Holcim banks on infrastructure

Holcim Romania cement producer estimates the high number of infrastructure projects to be started once Romania joins the EU will boost cement sales by around 10-15% a year.
“Over the following years, we are going to deliver more cement for infrastructure. Whereas this year around 85% of cement sales were made to the residential, commercial and office building sectors, sales to projects such as water purifying stations, highways and railways will account for a larger share (of the total i.e.),” stated Markus Wirth, general manager of Holcim Romania.
The company expects turnover to rise by 10-15% this year to some 190 million euros.
The Swiss cement producer in the first half of this year saw cement sales advance by 13.9% compared with the corresponding period of last year. Real estate market growth and the resumption of some infrastructure projects are among the factors behind the sales growth, according to Holcim representatives.
The most important infrastructure project the company is involved in is Transylvania highway.
“We signed the first contract with Bechtel firm for aggregate, soil stabilisation products and cement supplies,” specifies Wirth, who chose not to offer further details on the value of the contract or on delivered volumes.
Holcim Romania will build five new concrete-mixing stations in the next five years
“We cannot provide an exact figure related to the total value of investments because of land price fluctuation, but costs related to the construction of a concrete-mixing station range between 1.8 and 3.8 million euros,” states Wirth.
In Romania, Holcim holds cement production facilities in Campulung Muscel, Alesd and Turda, 14 environment-friendly fixed concrete-mixing stations and a mobile concrete-mixing station.
The company plans to invest 160 million euros during the 2006-2008 period. Investments target the construction of a new production line in Campulung plant, the building of a cement pre-homogenisation facility, as well as upgrading the equipment and installations in all the company’s plants, both on the cement segment and on the segment of aggregates and concrete.
At present, Holcim holds capacities of 2.5 million tonnes, to be raised by around 500,000 tonnes, once investments in Campulung are finalised.
The level of investments the Swiss group has made since it entered the Romanian market in 1997 through the end of last year reached some 334 million euros on cement, concrete and aggregates markets.
Holcim’s main rivals on the international market and in Romania are French group Lafarge and Germany’s HeidelbergCement group. Holcim, Lafarge and HeidelbergCement equally share a cement market worth more than 400 million euros every year. The Romanian cement market will grow by 10-15% by yearend from 6.4 million tonnes in 2005.