Cement News tagged under: France

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Vicat grows in Asia

08 March 2013, Published under Cement News

France-based cement major Vicat reported a 1.2 per cent rise in turnover in 2012 to €2292.2m, but the EBITDA declined by 10.9 per cent to €437.4m and the trading profit fell by 20.8 per cent to €245.2m. The company booked a pre-tax profit 20 per cent lower at €207.6m and the net attributable fell by 21.1 per cent to €129.1m. Net debt was 6.2 per cent higher at €1,144m and represents 46.4 per cent of total shareholders, or 53.7 per cent if minorities are excluded. Capital investment las...

Vicat launches Bharathi brand in south Maharashtra market, India

07 March 2013, Published under Cement News

The Vicat Group has launched its Bharathi cement brand in the south Maharashtra market, which is being supplied from its new plant at Gulbarga, Karnataka. The plant, which has a nominal capacity of 2.8Mta of cement was launched towards the the end of last year, and is a joint venture between Vicat of France and Sagar Cements of India. The main target markets for the Vicat-Sagar plant are various districts in the south such as Kolhapur, Raigarh, Ratnagiri, Sangli, Sindhudurgh, Satara and ...

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...

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...

Vicat advances in India and Kazakhstan

06 February 2013, Published under Cement News

Vicat's turnover increased by 1.2 per cent in 2012 to €2292.2m, which becomes an underlying decline of 0.2 per cent on a like-for-like basis. Turnover in cement was ahead by 1.6 per cent to €1155.7m, while aggregates and concrete sales were ahead by one per cent to €826.1m. Other activities saw turnover edge ahead by 0.2 per cent to €310.5m. Cement accounted for 52.3 per cent of turnover, very marginally higher than the 52.1 per cent in the previous year. The concrete and aggregate...

Holcim France to close Dannes kiln

01 February 2013, Published under Cement News

As western Europe is faced with overcapacity in cement capacity, Holcim France has announced the closure of its wet-process kiln at Dannes. Citing a 20 per cent decline in the demand for cement since 2008, the management of the cement major said it would close down its clinker production in September 2013. The step would remove 0.3Mta of capacity and is expected to be followed by a further cut in capacity of 0.35Mt at some stage. Only 15 of 84 employees will remain onsite to produce a...

Ciments Kercim to go into production in spring 2013, France

23 January 2013, Published under Cement News

Ciments Kercim’s clinker grinding unit in Montoir-de-Bretagne (Loire-Atlantique) is scheduled to enter service in spring. Located in the bulk terminal port of Nantes-Saint-Nazaire, the facility is ready to receive its first shipment of 15,000t of Turkish clinker as a process test. Once the trial period has ended and certifications are received, it is expected to start normal operations in May or June and ramp up its throughput gradually to its full capacity of 0.6Mta by 2017. The proje...

Euro area construction output down 0.4 per cent in November

18 January 2013, Published under Cement News

Construction output in the 17-nation euro area decreased 0.4 per cent in November according to first estimates released by Eurostat. In Germany, Europe’s largest economy, November construction advanced one per cent from a month earlier, while Spain gained 1.2 per cent, according to today’s report. However, these gains were offset by falls in France and Italy, where output dropped 0.5 per cent and 3.4 per cent, respectively. In the 27-nation EU, construction fell 0.9 per cent from October...

Lafarge completes trials for new generation low-carbon cement

17 January 2013, Published under Cement News

Lafarge has successfully completed an industrial trial for Aether®, its new-generation clinker formulated for lower-carbon cements. The trial mobilised a team of around 100 people over a 10-day period at the Group's plant in Le Teil, France. It allowed the production of 10,000t of Aether® clinker, confirming the feasibility of industrial-scale production using traditional raw materials. The launch of the first Aether® products is planned for 2014. Aether®, a new clinker formulation to red...