OMAN: Oman Cement 2014 net profit declines 13% on weaker sales

Oman Cement Co’s net profit for the year 2014 declined by 12.8 per cent to RO13.15mn from RO15.08mn in the previous year. The decline was mainly due to lower volume of cement sales, lower clinker production and higher volumes of imported clinker, the company said in report released on Monday. 

Oman Cement imported higher volumes of clinker to bridge the temporary shortfall due to one of its kilns being closed for capacity enhancement.

The company said it would consider a joint venture (JV) for setting up a new cement plant after detailed studies.

It said the US$39mn project for installing an additional cement mill of 150TPH (tonnes per hour) capacity with supporting infrastructure of cement silos and bulk despatches is in progress and is expected to be completed during the fourth quarter of 2015.

Oman Cement achieved sales of 2,078,937MT of cement during 2014 against 2,101,631MT in the previous year, a decrease of 1.1 per cent. In value terms, total sales dropped 2.05 per cent last year to RO51.35mn from RO52.42mn in 2013.

“Market demand for cement in Oman remains good due to continued emphasis on infrastructure development. With the company's well-structured pricing policy, we hope that in spite of stiff competition with other cement manufacturers, particularly from neighbouring countries, the company will continue to do well to retain its market share,” the report said.The cement producer said that government's decision to double the price of natural gas, effective January 1, is bound to have a major impact on its performance in the coming years. “Similarly restrictions on carrying capacity for road transport of materials will also increase the cost of operations. However, we are committed to meet the challenge by directing our efforts towards better cost management.”

While the demand for cement is expected to remain good, the company will make efforts to increase it market share with the availability of higher quantity of cement after commissioning a new mill, which is expected to commence production during the last quarter of 2015, Oman Cement added.

USA: Holcim to sell Trident cement plant

Some of the 80 employees at the Trident cement plant near Three Forks thought the facility was safe from the antitrust hatchets that started swinging after the plant’s owner announced a merger with its primary competitor last year. But anyone who bet Trident would remain in the stable of assets owned by Holcim US Inc., has lost the wager.

The Trident plant will be sold to an Irish multinational, according to a joint statement issued Feb. 2 by Holcim and Lafarge, the companies whose $43 billion merger is expected to be final in the first half of this year. 

According to the statement, the assets to be divested include cement plants and other facilities in Europe, Canada, Brazil and the Philippines. The only U.S. holdings on the list are the Trident plant and some distribution facilities in the Great Lakes area. 

Holcim and Lafarge confirmed in the statement that the Irish building materials giant CRH had tendered a $7.4 billion offer (6.5 billion euros) to acquire the assets. If the deal is approved by regulators and CRH shareholders, it is expected to close by the end of June.

At No. 129 on the Fortune 500, CRH operates in 35 countries, employs 76,000 people worldwide and enjoys annual sales exceeding $20.3 billion. It is a leading producer of cement, aggregates and other building materials in Europe and other parts of the world, including China and India. 

CRH's North American arm is called Oldcastle. Based in Atlanta, Ga., Oldcastle was founded in 1977 and bills itself as "North America's largest manufacturer of building products and materials." 

Oldcastle leads the industry in the production of asphalt, aggregates, ready-mixed concrete, precast products and other construction materials. The company's growth strategy has been to acquire small- and medium-sized companies which keep their names and local focus. In Montana, it owns Helena Sand and Gravel in Helena and L.S. Jensen Construction & Ready Mix in Missoula. 

But Oldcastle doesn't manufacture cement; Trident would be CRH's only cement plant in North America, and whether it plans to operate the plant, sell it off or shut it down remains to be seen. The media relations office at CRH did not respond to our requests for comments for this story, but its chief executive told reporters during a Feb. 2 news conference that CRH likely will divest some of the assets it acquires from Holcim and Lafarge.

"Not all of these assets are going to remain long term in our group, that's for sure," CEO Albert Manifold said (as reported by Reuters for a Feb. 2 story. "Some of these assets, we will be required to take partners on."

Now more than 105 years old, the Trident plant has been owned by Holcim since the late 1980s. A significant economic force locally—employing more than six dozen people at relatively high wages for this area and kicking in six figures into the local tax base each year—Trident is the smallest of ten cement plants Holcim operates in the U.S., producing about 350,000 metric tons of product each year. By contrast, Holcim's Ste. Genevieve plant in Missouri, which opened in 2009 and is one of the largest cement plants in the world, produces more than 4 million metric tons.

