Steppe Cement Share Discussion Threads

[bubloo] 01/9/2023 09:04

iknocker trying to knock some buys at a low price.
STCm without doubt a a good buy at this price.

[wilo101] 31/8/2023 07:24

Normally maximum radius circa 350km, no more due transport and logistics costs.
The nearest plants to STCM are in Semipalatinsk (Wet) and Ust-Kamenogorsk (HCC), is no plant in Astana and no other plant in Karaganda, so is a monopolist in that region.

[danmart2] 31/8/2023 06:30

Cement does get sold beyond domestic borders but its normally to nearby countries.

Africa appears to be the furthest cement travels for sales possibly due to the lack of manufacturing infrastructure

[thordon] 30/8/2023 20:09

Lefrene china is not as cheap as it used to be , hence why company's are investing elsewhere.
Cement is made locally , where borders are close some transaction occur with high fuel costs this is getting less & less.

[finctastic] 30/8/2023 19:13

A couple of nice swings last two days for anyone brave enough to day trade. Getting too tight now as we are coming into a wedge between support and resistance trend lines as we approach the hopefully improved figures in a couple of weeks. Positive breakout incoming would be my bet, even without the dividend hunters.

[lefrene] 30/8/2023 17:21

There is a rail link from China through Kazakhstan, but it seems early days yet as part of the Belt and Road project to Europe. So perhaps if the costs are not too onerous there might be some Chinese cement making it's way to Kazakhstan? But it would seem unlikely that a cheap commodity could be shipped a huge distance by rail, and still have enough margin to undercut local production.

[...]

[wilo101] 30/8/2023 16:23

hxxp://www.eaeunion.org/?lang=en#about
hxxp://www.eaeunion.org/?lang=en#about-countries

is quite something

[loafingchard] 30/8/2023 16:08

This is what we are here for ,well mannered debate. Cheers all.

[1knocker] 30/8/2023 16:03

Quite right wilo. A fair cop, it seems you did know of the EEU.

[wilo101] 30/8/2023 15:43

Eurasian Economic Union

[1knocker] 30/8/2023 15:39

Mattjos, possibly you are right that I should have given him the benefit of the doubt and assumed that he did actually mean EEU rather than EU.

But then , is one justified in giving the benefit of that doubt to someone who can (apparently in all seriousness) post that cement is never freighted more than 350kms, presumably believing that there is no bulk sea transport of cement at all, or that bulk carriers serve routes of less than 350kms? It seemed unlikely that anyone who made such an assertion would have heard of the EEU, though there can be few Brits who have not heard of the EU.

If I did you an injustice wilo, please accept my apologies.

[eggbaconandbubble] 30/8/2023 15:38

Good points lefrene. Besides I don't think many ocean going freighters Chinese or otherwise moor up in Kazakstan!

[lefrene] 30/8/2023 14:38

Plainly China will now be in surplus production of cement, the most efficient producers who have survived will be looking to sell cement anywhere they can, just to keep the lights on. However whilst a Chinese plant based next to a port might have options to sell across the Pacific Basin, the topography between China and Kazakhstan, makes transport too costly.

Competition in these sort of markets can be tough though. I once (circa 1999) opened a 40' container in a Cardiff builders merchant to find I had been carrying 24 tonnes of concrete blocks from Greece! Apparently the load was just £100 cheaper than local product.

[1knocker] 30/8/2023 14:05

No man is an island, gary, nor any company. Domestic prices are inevitably impacted by world prices; its just a question of the degree to which such prices are impacted, which of course varies according to commodity and country. Certainly I would rather own shares in a Kazakhstan cement manufacturer than a Chinese one at present, but that does not mean that now is a good time to be buying cement manufacturers, even non-Chinese ones.

We all have to make our own investment judgments, but personally I shall be very surprised if world cement prices do not warrant a mention in Steppe's next couple (at least) of half yearly reports, as a headwind for the business.

[mattjos] 30/8/2023 13:55

knocker you really are a complete idiot ... wilo (correctly) stated the 'EEU' and not the 'EU'.

[gary1966] 30/8/2023 13:38

1knocker,

STCM export virtually nothing and never really have done. You need to keep your arguments company specific as opposed to tarring STCM with a more generalistic view of the global cement market.

[1knocker] 30/8/2023 13:28

Kazakhstan a member of the EU, and Steppe's market protected by EU tariffs? Well, fancy that. I learn something new every day. It will also be news to the shipping industry that cement is all locally produced and consumed. They need to examine their books as a matter of urgency, and investigate those (presumably fraudulent) entries for cement freights.

I get the distinct impression that our good pal wilo101 may be in a bit too deep for comfort here, and reduced to clutching at virtual [un]reality, never mind straws.

[wilo101] 30/8/2023 12:03

1knocker does not know his Geography and the EEU and tariffs and borders and huge distances, just waffle.

[1knocker] 30/8/2023 11:43

Please yourselves, but in my experience a shortage of a commodity leads to price rises and a glut leads to depressed prices.In the case of a commodity used around the world the price effects are worldwide. Coffee, steel, oil, gas and yes even cement!

Tariffs, subsidies, transport costs and established supply trains are factors which effect local markets so that prices are not uniform across the world, but you are not going to see premium prices in Kazakhstan if the Chinese are virtually giving the stuff away.

Please yourselves though.I have no objection to anyone buying Steppe and giving the share price a bit of support !! If it goes up a bit I may sell, with a view to getting back in later, cheaper. Sadly, BB warriors don't move prices.

[mattjos] 30/8/2023 11:28

Historically, a cement surplus in China simply enforces the closure of the least efficient manufacturers.
Similar would likely occur in Kazakhstan.

[wilo101] 30/8/2023 11:24

There is also Uigurstan in-between, one of the Stans (with Kurdistan, Balochistan, Karakapalkistan, etc) that did not yet make it to state-hood and the Han Chinese call Xinjiang with the POW internment/re-training camps

[eggbaconandbubble] 30/8/2023 11:18

Besides the Kazak government would almost certainly slap import duty on supplies that threaten the home production. Any country would do likewise.

[wilo101] 30/8/2023 11:17

Cement never travels PRC to Kazakhstan, or more than 350km due transport costs and customs and border restrictions, time knocker got his map out!

[zangdook] 30/8/2023 10:44

What does a possible oversupply of cement in China have to do with a cement plant approx 500 km from the border and thousands of km from the main industrial centres?

"China has to find a market for all that cement"

Cement is not the sort of product you ship around the world to find a buyer. If local demand drops local production will drop.

If the Chinese economy stumbles that may have knock-on effects in Kazakhstan, but the Kaz cement market won't be affected directly by lack of demand in China.

[eggbaconandbubble] 30/8/2023 10:22

knocker - you have a good point but those facts are almost certainly already in the price - ie. the recent fall in share price is a result of the issues with China.