News

Fauji Cement announced that its manufacturing facility in Jhang Bahtar, Attock has achieved ISO 50001:2018 certification through TUV, Austria for its Energy Management System (EnMS), making it the second facility in Pakistan Cement sector to achieve this certification. Fauji Cement is known for producing top quality cement products for the last thirty-one years in Pakistan. With this ISO 50001:2018 certification, Fauji Cement Company aims to continually improve energy performance by implementing a structured approach to identifying energy efficiencies, enhancing environmental performance, protecting the climate, and reducing CO2 emissions significantly”.

Iraq: Najmat Al Samawa Company for Cement Manufacturing (NASCCM) plans to build a new 1.82Mt/yr clinker line at its Samawa cement plant. When commissioned, the new line will more than double the plant’s clinker capacity to 3Mt/yr. Pakistan Company News has reported that the expanded plant will secure a supply of clinker for the producer’s Basra grinding plant.

NASCCM is a joint venture of Al Shumookh Group and Pakistan-based Lucky Cement.

Bangladesh: Premier Cement Mills plans to install a new vertical roller mill at its West Mukterpur cement plant in Munshiganj. For this purpose, it secured a US$32.7m long-term loan from state-owned Infrastructure Development Company Limited (IDCOL). The New Nation newspaper has reported that IDCOL focuses on financing projects to increase energy efficiency, alongside the development of renewable energy.

Koch Engineered Solutions (KES) and Chart Industries have signed an agreement to provide full carbon capture solutions to customers. The partnership will focus on developing and implementing Chart’s Cryogenic Carbon Capture (CCC) technologies. KES brings its expertise in equipment design, fabrication, and construction to the collaboration. The companies will work together to expand their knowledge and serve their respective customers more effectively. The agreement also includes the construction of an engineering-scale CCC process at a cement plant in Missouri. Both parties are excited about the potential for growth and reaching a wider customer base.

Attock Cement Pakistan Ltd (ACL) is scheduled to convene an Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) of shareholders on May 25, 2023. The purpose of the meeting is to discuss and, if deemed appropriate, approve a resolution for the disposal of 18 million shares held by the company in its subsidiary, Saqr-Al-Keetan cement grinding unit located in Iraq. The grinding plant, which was established in 2019, has a cement capacity of 540,000 tons per annum.

ACL intends to sell 60 percent of the total share capital of Saqr Al-Keetan cement company. The sale has been negotiated with two buyers: Abdul Lateef Mohsin Al Geetan, an Iraqi national, who will purchase 50 percent of the shares, and M/s Lamassu Babylon General Trading Co, a company incorporated under the laws of Dubai, UAE, which will purchase the remaining 50 percent of the 9 million shares. The agreed sale price for each buyer is US$11,700,000, as specified in the terms of the share purchase agreement.

Line IV Project 4000tpd (1.2Mta)
According to the 9MFY22-23 report, the plant and machinery shipments for the Line IV project, with a capacity of 4000 tons per day (1.2 million tons per annum), have almost entirely arrived at the plant site in Hub, Balochistan. The civil, mechanical, and electrical contractors have already mobilized, and the project is progressing at full speed. It is anticipated that the plant erection will be completed by December 2023.

Financial Performance in 9MFY23
During the 9MFY22-23 period, ACL achieved a profit after tax of PKR 1.05 billion (US$374.4 million), compared to PKR 1.18 billion in the corresponding period of the previous year. The total local cement dispatches amounted to 1.478 million tons, a decrease from 1.905 million tons in the same period last year. The capacity utilization rate during this period stood at 68 percent.

During the first quarter of 2023 (January-March), Lucky Cement reported a profit-after-tax of Rs30.21 billion, representing an increase of more than 222% compared to Rs9.38 billion in the same period last year. The Board of Directors conducted a meeting on Friday to review the company’s financial performance, and they announced a zero dividend for the period. Consequently, Lucky Cement’s Earnings per Share (EPS) rose to Rs66.47 compared to Rs23.41 in the previous year’s corresponding period. Although Lucky Cement’s net revenue rose by nearly 8% to Rs100.45 billion from Rs93.19 billion recorded in the previous year, the cost of sales dropped to Rs74.5 billion in 1Q23 from Rs78.7 billion the previous year, resulting in a gross profit of Rs25.93 billion, an increase of over 79% compared to Rs14.46 billion.

However, Lucky Cement’s cost of finance increased by almost 527%, from Rs1.26 billion to Rs7.9 billion, which can be attributed to the company’s increased financial costs. Nevertheless, Lucky Cement’s other income surged over 62% to Rs2.58 billion from Rs975.8 million in the same period last year. Additionally, the company gained Rs2.33 billion in share of profit from other ventures and Rs8.91 billion and Rs8.23 billion on the partial disposal of NutriCo Morinaga Pvt Ltd and remeasurement of interest retained in NutriCo Morinaga, respectively. Consequently, the company’s profit before taxation for 1Q23 rose to Rs33.99 billion from Rs11.18 billion last year.
Lucky Cement has unveiled several projects throughout the fiscal year, including the start of operations of Line-2 at the Pezu Plant. This addition has boosted Lucky Cement’s cement production capacity by 3.15 Million Tons Per Annum (MTPA), bringing the total capacity to 15.30 MTPA. Furthermore, the company achieved the start of operations of a 34MW solar power project at the Pezu Plant on December 29, 2022.