Cement News tagged under: South Africa

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PPC announces operational update for April

04 May 2020, Published under Cement News

PPC has released an update for its African operations during April. PPC Barnet in the DRC has been able to continue to operate and is expected to produce similar volumes compared to the same period last year. Cimerwa and PPC Zimbabwe have also partially resumed operations in Rwanda and Zimbabwe, respectively, in the second half of April. Cement sales volumes in these countries are expected to be around 15-20 per cent of the volumes sold in April 2019. Overall sales volumes in South Africa ...

NPC goes into lockdown to stop spread of coronavirus

27 March 2020, Published under Cement News

South Africa-based NPC, part of the InterCement group, has announced the shutdown of its industrial operations and commercial activities following the 21-day complete country lockdown announced by the country’s government to halt the spread of COVID-19. The company expressed in a letter its support for the government’s actions and encouraged the community to follow the lockdown rules and was confident it would overcome the challenge together. NPC operates 1.8Mta of cement capacity  in a...

Sephaku Holdings reappoints executive director

25 March 2020, Published under Cement News

South Africa’s Sephaku Holdings has announced that Kenneth Capes has been re-appointed as an executive director and CEO of Métier Mixed Concrete Proprietary Ltd, with effect from 1 April 2020. Mr Capes’ experience spans the manufacture of ready-mixed concrete to quarrying. He first joined the company’s board as an executive director in 2013, as part of the founding owners of Métier following its acquisition in the first quarter of 2013. “The board welcomes the appointment of Kenneth as an...

AfriSam call for fair market conditions over imports

23 March 2020, Published under Cement News

Speaking after AfriSam’s Annual National Budget breakfast event held in Sandton recently, AfriSam CEO, Rob Wessels emphasised the need for fair competition in the cement sector. He said industry was engaging government and trade authorities to ensure fair conditions over the import of cement, including the enforcement of existing port tariffs for these goods.  "For a number of reasons, South Africa is unfortunately de-industrialising its economy," Mr Wessels said. "As committed corporate ...

PPC sees volumes improve and price rises stick

19 March 2020, Published under Cement News

Cement-maker PPC said lower levels of capital expenditure has helped offset lower earnings during the 11 months to end-February, with its southern African business starting to show signs of stabilisation even as it continues to face price pressures from increasing exports. The South African coastal business is experiencing a downturn in volumes affected by imports, while inland volumes are showing signs of improvement, the group said in a trading update. It has experienced average price inc...

Sephaku Cement sees profits fall on construction activity decline

03 March 2020, Published under Cement News

Sephaku Cement (Dangote group) says it expects the next 12-18 months to be tough on the building sector. Declining numbers of new construction sites are impacting on business. The market is expected to remain subdued, Sephaku Cement said, as reflected by the 12.7 per cent decline in building plans passed for 2019, according to Stats SA data. Sephaku Cement reported profit after tax slumped to ZAR1.3m (US$83,745) in its year to end-December, from ZAR128.7m previously. It said it had sel...

Natal Portland Cement cleared in price-fixing case

06 December 2019, Published under Cement News

South Africa's leading antitrust tribunal has dismissed a price-fixing and market division case against Cimpor-owned Natal Portland Cement (NPC) more than a decade after an investigation was launched. The competition investigation was originally launched in 2008 and included PPC, AfriSam and Lafarge. The tribunal has come to the conclusion that NPC had not engaged in a price war. "It [NPC] was operating at maximum capacity, which it could not increase, and operated mainly, almost exclusivel...

PPC's group revenue impacted by Zimbabwe

21 November 2019, Published under Cement News

PPC announced a group revenue of ZAR4.9bn (US$330.1m) and group EBITDA of ZAR868m for the six months ended 30 September 2019. Group revenue was down 12 per cent on results from the six-month period at ZAR5.6bn, which was attributed to a 17 per cent volume decline in group cement volumes. Group EBITDA was also affected by Zimbabwe's currency devaluation and hyperinflation as well as the trading environment in South Africa, plus a one-off restructuring costs of ZAR83m. When excluding PPC Zimb...

Sephaku Holdings reports net loss in 1HFY19-20

15 November 2019, Published under Cement News

South Africa’s Sephaku Holdings has reported a loss of ZAR7.7m (US$521,582) for the six months ending 30 September 2019, compared with a ZAR26.5m net profit in the year-ago period. In particular, Sephaku Cement (Dangote Cement) announced a ZAR21.6m net loss against a ZAR44.9m profit in the corresponding period of the previous fiscal. Sales revenue decreased 16.9 per cent YoY to ZAR996.9m from ZAR1.2bn, while its EBITDA fell 40.7 per cent to ZAR151.5m. "The operating landscape had result...

PPC opens material handling facility

30 October 2019, Published under Cement News

PPC Ltd has opened its Port Elizabeth material handling facility in South Africa. The facility is located in Deal Party and is able to handle approximately 400tph of clinker. The new facility also has packaging equipment for cement and has a staff of 44 people. The ZAR60m (US$40.1m) facility was commissioned in August and was officially launched this week. One of PPC's 0.2Mta kiln lines at its Port Elizabeth cement plant was decommissioned in June 2019, because of stricter environmental reg...