Displaying items by tag: cement
Vietnam: The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has demanded that rice growers do not use cement as a fertiliser for their fields, state media has reported. The announcement follows local media reports that some farmers in the Mekong Delta province of Dong Thap were using cement on their rice fields. In a letter sent to local Departments of Agriculture and Rural Development, the Crop Cultivation Department asked local authorities to prevent cement being used in this way because it has no nutrition value for rice and it make soil unviable for crop cultivation.
Vietnamese farmers use cement as fertiliser for rice
20 January 2016Vietnam: Vietnamese farmers in many localities have used cement as fertiliser for their rice fields after a farmer in Lai Vung, Dong Thap said that the move had helped him raise his yield.
Several months ago, when building a new house, Le Van Nuoi from Long Hau noticed that vegetables planted near a place where building workers washed their utensils grew well without any fertiliser. Nuoi thought that the vegetables developed thanks to the mortar and cement stuck on the utensils of building workers.
Nuoi made a test with rice. He put down urea mixed with cement on a small area of rice and discovered that the trees in this area grew better than others in the same field. Nuoi's initiative was transferred to other farmers in the region, who have reached the same conclusion as Nuoi. The farmers have offered instructions on how long the fertiliser should be used and the ratio of cement and urea.
Mai Quoc Hau, Head of the Agriculture and Rural Development Division of Lai Vung, said that the local authorities have known about the initiative of local farmers. The division has sent experts to work with the farmers. He said that he would report the case to the higher authorities for consideration because using cement as fertiliser was 'very strange.' Experts have warned that spraying cement to rice fields will make the land unsuitable for crop cultivation.
Vietnam: Vietnam produced 14.3Mt of cement in the first quarter of 2015, up by 5.9% from 2014, according to the government-run General Statistics Office. In March 2015, the country's cement production fell by 4% year-on-year to 5.5Mt. In the first two months of 2015, Vietnam generated 8.8Mt. The Ministry of Construction has predicted that Vietnam's cement and clinker sales will rise by 1.5 - 4% year-on-year to 72 – 74Mt in 2015, of which domestic sales will rise by 4.5 - 6.5% to 53 – 54Mt, while exports will be at 19 – 20Mt.
Iran stops producing clinker for 30 days
19 January 2015Iran: Iran's cement plants have all stopped producing clinker for 30 days, as of 14 January 2015. Abdolreza Sheykhan, an official with Iran's Cement Producers Association, said that the country currently has 17Mt of clinker in store.
"We have stopped producing clinker in order to turn the current inventory to cement," said Sheykhan, adding that the country's need is only 10Mt until the end of the current Iranian calendar year on 20 March 2014. The Iranian oil ministry will pay US$7/t of cement to production plants to compensate for their loss. "Iran's current cement output is around 6.5Mt/month," said Sheykhan. "The country's need, however, is around 4.5 – 5Mt/month."
Iran exported nearly 9.25Mt of cement in the first eight months of the current Iranian year, which started on 21 March 2014. This is 8.5% lower compared to the same period in the previous year. Sheykhan had previously said that the insecurity in Iraq and reduction in the number of destination markets for Iran's cement are the major reasons behind the fall in exports.
"Azerbaijan was one of the major importers of Iran's cement, but the country has now reached self-sufficiency and reduced its imports from Iran," said Sheykhan. He named Russia and African countries as new markets for Iran's cement exports, adding that by taking the mentioned markets, Iran can increase its cement and clinker exports by 1.5Mt/yr.
Brazil becomes the fourth-largest global consumer of cement
04 August 2014Brazil: According to Datamark, the Brazilian cement industry has doubled in size, moving from 10th place to 4th place in terms of global consumption. Currently, Brazil's cement consumption is only behind the US, India and China. It is expected that Brazil's cement consumption will reach 75Mt/yr by 2016 and 85Mt/yr by 2020.
Farmer wins case against Saurashtra Cement
02 January 2014India: A consumer court has asked a cement company to compensate a farmer for the cost of house construction as the quality of its cement was not found up to the necessary standards.
Rahimbhai Sherasiya started construction at his farm in Dhuva village with 200 bags of Hathi brand cement that he bought from Saurashtra Cement Ltd in December 2012 for US$871. As construction proceeded he found that the cement was of very poor quality. It could not hold construction material and further construction was not possible.
Sherasiya complained to the company and the authorised dealer but did not get a proper reply. Through company officials he sent samples of the cement to the laboratory of the Gujarat Engineering Research Institute (GERI) to get the cement tested for quality. GERI's report revealed that the cement was not as per the Indian Standard.
When the company refused to pay heed to his complaint, Sherasiya moved the Rajkot Consumer Dispute Redressal Forum and demanded compensation. This included the amount he had invested in paying for transportation and labour and purchasing construction material. The company denied all charges and claimed that GERI is not a government-approved agency and that its report was misleading.