Cement News tagged under: Lafarge

RSS feed

Bamburi first-half pretax profit falls, Kenya

03 August 2012, Published under Cement News

Kenya’s leading cement producer Bambur Cement posted a 12.86 per cent fall in pretax profit for the first half of this year to KES3.7bn (US$43.89m), hurt by financing costs that exceeded revenue growth, the company said on Friday. The company, which is part of the Lafarge group, said turnover increased 17 per cent to KES19.2bn. "The regional cement market will continue to be vibrant. Focus will be on retaining the upward trend of revenue growth," Bamburi said in a statement, adding th...

Lafarge takes hit on Greek impairment charge, maintains outlook

27 July 2012, Published under Cement News

Lafarge has reported improved second-quarter sales and operating profit but net profit plummeted as it took an impairment charge of EUR200m (US$244m) on its Greek assets. Second-quarter sales rose five per cent to EUR4261m and EBITDA increased eight per cent to EUR1007m. Net income in 2Q was only EUR57m due mainly to the Greek impairment charge. For the first-half sales increased by five per cent to EUR7614m and EBITDA eight per cent to € 1523m while net profit was  EUR13m down from EU...

Lafarge Exshaw project heading for approval, Canada

26 July 2012, Published under Cement News

The proposed Lafarge Canada cement plant expansion application for Exshaw will go back to the Municipal District of Bighorn's planning commission today after being tabled last week for more information, according to reports in local newspaper, the Canmore Leader. The application was discussed and dissected for more than two hours at the MPC meeting on July 18 before commission members voted to table it to this week. The eight-day break gave the company and officials time to exchange addi...

Lagos state agrees deal with Lafarge and Dangote

24 July 2012, Published under Cement News

The Lagos State Government has signed a new deal with Dangote Cement Plc and Lafarge Cement WAPCO Plc to ensure undisrupted cement supplies to construction firms contracted to handle various infrastructure project which the state government is set to embark upon. Commissioner for Works and Infrastructure, Dr. Obafemi Hamzat revealed the details at a media briefing where he said the state government had started looking into cement mix as an alternative method in road construction. Ha...

Four Indian plants force to close on alleged environmental violation

20 July 2012, Published under Cement News

Four cement plants in the Indian state of Chhattisgarh have been ordered to shut down on alleged violation of air pollution controls norms. The Chhattisgarh Environment Conservation Board (CECB) told Business Line India that two UltraTech Cement plant, one Ambuja Cement and one Lafarge plant have all be closed for over a week now.  The four units, all situated in Baloda Bazar district, have a total capacity of 10Mta. CECB member secretary, Mr Narsimha Rao, said there were charges of viola...

Lafarge: June '12

06 July 2012, Published under Cement News

Lafarge has launched its 'Sustainability Ambitions 2020' programme, which sets 34 new sustainability ambitions. These include an increase to 50 per cent of the portion of non-fossil fuels, which is to include a 30 per cent share for bio-mass, a 33 per cent reduction of CO2 emissions compared with 1990 and 20 per cent of the concrete produced containing re-used and recycled materials. The group aims to generate an additional EUR1750m of EBITDA between 2012 and 2015. The main item is to be...

Brazil competition authority approves Camargo purchase of Cimpor

05 July 2012, Published under Cement News

Brazil’s competition authority CADE has approved Camargo Correa’s purchase of a controlling stake in Portuguese cement producer Cimpor, subject to several conditions. The main condition set by the regulator is that Votorantim, Camargo’s competitor on the Brazilian market, sells its stake in Cimpor. Votorantim and Camargo Correa both bought shares in Cimpor in 2010. Through their shareholdings in Cimpor, both Camargo Correa and Votorantim increased their share of Brazil's market. Cade als...

Lafarge places seven-year EUR500m bond

03 July 2012, Published under Cement News

Lafarge placed today, under its Euro Medium-Term Note program, a EUR500m bond with a seven year maturity and fixed annual coupon of 5.875% to institutional investors.   While Lafarge had no immediate refinancing needs, the company said: “proceeds of this bond issuance will reinforce the already strong liquidity position of the Group.”   The settlement and issuance of the bond are expected to occur on 9 July 2012.

Defending profitability key for European companies

03 July 2012, Published under Cement News

Fitch Ratings says that the ability to defend profitability in emerging countries is the most critical issue for the rating of the European cement companies rated by the agency, Holcim Ltd. ('BBB'/Stable), Lafarge SA ('BB+'/Stable) and HeidelbergCement AG ('BB+'/Stable). In its special report, Fitch compared the current financials of the major European cement companies to the pre-crisis situation to assess if and how geographical diversification helped companies to recover revenue and prese...

Lafarge to cut a further 97 jobs in France

27 June 2012, Published under Cement News

Lafarge expects to cut a further 97 jobs in its domestic market of France as part of a plant to merge its three French divisions into one, to be headquartered in the Paris region. Lafarge, which employs a total of 68,000 people including 5300 in France, said in February it would cut 460 jobs worldwide, including 90 in France as part of a its corporate restructuring announced in November 2011. Earlier this month the group unveiled plans to cut costs by EUR1.3bn and increase profits over...