South African cement firm PPC plans to enter the Democratic Republic of Congo with a $200 million factory, its chief executive said.

This cement plant is part of PPC’s drive to boost sales outside its home market. The company plans to make at least 40 percent of its sales outside South Africa by 2016.

The 1 million tonne factory in the DRC comes alongside similar projects in Zimbabwe, Ethiopia and Rwanda.
“By the last quarter of 2015 we should begin cement production almost simultaneously in Ethiopia, Rwanda and the DRC. Zimbabwe will probably be six to nine months later,” chief executive Ketso Gordhan told Reuters.

South Africa s top cement maker is also looking at opportunities in Zambia, Tanzania and Malawi, although it does not have any firm expansion plans yet, he said.

PPC on Thursday reported an 18 percent drop in first-half profit, hit by charges related to a black empowerment deal in Zimbabwe.

The Romanian cement market declined 0.2 percent in 2012 owing to bad weather and an unfavorable economic context, and this year seems no better as yet. Any growth by yearend will be small, and could only come from infrastructure investments and a higher EU funds absorption rate for this sector, manufacturers say.

(Romania) -- “I don’t think the Romanian constructions market will ever again see annual increases of 7-9 percent like those posted over 2005-2008. But I am confident that a moderate yet stable and constant growth rate of about 1-2 percent per year is achievable,” Florian Aldea, general director and president of the board of directors of Carpatcement Holding, recently stated. The company is one of the main players on the local cement market alongside Holcim Romania and Lafarge Romania.

However, even an annual increase of just a few percentage points seems out of reach at present.

“Judging from the results so far this year, our estimations are that the market will stagnate, but we hope to see a slight increase, at least in the second half of this year. Still, it is too early to predict how the year will go overall,” he said.

Carpatcement is not the only player to think that. “Taking in consideration the evolution of the cement market in the first quarter, 2013 should be a more stable year than 2012, with better conditions for a positive evolution of the market,” Daniel Bach, general director at Holcim Romania told BR.

Lafarge Romania too is taking a cautious approach.

“In 2013 we do not expect any significant changes compared to 2012. Our group estimates a 1 to 4 percent possible growth in market volumes, but we are rather conservative after the first quarter results which were impacted by adverse weather, lower infrastructure spending and high inventories in the distribution channels,” Sonia Artinian, country CEO at Lafarge Romania, told BR. However, she added that in the cement industry the first quarter results do not reflect full-year trends and are traditionally lower than those throughout the rest of the year.

The challenges ahead for the industry include inflation and the rising cost of energy, as well as the unpredictability of potential growth, as many of Lafarge Romania’s major projects are related to infrastructure.

The first signs of growth may come in the second half of the year, but only if public investments in infrastructure projects are maintained at least at last year’s level, if not increased, Aldea added.

The other players agree. “Market growth could come from a higher EU funds inflow rate for the infrastructure sector. That would definitely make a major contribution to reaching the estimates I gave, as the residential construction segment has performed poorly over the past few years and, in my opinion, it will take more time for it to get back on track,” said the head of Lafarge Romania.

Holcim too stresses the importance of infrastructure projects. “An important factor that can influence the cement market would be a reinforcement of the priority of infrastructure by the government and thereby taking full advantage of the available EU funds. This would not only help the construction industry, but also the economy in a wider sense since availability of adequate infrastructure is often a key criterion in investment decisions. The economy growth will also help the residential and non-residential sectors to rebound and companies and individuals to regain confidence to invest in the construction market,” said Bach.

In addition to infrastructure developments, logistics parks and office space projects also fueled the construction market last year and should continue to do so in 2013. As for manufacturers pinning their hopes on infrastructure developments, there have been few positive signals from the government. The Ministry of Transports has a 40 percent higher budget this year (approximately EUR 1.6 billion) but this does not mean more money for investments. The funds necessary for the majority of this year’s road, highway, railways and subway investment projects will be, or more likely, should be, mostly EU money. This does not leave room for a lot of optimism considering that in the six years since joining the EU, Romania has managed to absorb a meager 6 percent of the over EUR 4.5 billion available from the EU for transport projects.

