Displaying items by tag: Government

Uzbekistan: The government has reduced the tax on limestone for use as a raw material in cement production. Uzbekistan Newsline has reported that the tax rate has dropped by 73% to US$0.48/t.

Brazil: Brazil consumed 62Mt in 2023, down by 1.7% year-on-year, according to data from the National Cement Industry Association (SNIC). This marks the second successive year of decline, after demand dropped by 2.8% to 63.1Mt in 2022. As a result, cement’s value on the National Construction Cost Index dropped by 6%, after having risen by 13% in 2022. The domestic cement industry recorded a capacity utilisation rate of 66% in 2023.

SNIC president Paulo Camillo Penna noted high household debt, high interest rates and poor income growth as impacting the industry’s sales. He said “The My House, My Life housing programme was not fully operational until the middle of the year. Up to September 2023, the construction industry experienced a 16% decline in the number of real-estate launches.” He continued “By 2026, we will experience a period of turnaround for the cement industry.”

EU: Cembureau has published its manifesto for industrial transformation for the European Parliament’s 2024-2029 legislative term. The manifesto calls for an ambitious EU agenda focused on the implementation of the European Green Deal along five key lines: 1 - turbo-charging EU and national funding and developing national industrial decarbonisation plans; 2 – Rolling out the EU Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) to create a level playing field for EU industries; 3 – Building a pan-European CO₂ capture network and moving towards circular carbon feedstocks; 4 – Placing circular economy at the heart of industrial decarbonisation; 5 – Enhancing the EU buildings’ agenda to significantly cut emissions.

Cembureau said “The European cement industry was one of the first sectors to present a 2050 Carbon Neutrality Roadmap following the publication of the European Green Deal. The past five years were marked by the development of a comprehensive EU legislative framework and the launch of significant decarbonisation investments in our industry. Now, with the deployment of carbon-neutral cements within our grasp, we need to implement transformative measures on innovation, infrastructure, public acceptance, digitalisation and skills development.”

India: Ambuja Cements has signed new memoranda of understanding (MoU) with the government of Tamil Nadu for the construction of three grinding plants in the state. Business Today Online News has reported that the plants are part of US$5.14bn in planned capital expenditure (CAPEX) investments in Tamil Nadu by parent company Adani Group.

Karan Adani, CEO of the group’s shipping subsidiary Adani Ports, said "Today's Tamil Nadu is a standout example of stability, a well-established industrial ecosystem, advanced infrastructure, total connectivity, safe and secure neighbourhoods, business-friendly policies with an able and efficient team of officers and a diverse and highly-skilled workforce with more women in the ranks than anywhere else in the country."

India: The Saffron Growers Association (SGA) has said that cement plants in Kashmir are causing dust pollution, to which the association attributed the decline of the local saffron industry. Down to Earth News has reported that the SGA alleges that the state’s traditional crop has ceased to be profitable because of extra costs arising from the fall of dust during flowering season. The association added that pollutants such as nitrous oxides (NO_x) and sulphur dioxide (SO₂) can also affect saffron’s growth.

The SGA called on authorities to regulate the construction of cement plants and their emissions more closely.

India: The government’s Income Tax Department fined Shree Cement US$481m on 5 January 2024. The fine is for the company’s use of falsified bills in relation to a non-existent waste management plant to claim US$1.02bn-worth of tax deductions between April 2014 and March 2023.

The Economic Times newspaper, breaking the story, reported that neither Shree Cement nor the Income Tax Department has yet issued a statement.

India: The Office of the Deputy Commissioner of Income Tax, Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, has issued a show cause notice to JK Cement with regard to possible short payments, non-payments or erroneous refunds, including associated interest, worth US$279,000.

Reuters has reported that the company expects ‘no material impact’ on its operational, financial or other activities due to the notice.

Pakistan: Cement producers despatched 23.9Mt of cement during the first half of the 2024 financial year (1 July – 31 December 2023), up by 9.7% year-on-year from 21.8Mt in the first half of the previous financial year. The Nation newspaper has reported that exports more than doubled, to 3.65Mt from 1.73Mt.

