16 December 2016
Competition body rejects Cemento Patriota brand registration request 16 December 2016
Colombia: The Superintendency of Industry and Commerce (SIC), Colombia's competition watchdog, has rejected a request made by Productora de Cementos to register its brand Cemento Patriota under Nice Classification. The initially approved submission was contested by Cementos Argos, according to La Republica newspaper. It argued that Cementos Patriota would infringe on its Cementos Uno A, Concretos Uno A and Agregados Uno A labels, because it reproduced the distinctive letter 'A' and number one of the accompanying graphic shared by all three brands. SIC ruled in favour of Cementos Argos, arguing that a side-by-side comparison shows visual similarities.
Ministry issues cause orders to cement projects in Philippines 16 December 2016
Philippines: The Department of Environment and Natural Resources has issued show cause orders against two cement projects. Orders were issued to the Mindanao Portland Cement Corporation and the Pozzolan and the Associate Minerals Cement Plant, as well as to nine other mining companies, according to the Philippine Star newspaper. Environment Secretary Gina Lopez said that these companies should explain within seven days why fines should not be issued and environmental compliance certificates cancelled. The initiative is part of a review of environmental certificates issues by previous administrations.
Shandong Shanshui Cement starts to tidy up debts 16 December 2016
China: Shandong Shanshui Cement has entered into a debt investment framework agreement. Cinda Shandong will acquire the defaulted bonds issued by Shandong Shanshui. It will also loan Shandong Shanshui up to US$1.15bn. Deputy chairman Mi Jingtian told the Xinhua News Agency that his company had 'paid in full' all outstanding interest and regained a 'normal working relationship' with commercial banks. Earlier in December 2016 Shandong Shanshui said that it had settled with China Merchants Bank in a dispute over US$81m of loans. Shanshui Cement has faced financial problems since a shareholder battle for control of the company took place in late 2015.
Europe: Cembureau, the European Cement Association, has raised concerns that amendments submitted by the European Parliament’s Environment Committee, which foresee in an introduction of a Border Adjustment Measure (BAM) with the loss of free allowances for the cement sector in Phase IV of European Union (EU) Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), starting in 2020, will be detrimental to the local cement industry. The association is concerned that the changes unduly affect the cement industry, although lime, brick and tile industry have been included also.
The association described included that a BAM against certain but not all sectors as 'discriminatory and legally flawed.' It raised the problems that the policy would bring for the competitiveness of the cement industry both globally and internally. It also blamed the influence of reports by non-government agencies upon policymakers.
Environmental campaign group Sandbag defended the changes as ones that could put a stop to the, ‘cement sector’s windfall profits from the ETS.’ It argued that the proposed import inclusion carbon mechanism would expand the scope of the ETS to
include imported materials for a number of sectors, meaning that products sold in the EU would face the same costs for carbon compliance, regardless of their origin.
"In a number of ways, this proposal marks a huge step forward in the evolution of the ETS. The proposed border adjustment measures are a good starting point for levelling the playing field for all cement producers," said Wilf Lytton, Industrial Carbon Researcher at Sandbag.