Employees at Trident referred all calls about the merger to the company's Waltham, Mass., headquarters. Our efforts to reach a spokesperson, however, have been unsuccessful. 

While no Trident employees would speak on the record for this story because Holcim rigidly controls corporate communications, some employees anonymously told us that Holcim's decision to sell Trident was a surprise and “has everyone pretty stirred up.”

Another worker said local employees received no indication of sale plans from the corporate offices and were confused about the decision. 

“We thought we were okay—that we weren’t going to be affected” by the merger, the employee said. “This was a big shock. People are kind of stunned around here.”

SERBIA: CRH buying Serbian cement factories

The Swiss giant in the field of production of building materials Holcim connects its activity with the French Lafarge, jointly selling plants to the Irish group CRH specialized in building materials. At issue is the production of cement and other materials in Serbia, Hungary, Slovakia, Romania, Germany, UK, and France. More in our regular feature ECONOMIC REVIEW prepared by Ranka Pavlovic.

The plants, being sold to the Irish include several Holcim’s factories in Serbia, the cement plant in Popovac, and two concrete plants in Belgrade. Holcim bought a 70% stake in the company in Popovac in 2002 for slightly over 52 million dollars, and since then it has invested about 135 million euros in it. Concrete factories in Belgrade, located in the settlements Krnjaca and Dobanovci, were built in 2007 and 2013, and "Holcim" invested 2 million euros in them. The Swiss also own the Holcim Aggregates company for exploitation and sale of sand, gravel and crushed stone. These plants employ a total of 380 people, who, based on the collective agreement, cannot lose their jobs prior to 2016.

As published on the Holcim’s official website, the Irish company will buy 24 plants owned by the Swiss and the French which annually produce 23 million tons of cement while having a capacity of 36 million tons. They will employ more than 15,000 workers. As announced, Holcim will sell all its assets except its Altkirch cement factory and the plant for production of cement and ready-mix in the French department of Haut-Rhin, and Lafarge’s plant in the French town of Saint-Nazaire. As for Lafarge, the sale of the facility in Romania has been announced in order to reduce the market share of 33%, before merging with Holcim.

Total sales of Lafarge and Holcim includes primarily the business activities of these companies in Europe, Canada, Brazil and the Philippines, and their assets enabled the turnover estimated at 5.2 billion euros in 2014, with a profit of around 744 million euros. Lafarge and Holcim plan to complete the merger in the first half of this year.

CRH has confirmed that it accepted to pay 6.5 billion euros for the property of Holcim and Lafarge, whereby they will finance the transaction with 2 billion euros of its own funds and need a loan to cover the remainder. After this purchase, the Irish company will become the third cement producer in the world. CRH produces building materials in 35 countries, at 3,400 locations, and has 76,000 employees.

TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO: Cemex aumentará su participación en TCL

Después de que el pasado lunes el Consejo de Administración de la cementera de Trinidad y Tobago, Trinidad Cement Limited (TCL), eliminaron el candado que impedía que un accionista tuviera una participación mayor al 20 por ciento en la compañía, quedó el camino libre para que Cemex incremente su propiedad sobre la compañía

Mientras que por un lado la firma regiomontana Cemex inició en Europa su estrategia de desinversión de activos por hasta mil 500 millones de dólares anunciada hace unos días, por el otro, una de sus subsidiarias en Trinidad y Tobago busca incrementar hasta un 40 por ciento su participación en la cementera Trinidad Cement Limited (TLC).

Durante la conferencia telefónica que sostuvo con analistas para explicar los resultados del cuarto trimestre del año pasado, Fernando González Olivieri, director general de Cemex, señaló que como parte de sus acciones para recuperar el grado de inversión estaría la desinversión en activos por hasta mil 500 millones de dólares.

La semana pasada, el directivo dijo que Cemex podría vender parte de sus activos en el norte de Europa, el Mediterráneo y Asia, y la mitad de los recursos que obtenga los destinará al pago de deuda.

Además, González Olivieri dijo que podrían vender entre un 5 y 10 por ciento más de la subsidiaria Cemex Latam Holdings para levantar recursos.

