Quarry Products

Usje, the Macedonian cement company, which is owned by Greece’s Titan, has seen its consolidated net profit for the first half of 2014 reach MKD 789.20 million (€12.88 million/US$16.96 million), up by 28% on the year.

The company’s operating revenue reached MKD 2 billion, up by 15% on year, while operating costs reached MKD 1.3 billion, up by 5% on year.

In the quarter of April-June 2014, Cahya Mata Sarawak (Cahya Mata), a cement and construction company of Malaysia, has recorded a 13.1% rise in revenue from MYR 338.33million (US$107.70 million/€81.65 million) in the previous year to MYR 383.36 million.

Net profit for the quarter was up by 65.2% from MYR 40.01 million to MYR 66.11 million year-on-year, attributed to growth in all its business units.

Between January and June 2014, Cahya Mata's revenue grew by 14.4% from MYR 648.69 million to MYR 756.6

Cemex has reportedly acquired the Bosnian concrete plant BINIS in Banja Luka. According to the acquisition agreement, Cemex will begin management of BINIS from the beginning of October 2014. Meanwhile, BINIS will continue with production and launch of its own concrete products. No acquisition value has been disclosed.

The Dalmia Group is planning to merge OCL India and Dalmia Bharat, its listed cement firms, according to sources in contact with The Economic Times newspaper. In addition, Dalmia Bharat is reported by India’s leading business paper as likely to merge Dalmia Bharat Enterprises, its unlisted arm, with itself. The merger talks are said to have been denied by Dalmia Group.

Three potential buyers are interested in Lafarge’s Mannersdorf cement plant up for sale as a result of the planned €40 billion Holcim merger, according to the WirtschaftsBlatt newspaper.

The Mannersdorf plant, which accounts for a quarter of Austria's cement production, is of interest to Leube, Kirchdorfer group and Cemex, with the Cemex bid likely to have the biggest chances of success, the German newspaper says.

Shortages of raw materials, including cement, could harm Kuwait’s booming construction sector.

While contracts worth US$17.5 billion already signed or on offer so far in 2014, shortages of cement and other raw materials could reportedly lead to build delays and cost increases.

In a new report, the value of contracts in the pipeline for 2014 represents more than a 50% increase on $11.17bn worth of contracts awarded in 2013, according to business consultancy Ventures Middle East.

Project values have