Cement News tagged: Corporate
United States: Ash Grove’s Leamington wins quality control award
Ash Grove Cement Company’s Leamington plant has won an internal award for excellence in quality control. Commenting on the win, Mike Hrizuk, Ash Grove senior vice president in charge of manufacturing, said: “The Quality Award was established to recognise the plant that best implements quality control practices to ensure our customers a consistent, dependable, high-quality product that make...
Yanbu Cement Co net profit down 11.1% in 1Q16
Yanbu Cement Company posted a 11.11 per cent decline in net profit for the first quarter of 2016, according to a bourse filing sent Wednesday. The cement producer generated SAR184m (US$49m) earnings in the three-month period, down from SAR207m reported in the same quarter a year earlier. Yanbu Cement ascribed the lower profits to a decline in sales volume in addition to a rise in fuel pri...
HeidelbergCement to sell Italcementi's Belgian operations as part of integration plan
HeidelbergCement has laid out its plans for the restructuring of Italcementi's operations following the former's moves to acquire a 45 per cent stake in the Italian firm last July. These include selling off Italcementi’s entire Belgian operations to address competition concerns. In a press release, HeidelbergCement said that the integration process will see the retention of Italcementi’s It...
Ireland: dawn raid on CRH breached CCPC's warrant
A "dawn raid" last year at CRH's Irish Cement plant in Drogheda, by state investigators investigating alleged breaches of competition law, breached the terms of the warrant by seizing the contents of a senior manager's email account. The Irish Times reported that personal correspondence of Seamus Lynch, the head of CRH's businesses in Ireland and Spain, was taken by the Competition a...
Afghanistan: Jabal Saraj reopens after 20 years
The Jabal Saraj cement plant in Afghanistan's Parwan province has resumed production two decades after its operations were halted due to the devastating civil war, which damaged almost all key infrastructure in the country. Wahid Sediqi, provincial governor’s spokesman, said the government has invested more than US$1m to help resume the operations of the factory, which was established in 1...
Algeria: Beni Saf to install new bag filters "very soon"
Beni Saf cement company is expected to install a new bag filter “very soon”, according to Mokhtar Tanem, director general of the cement plant. The new bag filter contains 39 bags and represents an investment of DZD702.6m (US$6.49m). Nine will be installed at the clinker extraction and storage point, 22 in the shipping area, five at the cement mill and sampling, one at the cooler and one for...
Russia: LSR Group appoints members to the board at its AGM
LSR Group has elected its new Board of Directors, consisting of nine members. The new board will now consist of: Aleksandr Vakhmistrov, Olga Sheikina, Evgeny Yatsyshin, Dmitri Gontcharov, Vasily Kostritsa, Andrey Molchanov and the three independent directors - Aleksey Makhnev,Vitaly Podolsky and Alexander Prisyazhnyuk. The AGCM also approved the annual report of OJSC LSR Group for 2015, prepa...
A TEC Group under new management
Following the retirement of Hans Joachim Grieb, the ATEC Group comes under new management in April. Management tasks are being handed over to Wolfgang Hammer and Dr Stefan Kern. Wolfgang Hammer, currently global sales manager, will be the new managing director. Dr Stefan Kern has been appointed his deputy. Presently he is responsible for the markets of northern Europe, eastern Europe and Sou...
Deadline nears for LafargeHolcim India assets bids
Advisors to the sale of LafargeHolcim's 11Mta Indian cement production capacity say that they expect to receive seven to eight bids before next week's deadline. The sale - which was a required by competition authorities - has attracted the attention of a number of private equity firms. According to reports by India’s Mint newspaper, Temasek Holdings, Advent International, Barings Asia Priva...
PT Indocement factory to go online in 3Q16
PT Indocement Tunggal Prakarsa's new cement factory in Citeureup, West Java, is expected to be operable by the third quarter of 2016, with investment of IDR6.5trn (US$491m). Indocement, part of the HeidelbergCement Group, has allotted IDR2.3trn from internal cash for its 2016 capital expenditure (capex) to finalise the construction of its new plant. The company will also use further capex f...
Italy: strike planned over Heidelberg/Italcementi merger
A strike with national demonstration has been announced for Friday, 29 April 2016 to protest about the possible job cuts for Italcementi workers over the proposed merger with HeidelbergCement Group. The strike was announced by the national coordination of RSU group meeting in Rome. Opponents claim that there is the possibility of up to 2300 jobs in Italy being at risk if the merger is complete...
USA: 150 years up for Essroc's Nazareth Cement plant
Essroc Cement of Upper Nazareth, USA, celebrated 150 years in business last Thursday evening at the Nazareth Center for the Arts. Nazareth Bath Regional Chamber of Commerce board members and local dignitaries were present to help celebrate the milestone. “What makes us very unique as a company is our heritage of being one of the best-known companies and best-known product lines,” said Crai...
India: UltraTech confirms US$2.4bn purchase of Jaypee assets
UltraTech Cement has reached a definitive agreement in its deal to buy 21.2Mta of production capacity from Jaiprakash Associates (JAL) at a cost of INR159bn (US$2.4bn). India's Telegraph newspaper reports that UltratTech will acquire existing plants with a capacity of 17.2Mta as well as a 4Mta grinding unit currently under construction. Originally, the sale was to include Jaypee’s 1.2M...
Anhui Conch still outperforming rivals, claims Fitch
Fitch Ratings claims that Anhui Conch Cement Company Ltd has maintained its financial strength and improved its market share in 2015, despite seeing a sharp decline in its domestic Chinese cement market. Sales volume in China's cement industry fell 4.9 per cent and average selling prices (ASPs) decreased 15 per cent in 2015, driven by the weakness in fixed-asset investments and industry overs...
Cemex to invest in seven energy projects
Cemex has plans for seven energy projects in Mexico, including wind parks, according to its CEO, Fernando González Olivieri. The structure of the investment would run along similar debt-to-equity lines as used in the construction of the Ventika wind farm, promoted by Cemex and Fisterra Energy, a Blackstone subsidiary. Some 75 per cent of funds were contributed by NadBank, Banobras, Nafin, Ba...
Brazil: Votorantim Cimentos downgraded to BBB-
Fitch Ratings has downgraded the foreign currency Issuer Default Rating (IDR) and senior unsecured rating of Votorantim Cimentos to 'BBB-' from 'BBB'. The rating outlook remains negative, said Fitch Ratings, and reflects the significant deterioration in the Brazilian economy resulting in weakening cement fundamentals over the medium term. The challenging domestic market coupled with Votorant...