Pero por otro lado, Cemex ha llegado a un acuerdo con el Consejo de Trinidad Cement Limited (TLC) que permitirá a la empresa mexicana aumentar su participación en esta empresa a por lo menos 35 por ciento, con la opción de añadir otro cinco por ciento, publicó el sitio jamaica-gleaner.com.

El pasado lunes, TCL señaló que obtuvo la aprobación para eliminar una restricción que limitaba la participación de accionistas a un 20 por ciento como máximo, por lo que firmó un acuerdo de suscripción con Sierra Trading, filial de Cemex, para que ésta aumente su porcentaje accionario, señaló el sitio guardian.co.tt.

La cementera regiomontana posee actualmente el 20 por ciento de TCL a través de Sierra Trading y se ha comprometido a no buscar una participación más allá del 40 por ciento de la empresa en virtud de un acuerdo establecido

Bajo el acuerdo alcanzado con el Consejo de TCL de 10 miembros, en la que Cemex tiene ahora al menos tres representantes, la empresa mexicana suscribirá hasta 45 millones de dólares de la ampliación de capital, que tiene contempla la cementera trinitaria por hasta 57 millones de dólares

TCL ha acordado conceder un derecho exclusivo a Sierra de suscribir y comprar las acciones en el tema de derechos que no sean asumidas por los accionistas. Sin embargo, con la cantidad adquirida Sierra no debe detentar más del 40 por ciento de la cementera.

Si después de lo anterior Sierra no ha logrado al menos el 35 por ciento de participación en TCL, la empresa hará una colocación privada de acciones.

La empresa cementera se está embarcando en un plan integral de reestructuración destinado a preservar sus operaciones y asegurar su viabilidad a largo plazo.

A finales del año pasado, la compañía detuvo todos los pagos de sus compromisos financieros en virtud de un acuerdo sobre la deuda alcanzado con grandes acreedores al no poder hacer frente a los mil 700 millones de dólares en deuda a corto plazo.

Keith Rowley, líder de la oposición, hizo un llamado al gobierno para mantener a TCL en manos nacionales.

BRAZIL: Nova fábrica de cimento da Semapa no Brasil deve ficar pronta até final de março

A fábrica de R$ 700 milhões que a Supremo Cimentos tem em construção no Paraná irá ficar operacional ainda este trimestre, informou a Semapa. A companhia portuguesa, que detém 50% da Supremo, viu o seu negócio no Brasil crescer em 2014.

A Semapa, um dos maiores grupos industriais portugueses, espera ter a sua nova fábrica de cimento no Brasil pronta até ao final de março, revelou a companhia portuguesa no comunicado de resultados de 2014, divulgado através da Comissão do Mercado de Valores Mobiliários (CMVM).

O empreendimento, que chegou a ter abertura prevista para o último trimestre de 2014, está a ser construído pela Supremo Cimentos, empresa brasileira na qual a Semapa detém uma participação de 50%.

"A nova fábrica de cimento, em construção pela Supremo Cimentos, S.A. no Brasil, tem a sua conclusão prevista para o primeiro trimestre deste ano. Com o início de atividade desta unidade produtiva, a totalidade da capacidade de cimento instalada da Supremo atingirá os dois milhões de toneladas", informou a Semana no seu comunicado ao mercado.

A fábrica ficará situada em Adrianópolis, no Paraná, e tem um investimento estimado em R$ 700 milhões.

Segundo a Semapa, em 2014 a Supremo alcançou um volume de negócios equivalente a 54,4 milhões de euros, com um crescimento de 5,7% relativamente a 2013.

No ano passado a participada brasileira da Semapa teve um EBITDA (lucro antes de juros, impostos, depreciações e amortizações) correspondente a 6,5 milhões de euros, com um aumento de 34,2% em comparação com 2013.

"Este bom desempenho deveu-se à melhoria da performance operacional, quer na unidade de cimento, através do aumento da produção e da redução da incorporação de clínquer no cimento, quer na unidade de betão pronto, onde se verificou um aumento da produção, permitindo desta forma uma maior diluição de custos fixos e consequente aumento das margens operacionais em ambas as unidades", explica a Semapa.

O grupo português fechou 2014 com 1.998 milhões de euros, mais 1,5% do que no ano anterior. Já o EBITDA recuou 2,6%, para 410 milhões de euros. O lucro da Semapa em 2014 caiu 22,8%, para 112,8 milhões de euros.