The All Pakistan Cement Manufacturers Association (APCMA) expressed its concern over slow domestic sales. The association said “We are very hopeful that the government will speed up PSDP projects in order to increase cement demand and also give attention to our operational problems. Two major issues currently being faced by the cement industry are related to the new Axle Load regime and Track and Trace system. We have approached the concerned functionaries and expect to get a positive response.”

Kyrgyzstan had a couple of prominent stories in the press towards the end of December 2023 with news of a new plant and continuing data showing that cement production has grown.

The Chüy project was first announced by the government in mid-2022 when it signed an investment agreement with a consortium comprising representatives from Terek-Tash and ZENIT. More information on the unit emerged this week when the Russian-Kyrgyz Development Fund revealed that it made a loan of US$45m towards the scheme based in the northern Chüy region of the country. The plan is to build a 1.7Mt/yr plant with a budget of US$160m. Equipment to build the plant is reportedly being sourced from companies in China and Russia. Special features of the project include a waste heat recovery unit and the use of ash from the Bishkek Thermal Power Plant in the production process. The plant is expected to be launched in 2024.

Graph 1: Cement production in Kyrgyzstan, 2018 - 2023. Source: National Statistical Committee of the Kyrgyz Republic.

One reason why the government might be keen to build a new plant is because cement production has mostly grown in each of the past five years, with the exception of 2020, when the Covid-19 pandemic began. In 2022 it increased by 7% year-on-year to 2.7Mt and the latest data from the National Statistical Committee indicates that it rose by 11% year-on-year to 2.6Mt in the 11 months to the end of November 2023. If this rate held in December 2023 then it looks likely that the country will have produced just under 3Mt in 2023. At the same time the country’s exports of cement have also been falling. In November 2023 the government of Kazakhstan’s Jambyl Region said that it had found investors to support construction of a railway line between the locale and Kyrgyzstan due to a ‘building boom’ in the latter country.

Earlier in 2023 the Eurasian Development Bank (EDB) said it had earmarked US$48m for the modernisation of equipment at the Kant Cement plant, operated by Kazakhstan-based United Cement Group (UCG), also in Chüy region. The plant is the biggest in Kyrgyzstan, running five wet process production lines, according to the Global Cement Directory 2023. The EDB linked its investment to a hydroelectric project in the country that it is also funding, pointing out that such structures require lots of cement and concrete. This follows a previous upgrade project by owner Kazakhstan-based United Cement Group (UCG) at the plant from 2021 to March 2023. This involved efficiency and environmental gains such as installing bag filters and converting a cement grinding mill to a closed circuit. China-based and CNBM subsidiary China Triumph International Engineering was the lead project partner. In early December 2023 UCG announced that it had signed another contract with China Triumph International Engineering over the summer to build a new dry production line at the site with a clinker capacity of 0.8Mt/yr. At the time of the announcement it said that preparation of the construction site had started and that work had begun on installing a pile foundation.

Finally, one more Kyrgyz news story of note in recent months was the announcement in October 2023 that the government had effectively nationalised the Kurmentinsky Cement plant in Issyk-Kul Region. The reason why it had done so was unusual because it said that a 93% share in the company running the plant had been transferred to the State Property Management Agency following the death of its former owner. The former owner was one Kamchybek Kolbaev, an organised crime boss who had been listed on the US Department of State Transnational Organized Crime Rewards Program and was reportedly killed by state security services in early October 2023. The remaining shares in the plant have been passed to its workers and the government further said that it intends to upgrade the site.

The cement sector in Kyrgyzstan is modest and in need of modernisation. It appears to be having a resurgence at the moment though with production mounting and at least two major plant projects underway. The country is in a compelling position economically and geopolitically given its membership of the Russia-backed Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and its proximity to China. Various projects backed by the latter’s Belt and Road Initiative, both underway and forthcoming, would certainly appear to benefit from more efficient local cement production and higher volumes.

Czech Republic: Cemex Czech Republic resubmitted a revised environmental impact assessment (EIA) for its Prachovice quarry on 29 December 2023. Under the revised EIA, the quarry’s area will remain unchanged, but operations will expand to 1.7Mt/yr from 1.2Mt/yr. Authorities twice rejected previous EIAs for the mine.

Newton Media News has reported that the company says that its tests ‘clearly verified that the increased level of total organic carbon in air emissions was caused by one of the additives used in processing, and not by the content of organic substances in the mined raw material.’