Talking concrete numbers

Last year Carpatcement Holding reported a total turnover for all three divisions – cement, concrete and aggregates – of EUR 195 million, down 7 percent y-o-y. The main factor was unfavorable weather conditions in the first half of 2012 but, nevertheless, the local economic context did not help either. And Romania was not an exception. German HeidelbergCement, of which Carpatcement Holding is a member, reported global sales growth of just 1.4 percent, with the increase coming from outside Europe.

Despite the turnover decrease in Romania, the cement producer managed to increase its net profit by 11 percent to EUR 36 million. This was achieved by restructuring costs and increasing revenues through the product mix and vertical integration.

Last year’s cement production in Romania was 7.6 million tons, out of which the company delivered 2.75 million tons. By comparison, during the boom years of 2007-2008 Carpatcement provided some 3.2-3.3 million tons of cement per year.

About 8-9 percent of the company’s cement deliveries went to infrastructure projects, a share which Aldea says has remained relatively constant over the past few years. The rest was made up of private ventures such as logistics parks and office projects.

Some of the infrastructure projects for which the company delivered in 2012 were the Nadlac-Sibiu highway, airport renovations and even the Redemption Cathedral in Bucharest, for which Carpatcement provided 20,000 tons of cement in 2012.

In 2012, the total sales of Lafarge Group increased by 3.5 percent, to EUR 15.8 billion. In Romania, the company grew its business by 7.9 percent in terms of value on cement activity (volume +7 percent, other effects +0.9 percent, including price, product and customer mix effects).

The local subsidiary of Swiss Group Holcim saw cement sales drop by 3.6 percent (in volume) in 2012 y-o-y, due to unfavorable weather conditions and a decline in private sector investment.

Overall, the firm’s global cement sales increased by 2.5 percent in 2012 despite declines in its European businesses, while consolidated net sales rose by 3.9 percent.

Saudi-based Yanbu Cement Co has signed an agreement with the Ports Authority (PA) to import clinker into the kingdom, Arab News has reported. The deal is part of a government initiative to import 10 million tonnes of cement in the next three years to end the current shortage. A similar agreement was also signed between Southern Province Cement Co, the authority said. The PA has allocated 17 docking stations with sufficient storage space to temporarily store and handle cement and clinker, with four each in Jeddah, Dammam and Jubail and one in Yanbu, Dhuba and Jazan.

Grupo Abayak AKOGA Cemento S.A. has awarded FLSmidth a contract for the supply of a 3000 tpd greenfield cement plant. The plant will be built in Akoga on the mainland of Equatorial Guinea.

The contract, which is worth around EUR68 million, includes plant engineering and the principle equipment, such as: jaw crusher; cone crusher; ATOX® raw mill; OK cement mill; pyro line with cross bar cooler; dosing systems; packing plant; automation control system.

Grupo Abayak AKOGA Cemento S.A. is new to the cement sector although it has experience with various infrastructure projects in Equatorial Guinea.

Over the past 12 months, Mondi has worked with South African cement producers to encourage a switch from 3-ply to 2-ply bags.

In cooperation with sack converter customers, Mondi has worked to demonstrate the advantages of high porous 2-ply and has provided knowhow on changing the cement sack construction. The South African cement industry uses more than 160 million sacks each year and had previously used 3-ply semi-extensible perforated sacks. In product trials held last year, Mondi proved that bags made of 2-ply kraft paper were better suited to the task, given the challenging nature of cement packing and handling in South Africa.

Nicholas John, Afripack Sacks General Manager said, "We were convinced by the better quality and efficiency of switching to high porous 2 ply. What really made it work was great support from Mondi on implementing the change."

Two-ply bags help sack converter companies make gains in cost and efficiency, and reduce bag breakages and dust spillages for cement manufacturers.

Najran Cement Company has announced that it has signed a three-year contract with Chinese company CEIC to operate and maintain its third production for a three-year period.

The new line, which is still being built, is expected to come into production during the third quarter of this year and will have a capacity to produce 7,000 tons of cement per day.

