Cement News tagged: Corporate
Ghana: CIMAF plant opens for business
Ghanaian president John Dramani Mahama has officially opened his country’s newest cement plant, a 1Mta grinding facility owned by CIMAF, according to a report in Ghana Business News. The President – who is seeking to retain power in this month’s elections – called on the company to direct a substantial share of its profits to improving the socio-economic development of the country and the l...
USA: Elementia acquires 55% stake in Giant Cement
Elementia, SAB de CV has announced that its Board of Directors has given its final approval for the completion of the acquisition of a 55 per cent stake and full control of Giant Cement Holding Inc, USA. Elementia will acquire the controlling stake from Cementos Portland Valderrivas SA for US$220m. Elementia used proceeds obtain from he capital increase through a Rights Offering to complete...
Russia: Kavkazcement upgrades packing and shipment facility
Eurocement Group has started operation of a cement palletisation and shipment facility at Kavkazcement in Karachay-Cherkessia, northern Caucasus. A new automated bulk cement shipment system and enhanced dust control system will help speed up the shipment of products more than five-fold, improve customer services and working conditions at the plant.
Chile: Melon SA divests mortar unit to ParexGroup
Chilean cement and construction materials producer Melon SA has agreed to sell its local mortar company Melon Morteros SA to ParexGroup, a French provider of specialty dry-mix solutions for the construction industry. The mortar unit is being sold for CLP4bn (US$6m), according to a filing with Chile’s securities and insurance regulator (SVS). ParexGroup will implement the transaction through ...
Malaysia: CMS Cement division sees 14% drop in 9M16 pretax profits
Malaysia’s Cahya Mata Sarawak Bhd (CMS) reported a total revenue of MYR1.10bn and a pretax profit of MYR160.41m in the first nine months of 2016, down 14 and 40 per cent YoY, respectively. The group’s cement division recorded a pretax profit of MYR76.98m, a decrease of 14 per cent YoY when compared with the record MYR89.23m recorded in 9M15. The company attributes the fall in profits to low...
Cementos Moctezuma completes second line at Apazapan
Cementos Molins and Buzzi Unicem's Mexican joint venture, Cementos Moctezuma, announced that construction of the second production line at its Apazapan plant in Veracruz state has now been completed. The new line will fully enter operation on 15 December, when the mill is commissioned. The project, financed by the company through its own resources, represents an investment of US$23m. It...
Mexico: Cemex prepays 2017 maturity in credit agreement
Cemex has prepaid US$373m, corresponding to the September 2017 amortisation under the facilities agreement of 29 September 2014. Some US$664m of currently-funded commitments maturing in 2018 have now been exchanged into a revolving facility, maintaining their original amortisation schedule and the same terms and conditions. The company says that the new revolving facility will provide it wit...
HeidelbergCement completes sale of US assets to Cementos Argos
HeidelbergCement has completed the US$660m sale of the Martinsburg cement plant and eight terminals to Cementos Argos. HeidelbergCement had been required to sell the West Virginia plant to comply with regulators following the acquisition of Italcementi. It is expected that the company will use the proceeds of the sale to pay down some of debt it took on to finance the acquisition process. ...
Kazakhstan: Steppe Cement refinances US$15m loans
Steppe Cement has announced that it has refinanced two loans worth a combined US$15.3m, StockMarketWire reports. A loan of US$5.5m due this month has split into three tranches, the last of which now falls due in November 2018. A US$9.8m loan contracted in 2014 will now be repaid in equal monthly instalments until November 2021. "The refinancing exercise allows Steppe Cement to spread the...
Tanzania: rising costs bring Dangote plant to a standstill
Production at Dangote’s Mtwara plant in Tanzania was brought to a halt last week as the company has found itself embroiled in a political battle over the payment of incentives by the Tanzanian government, the Citizen newspaper reports. The 3Mta plant was commissioned in October 2015 and Dangote has claimed to have made ‘strong market share gains’ according to its trading update for the firs...
Chile: Cementos Bío-Bío sees 8.6% profit slip in 9M2016
Chilean cement producer Cementos Bío-Bío reported a 3.3 per cent rise in profits to CLP221.5bn (US$329m) in the January-September 2016 period from CLP214.5bn in 10M15. However, a rise in the cost of sales and financing as well as a foreign exchange loss saw the company with sharply reduced profits. Net profits reached CLP13.847m in the 10-month period, down 8.6 per cent when compared with C...
Sinai Cement swings into EGP7.7m 3Q profit
Egypt’s Sinai Cement reported a profit of EGP7.65m in 3Q16 vs a 3Q15 loss of 24.47m. In the first nine months of 2016, the company turned a profit of EGP23.02m (US$426,111), a significantly better result than the previous year when the company reported a loss of EGP53.16m, taking into account minority rights.
HeidelbergCement issues EUR1bn
HeidelbergCement has priced a Eurobond issue under its EUR10bn EMTN programme with an issuance volume of EUR1bn and a maturity date of 7 February 2025. Demand was very high and the bond was oversubscribed several times, reported HeidelbergCement. With this issue, HeidelbergCement tapped the capital market for the first time following the recent investment grade classification. The eight-yea...
India Cements receives stay on CCI fine
India Cements received a stay order following its appeal of the decision made by the Competition Commission of India (CCI) to impose a INR1.87m fine on it for unfair pricing practices. On 31 August, CCI imposed penalties of around INR67bn on 10 cement companies and the Cement Manufacturers’ Association for cartelisation. COMPAT imposed a condition that India Cements would have to deposit 10...
Canada: McInnis Cement appoints new President and CEO
Hervé Mallet jhas been appointed as the new President and CEO of McInnes Cement. Mr Mallet has considerable experience in sales, marketing and operations and is a graduate of the University of Wolverhampton and Brunel University, UK. Until recently Mr Mallet was executive vice-president of North America for Dynacast, a manufacturing company with 23 plants and 6000 employees worldwide. As ...
Pakistan: Dewan Cement to sell its North cement plant
Dewan Cement Ltd has appointed Next Capital Ltd as the financial advisor for sale of its North cement plant, Kamilpur, near Hattar in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. Next Capital Ltd will explore the possibility of sale of the North plant which has a production capacity of 3800tpd. The Board announced that this plant sale would be run in parallel with the potential sale of 51 per cent of ...