement News

Moody’s Investors Service has upgraded Holcim’s outlook to stable, ending 15 months on a negative watch. Moody’s said it changed the outlook citing cash generation as cement sales in the US and emerging markets improve, according to reports by Bloomberg. Holcim maintained its investment-grade rating throughout the European financial crisis. Holcim’s Leadership savings program should gain momentum in 2013 and will help Holcim improve its finances, Moody’s said. Last year, Holcim’s ...

Boral consolidates Australian construction and cement divisions

04 March 2013, Published under Cement News

Building materials producer Boral Ltd has said it will consolidate its Australian construction materials and cement segments into one Australian division as part of ongoing restructuring initiatives. As a result of the merger, Joseph Goss has been appointed Divisional Managing Director, Boral Construction Materials and Cement, effective 1 April 2013. Mr Murray Read’s position of Divisional Managing Director, Boral Construction Materials will be made redundant and Mr Read will leave the or...

DG Khan Cement registers with UNFCCC, Pakistan

04 March 2013, Published under Cement News

Pakistan cement producer DG Khan Cement Company Ltd (DGKC) has registered with the United Nations Framework, Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) for the qualification of Carbon Emission Reductions (CERs). The expected CERs from projects will be approximately 350,000 per annum. This includes the following projects at its two cement plants, Khofli Sattai plant, Dera Ghazi Khan and Khairpur plant, Chakwal: • waste heat recovery and utilisation for power generation at the Khofli Sattai plant ...

Holcim ahead despite Europe slowdown

04 March 2013, Published under Cement News

Annual results released by Holcim earlier this week show that cement sales for the Swiss major in 2012 were ahead in spite of lower European volumes and political instability in the Middle East. Turnover during the year rose by 3.9 per cent in 2012 to CHF21,544m and in euro terms the increase was 6.4 per cent to EUR17,867m. Operating EBITDA improved 6.2 per cent to EUR3502m before restructuring costs, after which the advance was a mere 0.7 per cent to EUR3304m. The trading profit fell by ...

Italcementi launches five-year bond, Italy

25 February 2013, Published under Cement News

Italcementi, the fifth-largest cement producer in the world, has launched a five-year bond of EUR350m at an issue price of EUR99.477 and a coupon of 6.125 per cent, according to reports in La Stampa. At the closure of the placement, orders exceeded EUR 2.5bn. Credit rating agency Moody's has rated the Italcementi bond Ba2 with a "negative" outlook. For 2013, Moody's expects Italcementi to face challenging market conditions in its key markets Egypt and France and, to a lesser extent, in Mor...

Lafarge improves operational performance

25 February 2013, Published under Cement News

Full-year 2012 results published by global cement major Lafarge showed strong growth in emerging markets and improvements in operational performance, and it now expects to meet most of its cost-cutting goal one year ahead of target.   Lafarge's turnover increased 3.5 per cent last year to EUR15,816m and EBITDA by 7.2 per cent to EUR3450m. The trading profit showed a 12 per cent recovery to EUR2440m while pretax profit was also ahead by 36.2 per cent. However, net profit declined by 27.2 per...

Vicat to cut costs and maintenance expenditure, France

21 February 2013, Published under Cement News

French cement major Vicat is cutting spending on maintenance and other costs as it aims to hold onto domestic market share. Speaking in an interview with Bloomberg, Vicat Chief Operating Officer Raoul de Parisot, said: “We don’t have any plan to close plants but we’re reducing costs and maintenance expenditure." He further added" “We need our production capacities to maintain market share when demand picks up.” While the French market expanded in 2011, last year consumption saw a contra...

Lafarge's 2012 consolidated sales rise on higher prices, emerging markets

20 February 2013, Published under Cement News

Lafarge reported a 3.5 per cent rise in consolidated sales for 2012 driven by price increases across all product lines, higher cement volumes in Latin America and Asia and favourable foreign exchange effects. For this year it sees growth in cement demand with emerging markets continuing to lead the way. The group achieved cost savings of EUR410m in the year, delivering on its cost savings target as its savings plan is gathering pace generating EUR80m of EBITDA in 2012. EBITDA and curre...