Najran Cement floated on the Saudi stock exchange in April 2012, raising $226.5m to fund construction of the third line.

Last month, the company revealied that its first quarter sales for 2013 were 15.8% higher than in the corresponding period for 2012 at $39m. The volume of cement sold during the period also increased by 22% to 895,569 metric tonnes.

In the first three months of 2013 the volumes of export of cement to Georgia from the Republic of Armenia have doubled in comparison with the same period of 2012. According to the official Armenian channels, in the first three months of 2013 36 thousand 56.8 tons of cement was exported to Georgia with the total customs value of US$2,385,800.

According to the data provided by the State Revenue Committee at the Government of the Republic of Armenia, in the same period in 2012 18 thousand 67.6 tons of cement was exported to Georgia. By the information given by the State Revenue Committee, in the first three months of 2013 cement was exported from Armenia only to Georgia.

In 2012, in comparison with the year of 2011, the export volumes of cement from Armenia to Georgia increased by about 39 percent. In 2012 about 136,175 tons of cement was exported to Georgia, with the total customs value of US$9,408,800.

Oman Cement has said that a roobery has taken place at its headquarters, during which over $233,000 (OR: 90,000) was taken.

In a brief statement to the Muscat Securities Market, the firm s chief executive officer Jamal Shamis Al Hooti said that burglars broke into the the firm s sales department and stole the money on the evening of last Thursday, May 9.

He added that the company s insurance firm has been notified about the incident.

Oman Cement is one of the country s two quoted cement producers and is based in the Rusayl Industrial Area - 32km from Muscat International Airport and 60km from the city s Port Sultan Qaboos.

In the three months to March 30, the company reported a 35% rise in net profits to $17.9m as sales grew by 12% to $40.7m.

Fujairah Cement Industries (FCI) has recorded a drop in revenue for the first three months of 2013.

Figures released to the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange show the total revenue up to March 31 was AED130,192,431 as compared to AED155,866,774 for the same period in 2012.

The net profit of the company for the fist quarter was AED463,613 compared to AED5,190,323.

The shareholder’s equity amounted to AED938,262,055 as compared to AED937,798,442.

Saudi Cement Co has announced that it has signed a contract with a Chinese firm worth $19.9m to rehabilitate kilns 4 and 5 at its Hofuf factory.

The firm said that the deal had been siged with M/S Sinoma Technology & Equipment Group Co, and added that the work would be "fully financed through the companys own resources".

The project is expected to start immediately and will be completed by the end of the year.

The company said that the likely financial impact from the re-opening of the kilns would not be known until the fourth quarter when demand lievels could be more accurately assessed.

The company announced plans to bring the kilns back to life last month in a bid to increase clinker capacity by 3,000 tons per day.

Raysut Cement, one of two major listed cement manufacturers in Oman, has announced that its first quarter pre-tax profits grew by a third during the first quarter of 2013 to $23.7m (OR: 9.13m).

The company s revenues grew by 2% to $65.5m (OR: 25.2m) as the volume of cement sales climbed by 3% to just over 1m tonnes during the three-month period.

Sales volumes from its plant in Salalah increased by 9% to 673,919 tonnes.

Meanwhile, production volumes of clinker and cement dropped by 9% and 2% respectively.

The company s chairman, Sheikh Ahmed bin Alawi bin Abdulla Al Ibrahim said that given the drop in volumes, the company "has done very well with higher revenue and profit by pursuing with markets beyond its traditional base, and by optimizing revenue and profitability amidst the onslaught of competition in order to stay well ahead of the curve".

"Backed by budgetary surplus in 2012, the investment expenditure in 2013 is expected to be around RO 3bn $7.8bn) or 24% of public expenditure in Oman.

"The market is likely to grow substantially through diversifications and rapid non-oil sector developments. Cement demand also is on the increase."

Despite this, he warned that Omani producers still faced strong demand from cement suppliers in the UAE - a scenario which he indicated was "lukely to continue until larger developments take shape" in the country.

