Cement News tagged under: Weekly Newsletter
Cemex begins share repurchase programme29 November 2018, Published under Cement NewsCemex has begun its share repurchase programme, approved at its ordinary shareholders’ meeting for up to US$500m. "We are pleased to initiate our share buyback programme, which is one of the capital allocation options we have to create value for our shareholders," said Fernando A González, CEO. The company repurchased 7m CPOs on 27 November. The total amount of the repurchase, including commissions and VAT, was MXN65.9m (US$3.2m). |
Brazilian cement market sees 2% slip in 10M1827 November 2018, Published under Cement NewsCement sales in Brazil by domestic producers totalled 44.2Mt in the first 10 months of 2018, and were down 1.5 per cent YoY, according to SNIC, the country’s cement association. Brazil’s apparent consumption of cement (domestic sales + imports) totalled 44.4Mt between January-October 2018, representing a 1.9 per cent YoY decrease. SNIC President, Paulo Camillo Penna, said that although October sales increased by 5.2 per cent in relation to the same period in 201, this uptick is insufficie... |
Ramco Cements to spend INR8.5bn on plant expansion27 November 2018, Published under Cement NewsIndia’s Ramco Cements is investing INR8.5bn (US$120m) to increase capacity at its facility in Jayanthipuram, Andhra Pradesh, by 1.5Mta and construct a 27MW WHR system. The project is part of an overall expansion plan for the company. "Currently, we have cement grinding capacity of 16.5Mta, which we plan to take to 20Mta by March 2020," said A V Dharmakrishnan, CEO of Ramco Cements. The plan would see its Kolaghat, Visakhapatnam and Odisha grinding units each expanded by nearly 1Mta, accord... |
Uruguayan 3Q domestic cement sales up 14%26 November 2018, Published under Cement NewsCement sales in Uruguay increased 14 per cent YoY to 181,000t in the July-September quarter, according to a report by the country’s Chamber of Industries. However, exports fell by 74 per cent to 12,000t during the same period. Around 60 per cent of exports are delivered to Paraguay, followed by Argentina (27 per cent) and Brazil (13 per cent). Imports were negligible in the third quarter of 2018 and in the year to date, accounted for around 8.9 per cent of apparent consumption. |
Lafarge Malaysia records 3Q18 net loss of MYR109m21 November 2018, Published under Cement NewsLafarge Malaysia recorded a net loss in 3Q18 of MYR109.28m (US$26m) down 160 per cent from MYR42.01m in 3Q17. Revenue fell by 14 per cent YoY to MYR495.1m in 3Q18. The decline in earnings was down to lower cement sale and higher operating expenditure. Higher energy prices, as well as the lower production output and timing of the scheduled plant maintenance put pressure on costs. "The decrease was due to the soft market demand and continuing domestic pricing pressures," said Lafarge Malay... |
EAPCC receives backing to sell land assets21 November 2018, Published under Cement NewsKenya’s East African Portland Cement Co (EAPCC) has received Trade Ministry backing to sell off idle land, which will help the company recoup some of the KES15bn (U$146.3m) it says it needs to avoid a complete shutdown of operations. Betty Maina of the Trade Ministry has said that a Cabinet memorandum is ready for submission to grant the company approval to sell off its assets. Ms Maina also noted that EAPCC, which has assets worth KES100bn, does not require a government bail-out for a tur... |
Peru cement market expands 3% in October20 November 2018, Published under Cement NewsPeru’s cement consumption advanced 2.9 per cent YoY to 1.02Mt, according to the country’s cement association, Asocem. Cement production by domestic producers fell by two per cent YoY and by 2.9 per cent MoM to 0.903Mt while clinker output decreased by 23.5 per cent YoY and 2.1 per cent MoM to 0.678Mt in October. Domestic production was supplemented by 90,000t of cement imports, down 71.4 per cent YoY and 82.8 per cent MoM, as well as 153,000t of clinker imports, which represents a 251.3 ... |
LKAB Minerals is set to acquire Francis Flower20 November 2018, Published under Cement NewsLKAB Minerals of Sweden is working on a deal to complete the acquisition of Francis Flower by 3 December 2018. The Austrian Competition Authority gave clearance for the acquisition on 10 October. Francis Flower operates a 0.55Mta grinding unit for ground granulated blastfurnace slag (GGBS) cement in Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire, UK. The company also has five main storage locations and a network of remote storage silos, which provides an additional 15,000t of cement storage. Adrian Willmott, ch... |
Colombian cement demand stable in September16 November 2018, Published under Cement NewsCement dispatches in September 2018 increased by 0.8 per cent YoY to 1.031Mt from 1.023Mt, according to DANE, the country’s statistics office. Demand growth was led by Córdoba, where it rose by 18.3 per cent YoY, followed by Meta (+16.1 per cent) and Nariño (+12.8 per cent). Cesar and Risaralda saw consumption rise by around 5.8 per cent while Boyacá noted a 4.6 per cent increase. Antioquia also saw dispatches up, by 3.4 per cent while in Valle del Cauca and Bolivar the market expanded by ... |
New levy to increase input costs for Australian manufacturers16 November 2018, Published under Cement NewsAustralian manufacturers and industry groups have warned that a new "biosecurity levy" would increase costs by 3000-5000 per cent on the key inputs for cement production, aluminium and steel. The levy, included in the May budget, is estimated to raise AUD108m (US$78.45m) a year, according to The Australian. Due to start on 1 July 2019, it will see manufacturers pay a AUD1/t levy on non-containerised cargo, instead of paying a fee-for-service for biosecurity inspections. "Currently manufac... |