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ASEC consortium wins Iraq plant contract

06 September 2013, Published under Cement News

A consortium of ASEC Cement  and Iraq's Qemmet El-Iraq has won a contract to rehabilitate and manage for 14 years the Muthanna cement plant in Muthanna Governorate, Iraq. Representatives of the consortium, including Abulla Hussein of Qemmet El-Iraq as well as ASEC Cement Chairman and CEO Giorgio Bodo, attended a signing ceremony in Baghdad with Southern Cement Co., the state holding company that controls Muthanna Cement, on 28 August 2013. "We are delighted to be entering this new market ...

S&P lifts Cimpor outlook from stable to positive

05 September 2013, Published under Cement News

Standard & Poor’s has reaffirmed its ‘BB/B’ long and short term rating on Cimpor and InterCement, revising the outlook from stable to positive. The change follows the Outlook revision from stable to positive, keeping a ‘BB’ rating of Camargo Correa, which indirectly controls 94.2 per cent of Cimpor share capital. According to the rating’s agency, the outlook revision to positive based on the successful integration of InterCement and Cimpor assets and on the expectation that the new cement ...

Pakistan monthly sales fall

05 September 2013, Published under Cement News

Pakistan cement dispatches fell seven per cent YoY in August due to the Eid holidays and wet weather conditions. Sales were down to 2.15Mt in August 2013 compared to 2.6Mt in the same month of the previous year.  Meanwhile, on a sequential basis, August sales fell by 17 per cent compared to July 2013 dispatches of 2.6Mt. Domestic sales were hardest hit as volumes were down 19 per cent to 1.5Mt while exports fell 13 per cent. For the first two months of current fiscal, which began in Jul...

Tanga 1H hit by competition, higher costs

04 September 2013, Published under Cement News

Tanzania-based cement producer Tanga Cement reported a 36.7 per cent drop in first-half net profit due to increased competition and operating costs. For the six months to the end of June 2013, net profit fell to TZS10.5bn (US$10.3m) from TZS16.6bn. "The low sale volume, together with reduced selling prices, reduced sales revenues by eight per cent to TZS122.62bn," company chairman, Laurence Masha, said in the statement. Kiln maintenance undertaken in May should reflect positively in th...

Semapa's 1H13 turnover declines

03 September 2013, Published under Cement News

In the first half of 2013, Semapa reported that turnover from its cement division fell 3.2 per cent YoY to EUR233.5m, essentially due to a drop in turnover in Portugal and Angola. EBITDA in the cement business unit stood at EUR28.2m, up by 0.1 per cent on the same period in 2012. In the second quarter, EBITDA from cement business totalled EUR16.2m, up by 34.4 per cent from the previous quarter. This increase was largely due to a significant increase in sales in cement business in Portugal...

Belgian fines for restricting market access

02 September 2013, Published under Cement News

The three leading cement producers in Belgium, together with two industry associations, have been fined EUR14.7m for restricting market access. The Belgium Competition Council said in a statement on Friday that CBR (part of the HeidelbergCement group), Holcim Belgium and CCB (Italcementi) colluded with the Belgian cement association FEBELCEM and the national centre for technical and scientific research for the cement industry (CRIC/OCCN). Between May 2000 and October 2003 the parties...

Monthly cement production rises 6.2%, Colombia

29 August 2013, Published under Cement News

Colombia produced 966,800t of cement in July 2013, up 6.2 per cent YoY, according to the latest data from national statistics office Dane. In terms of dispatches, a 11.5 per cent rise to 980,500t was reported as construction companies increased  orders by 19.7 per cent and ready-mix concrete firms by 18.5 per cent. Sales to the retail sector also saw a six per cent advance. During July, Córdoba saw a 45.5 per cent rise in dispatches, closely followed by Norte de Santander (41.2 per cent)...

Siam City Cement shelves Cambodia plant plans

29 August 2013, Published under Cement News

Thailand-based Siam City Cement (SCCC) has put its plans for a 1Mta cement plant in Cambodia on hold while it concentrates on meeting domestic market needs. Managing director of SCCC, Philippe Arto, told the Bangkok Post that the company's board has decided to put its plans for the US$150m Cambodia facility “on the shelf” after finishing a feasibility study. Construction had been expected to start at the end of this year.  Mr Arto added that: “The board decided that the project is not a pr...

Moroccan sales slide 12.6% in first six months

29 August 2013, Published under Cement News

In the first half of 2013 Moroccan cement sales fell 12.6 per cent YoY to 7.8Mt, although the pace of decline significantly eased in the second quarter, latest statistics from the Directorate of Studies and Planning of the country’s Ministry of Economy and Finance show. While the market continues to contract, second-quarter sales fell by four per cent, far less than the 21 per cent drop recorded in the first three months of the year. The downward trend, attributed to heavy rainfall which l...

Cimpor boosted by South American operations

28 August 2013, Published under Cement News

Cimpor's underlying first half turnover improved by 19.6 per cent to EUR1299.8m as the company is boosted by its new South America operations but Portuguese losses more than double. EBITDA for the six month period advanced by a more modest 6.3 per cent to EUR284.2m. Ignoring non-recurring charges, the EBITDA would have been some 19 per cent ahead a EUR331m, while the improvement on the re-stated last year numbers was 28.1 per cent.  On this basis, the trading profit increased by 34.6 per c...