Raysut Cement has itself sought to diversify by selling its products in other GCC markets, in Yemen and in East Africa.

Raysut Cement, one of two major listed cement manufacturers in Oman, has announced that its first quarter pre-tax profits grew by a third during the first quarter of 2013 to $23.7m

Oman s biggest cement producer Raysut Cement has reported a 33% increase in first-quarter profit before tax to OR9.13m from OR6.84m in the same period last year, Muscat Daily has reported. "The increase in profit is attributable to higher sales volume in cement, better price realisation through market optimisation as well as the reduction in costs compared to the previous year," the firm said. Sales revenue during the quarter rose 2% to OR25.22m, compared with OR24.64m in the same period last year, it said.

According to local news sources, Secil Lobito C Companhia de Cimento do Lobito plans to construct a new cement plant in Lobito, Angola. The plant will have a cement production capacity of 1.2 million tpa and represents an investment of US$187 million. The plant will be located 200 m from the current 400 000 tpa Secil Lobito plant in the area.

The Angola Press Agency has also reported that a 30 000 t cement storage and distribution centre will be established in Huambo, with the aim of boosting construction and development in the region. The site will distribute cement produced at Kwanza Sul, which is expected to have a production capacity of 4500 tpa.

Concerns have been raised about the effect of competitively priced cement being imported into Angola, driving down the prices of locally produced cement.

Hail Cement Company has announced that it has begun full commercial operations at its newly-developed cement plant yesterday.

The company raised around $130m when its shares were floated on the stock exchange in 2011 through the sale of half of its shares. The funds have been used to been used to create a rotary kiln cement plant, a 52MW power plant and $31.5m worth of on-site worker accommodation which includes 19 villas, 120 apartments for families, 108 single rooms for bachelors, a building of 12 studios for guests and two buildings of 24 studios for supervisors.

On February 5, the company said that trial operations at the plant were underway and yesterday it said that the rotary kiln had begun production, allowing the plant to commence full works.

Demand for cement in Saudi Arabia remains high as the country continues to deliver a wave of major infrastructure projects and begins a rapid scale-up to produce the 500,000 new homes that HRH King Abdullah has pledged to deliver by the end of 2015 in order to alleviate a housing shortage.

Last month, King Abdullah ordered that $800m in loans should be made available to allow cement companies to build four new plants with a view to boosting production capacity by 12m tonnes a day.

Tight margins are forcing quarry operators to work smarter, and that includes getting the most out of their machines. PMV visits Industrial Quarry and Cement (IQC), along with Caterpillar quarry product specialist Peter Sauter

Based in a dusty valley in Fujairah, UAE, Industrial Quarry and Cement (IQC) produces around 9,000 tonnes per day of limestone aggregate a day, amounting to 3 million tonnes per year, plus road base materials, most of it destined for the local market in the UAE.

The company has been in operation for eight years, and in that time has produced more than 24.5 million tonnes of sellable material, plus 20% of road base not counted in the final production record.

It carries out blasting six-to-eight times per month, using the company’s own drills and engineers. One blast will take out 30 cubic metres of material, around 70,000 tonnes. The quarry has one jaw and two impact crushers, and runs two shifts per day – 16 to 18 hours of work. In a single day the quarry can load up to 18,000 tonnes on to trucks, drawing on its stockpile. A single wheel loader can load 5,000 tonnes onto trucks.

The market for aggregates in the UAE has improved slightly over the past two years, says general manager Eng. Jamal Hilles. The price of limestone aggregates has risen from around 10.5-11 dirham per tonne to 12.5 dirham per tonne, says Hilles. Before the crisis in the UAE, the cost of aggregate was as much as 21 dirhams. At the market bottom, the price dropped below ten dirhams.

The value of raw materials is always a good indicator of the underlying strength of the construction market, and machinery sellers spoken to by PMV say that last year was one of the strongest for quarry buying. The price of raw materials rose in anticipation of scheduled work in Qatar for the FIFA World Cup in 2022 as well as new projects in Dubai and Abu Dhabi.

Nevertheless, with margins remaining tight, the emphasis is on machinery that can go the distance.