Displaying items by tag: Algeria

Mauritania/Algeria: Ciment du Nord has signed a supply agreement with Algeria’s state-owned Groupe Industriel des Ciments d’Algérie (GICA). The deal marks the first direct partnership between the two companies and will set clinker export volumes to Mauritania, with pricing terms still reportedly under negotiation.

“Thanks to this agreement, we will import the raw materials needed to manufacture cement directly from Algeria. The Mauritanian market is important, and this partnership will have a positive impact,” said Mohamed Abdallah Ould Zein, CEO of Ciment du Nord. Ould Zein added that the agreement is expected to strengthen Mauritania’s cement industry by securing direct clinker supply from Algeria and reducing reliance on intermediaries.

Algeria: Interim Prime Minister Sifi Ghrieb, who came to power on 14 September 2025, has chaired an inter-ministerial meeting on the topic of cement and clinker exports, according to a press release from the Prime Minister's office. Those present included the ministers of finance, foreign trade and export promotion, public works and transport, the Governor of the Bank of Algeria, and economic operators active in the cement export sector. The meeting was reportedly prompted by a request from the Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune.

The meeting provided Interim Prime Minister Ghrieb the opportunity to receive presentations on the state of infrastructure at the ports involved in export operations and to listen to the concerns and proposals of the economic operators present. It agreed a series of immediate and short-term measures by streamlining the operation of current infrastructure. Medium-term proposals to target a greater proportion of cement and clinker towards export markets, including investment in new infrastructure, were also discussed.

Algeria: The Souakri Group has signed a one-year agreement with a Libyan partner to supply cement by land and sea during the Intra-African Trade Fair in Algiers. The deal is valued at US$51m. Contracts signed at the fair, between Algerian and and other African companies totalled over US$300m, according to local press.

Algeria: Holcim El Djazaïr announced that more than 40% of its cement exports are directed to African markets. The company said that it accounts for 35% of the country’s cement sector exports, equivalent to 3.4Mt/yr.

The producer said in a press release that it is supported by an ambitious investment policy aimed at making Algeria an African cement hub. This includes increasing plant storage capacity, creating port loading facilities, building new storage infrastructure near ports and deploying a dedicated road fleet to strengthen its export logistics chain.

Algeria: Biskria Ciment has exported 28,000t of white cement to the US from the port of Annaba aboard the M/V Anhui, according to the Annaba Port Company via L’Expression newspaper. The exports continue despite a 30% US customs duty on Algerian imports.

The company said it is maintaining shipments by leveraging the quality and price competitiveness of its cement.

Algeria: The Minister of Industry Sifi Ghrieb has announced a project to build two new low-carbon cement plants in Djelfa and Relizane in central Algeria with a capacity of 1.5Mt/yr and 2Mt/yr respectively, according to Zawya news. An existing cement plant in Djelfa will also see its capacity expanded by 1.5Mt/yr.

The new projects will boost Algeria’s cement capacity to 42Mt/yr. It currently has a cement demand of 30Mt/yr and exports a surplus of 12Mt/yr of cement. Ghrief reportedly discussed plans to expand the Djelfa plant in March 2025 with a delegation from the China State Construction Engineering Corporation. A separate 2Mt/yr low-carbon cement plant, a partnership between local, UAE-based and India-based companies, is also under construction in El Milia, utilising slag and fly ash from a nearby power station and steel complex.

South Korea/Algeria: The Korea Cement Association and the Algerian Cement Industry Group (GICA) have signed a memorandum of understanding to expand cooperation following a delegation visit to the country, led by vice president Lee Chang-ki and Hanil Cement Dan-yang plant head Jeon Jae-cheol. Chosun Biz news reported that Algeria ‘requested for help’ from Korea, and that the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy promoted the resumption of the Korea-Algeria economic Joint Committee meetings, which had been suspended since 2007.

Lee Chang-ki announced the ‘2050 Carbon Neutral Strategy for the Korean Cement Industry’, and the parties had the opportunity to visit Algerian cement plants and discuss future cooperation. The two parties agreed to form an operating committee to oversee implementation over the next two years.

Algeria: Groupe des Ciments d'Algérie (GICA) has officially recommissioned the 1Mt/yr Timegtane cement plant in Adrar after a period of closure. Sifi Ghrieb, the Minister of Industry, visited the plant to mark the occasion, according to Le Jeune Independent newspaper. The unit partially re-started production in March 2024. A second 1.5Mt/yr production line at the plant is due to be commissioned soon.

