EEUU: Holcim to acquire remaining interest in Lattimore Materials Company

Holcim (US) Inc. announced today that Holcim Participations (US), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Holcim Ltd, has entered into a nonbinding letter of intent to acquire the remaining interest in Lattimore Materials Company, a Texas-based aggregates and ready-mix concrete producer. 

Holcim is currently a 49 percent limited partner of Lattimore Materials Company and will acquire the remaining 51 percent general and limited partnership interests. The transaction, which recently received clearance from the Federal Trade Commission and the U.S. Department of Justice pursuant to the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act, remains subject to a definitive purchase agreement and satisfaction of other customary closing conditions. 

"The acquisition of the remaining 51 percent of Lattimore Materials Company is an important growth opportunity for the Holcim Group in North America," said Bernard Terver, Holcim Ltd United States Area Manager. "We are very happy to broaden our business in Texas after successfully partnering with Lattimore and their team over the past three years. Lattimore is one of the premiere aggregates and ready-mix concrete companies in Texas, a state where we have many valued customers."

CHINA: Sinoma Int'l estimates 2010 profit to have grown 80%

China Sinoma International Engineering<600970>, which is principally engaged in cement production and a listed subsidiary of China National Materials Group Corp, announced that it expected to see net profit for 2010 surge more than 80% year on year, sources reported.

The company attributed the profit surge to the increased operating revenue from core business.

China Sinoma said in a statement that its operating revenue was RMB 18.01 billion in 2009, with earnings per share of RMB 1.86. However, no figures for 2010 were given in the statement.

Separately, last December, the company signed a contract worth US$135 million to build a cement factory in Saudi Arabia. It inked such kind of contract with Saudi Arabian Hail Cement Co in May 2010.

INDIA: Builders up in arms against cement makers

 Builders are up in arms against cement manufacturers for alleged cartelisation and jacking up prices unrealistically thereby severely impacting the construction industry.

Members of the Confederation of Real Estate Developers Associations of India (CREDAI) told newspersons here today though CREDAI had gone to the Competition Commission of India against the steep hike in prices of the basic construction raw material, the process was slow and impacted severely the common man who had to shell out additional amount.

Both cement and steel constituted nearly 32 per cent of the construction cost.

They said most of the cement manufacturers in the country increased production capacity by over 30 per cent every year by ploughing back internal resources rather than outside borrowings.

This gave an indication of how cash rich these companies were, they said.

They said since over 30 per cent of the cement makers were multinationals, attempts were also being made to take them to courts in the European Union to ensure cement prices were not jacked up artificially in the guise of rise in input costs.

EGYPT: Italcementi sospende la produzione nel Paese

MILANO – Italcementi ha temporaneamente sospeso la produzione in Egitto, dove è presente anche tramite la controllata Suez Cement. E’ quanto si apprende da fonti della società.

”Tutti gli espatriati presenti in Egitto, circa un centinaio di persone fra dipendenti e loro parenti, sono stati trasferiti fuori dal Paese – viene spiegato – grazie ad un ponte aereo organizzato nel corso del week end. Gli impianti sono stati messi in sicurezza e il Gruppo continua a monitorare con attenzione la situazione”.

Suez Cement ha oltre 4.000 dipendenti, è quotata alla Borsa del Cairo e opera in Egitto attraverso cinque impianti. Ha una quota di mercato di circa il 30 per cento e stima di essere leader di mercato nel settore del cemento. Nel 2009 ha realizzato vendite di cemento pari a circa 12 milioni di tonnellate, con un fatturato per 800 milioni di euro, pari al 15 per cento circa del fatturato di gruppo.

EGYPT: France's Lafarge suspends Egypt cement works

The French building materials company Lafarge said on Monday that it had suspended production at its Egyptian cement works because of the political crisis in the country. It follows a number of international firms that have withdrawn staff or scaled back operations due to security concerns in Egypt.

Lafarge employs 70 expatriates and 2,500 local staff in Egypt, and produces 10 million tonnes of cement per year. It has begun to evacuate foreign staff and their families, a spokesman for the group told the AFP news agency.

"Work could restart as soon as the situation returns to normal, given that the staff remains operational and the management of the units will remain in place," the spokesman said of the main cement plant.

Lafarge is the world's biggest cement producer, and its Middle East headquarters are in Egypt.

According to the firm's website, it owns a cement plant in the desert 100 kilometres southeast of Cairo, and operates 23 concrete plants and three aggregates quarries.

There are fears that ongoing demonstrations against the Egyptian government could have serious repercussions on the country's economic stability.

Earlier on Monday, ratings agency Moody's downgraded the country's debt rating by one notch to 'Ba2', with a further downgrade possible in the medium term.

Moody's explained in a statement that its decision was prompted by the "recent significant rise in political event risk," in the country.

Meanwhile oil prices rose to just under 100 dollars a barrel Monday, as fears that the events in Egypt could disrupt oil flowing through the Suez Canal on its way to the West.

Prices soon went down when the head of Opec said the cartel was ready to raise oil output if the Egypt crisis did affect supplies.