The government transferred the ownership of the plant to GICA as part of a reported state drive against corruption. It was originally inaugurated in 2017 as a joint-venture between local company STG Engineering and the China Triumph International Engineering (CTIE). Construction of a second production line at the site was previously reported in 2018.

President Trump said he was going to do it… and he did. The US announced tariffs on most imports on 2 April 2025 that took effect from 5 April 2025. So, once again, we ask what the consequences of this might be upon the cement sector.

Table 1: Estimated burden of US tariffs on selected countries importing cement based on 2024 data. Source: Based on USGS data.

Global Cement Magazine Editorial Director Robert McCaffrey posted a similar table to the one above on LinkedIn on 4 April 2025. It applies the new import tariffs to the value of imported hydraulic cement and clinker to the US in 2024 as reported by the United States Geological Survey (USGS). As such it gives us a starting idea of how the new tariffs might change what happens in 2025. For an idea of the volumes of cement imported to the US in recent years refer to the graph in GCW695.

However, a couple of key caveats were pointed out by commentators to that LinkedIn post. Marty Ozinga noted that the values from the USGS are customs values. Crucially, he said that the tariffs will be charged upon the FOB value of cement at the point of origin and not on the transport costs. This is significant because the cost of moving the cement can sometimes be more than half the total values reported in the table for certain countries. Another commentator wanted to make it clear that tariffs on imports are imposed upon the supply chain and are paid somewhere along it, typically by end users, rather than the originating country. Elsewhere, the feeling was very much one of waiting to see what would happen next and how markets would reorder.

Taken at face value, the first takeaway from Table 1 is that the variable tariffs disrupt the competitiveness of the importers. Any importer from a country with the lowest rate, 10%, now has an advantage over those with higher ones. Türkiye seems to be the obvious winner here as it was both the largest importer of cement in 2024 and it has the lowest rate. Vietnam appears to be a loser with a massive 46% rate. Canada and Mexico may have problems with a 25% tariff but how their cement gets to the US market may make a big difference as Ozinga mentions above. And so it goes down the list. What may be significant is how the order of the importers further down the list changes. For example, Algeria has a 30% rate compared to Egypt’s 10%. Both nations exported a similar volume of cement to the US in 2024.

The first casualty of the last week has been market certainty. The US announced the tariffs and stock markets slumped around the world. They started to revive on 8 April 2025 as the US government made more reassuring noises about trade talks but this was dampened by renewed fears of a US - China trade war. The orthodox economic view is that the US tariffs are increasingly likely to cause a recession in the US in the short term regardless of whether they have a more positive effect on the longer one. This view can be detected in former PCA economist Ed Sullivan’s latest independent report on the US economy. He acknowledged the fairness argument the US government has made, but warned of stagflation.

On the US construction market, prices look set to rise in areas that previously relied on imports or are near to them. Cement companies in the US should be able to sell higher volumes as some level of domestic production outcompetes imports. The sector produced 86Mt in 2024 and has a capacity of 120Mt/yr giving it a utilisation rate of 72%. It imported 20 - 25Mt of cement in 2024. One sign of this happening might be renewed investment in local capacity through upgrades, new lines and even new plants. However, a recession would reduce overall consumption. On the equipment side, there is likely to be a similar readjustment between local and foreign suppliers. Certainly, if the tariffs stick around then more non-US companies may be tempted to set up local subsidiaries and /or manufacturing bases if conditions permit. For example, note JCB’s doubling in size this week of a plant it is building in Texas. One interesting situation might occur if a US cement company wants to build a new production line. All the likely suppliers, at present at least, appear to be based outside of the US.

Finally, despite everything, Holcim declared this week that it had completed a $3.4bn bond offering ahead of the impending spin-off of Amrize in the US noting “strong investor interest in the future company.” It wants to shore-up confidence ahead of the creation of the new company at some point in the first half of the year. Holcim’s CEO said previously that he didn’t expect any blowback from tariffs as the company was a local business in the US. What may be worth watching for is whether the current disruption to stock markets causes any delays to the creation of Amrize.

The current situation with the tariffs is prompting a rapid-revaluation of the US construction market and the wider economy. US-based building materials companies look set to benefit but there may be disruption along the way. Foreign companies supplying the sector may well experience sharp changes in circumstances depending on how tariffs reorder supply chains. Prices for end-users look set to rise. We live in interesting times.

For Ed Sullivan’s take on the US cement sector read his article in the May 2025 issue of Global Cement Magazine

Algeria: Holcim El-Djazaïr has completed its first export shipment from the Port of Béjaïa, sending 50,000t of grey cement to North America. More shipments will follow throughout the year, according to a post by the producer on Linkedin.