Displaying items by tag: Import

Armenia: The Armenian government has announced that it plans to extend the duration of state duties on cement imported from Iran and several other countries until 1 July 2020. The decision was made on the basis of analysis that confirmed an extension of the customs duties was appropriate. The government said that it would continue to monitor the situation.

According to the RA Statistical Committee Armenia produced 0.59Mt of cement in 2019, 8.1% more than in 2018. The RA Customs Service reported that the country imported 0.31Mt in 2019, a year-on-year increase of 70.5%.

Sri Lanka: Norochcholai Coal Power Plant (NCPP) is courting buyers for its fly ash, of which it says it produces US$5.5m-worth annually. In 2019 NCPP sold US$3.3m to Sri Lankan cement producers. Daily News Sri Lanka has reported that the company has undertaken measures to increase the value of the fly ash to cement producers, in order to obtain a higher price. NCPP manager Indrasiri Gallage said, "By selling fly ash to cement producers the plant has also helped to free the country from reliance on clinker imports."

An expansion, including the installation of a new 300MW coal-fired power plant, will eventually bring the NCPP’s capacity to 1200MW. The plant is currently working to increase the value of its bottom ash for paving block production.

Uzbekistan: Uzbekistan imported 3.27Mt of cement in 2019, down by 6.8% year-on-year from 3.51Mt in 2018. The value of cement imported fell by 13% to US$154m from US$176m. Trend newspaper has reported that cement imports from Kazakhstan fell by 32% to 0.97Mt from 1.43Mt. Imports from Tajikistan and Turkmenistan also fell, but rose by 85% from Iran, to 0.59Mt from 0.32Mt.

Uzbekistan, which has a 12.9Mt/yr installed cement production capacity, removed its zero rate of customs duty on cement in October 2019 in order to help align domestic demand with production.

Nigeria: Dangote Cement’s profit in 2019 was US$685m, down by 17% from US$822m in 2018. Sales were US$2.46bn, down by 1.1% year-on-year from US$2.49bn in 2018. “Export sales were affected by the Nigeria-Benin border closure in the second half of 2019. Looking ahead, I expect an increase in volumes in 2020 as we commence clinker exports via shipping from Nigeria,” said Dangote Cement CEO Joe Makoju. The group reported pan-African volume growth to 9.4Mt/yr, noting a 94% growth in Tanzanian volumes, aided by the commencement of operations at a temporary gas power plant in the East African country.

Retiring from the company, Makoju said, “I am proud to have watched Dangote Cement grow from a local producer back in 2007 to a major force in global cement production. Dangote Cement has eliminated Nigeria's dependence on imported cement.” He wished his successor Michel Puchercos all the best in his new role.

Tajikistan: Builders completed the construction of 1.36Mm² of multi-storey housing in Tajikistan in 2019, up by 24% from 1.10Mm² in 2018. Tajikistan Newsline has reported that all residential construction concrete comes from domestically produced cement. Tajikistan produced 4.2Mt of cement in 2019 - up by 11% from 1.8Mt in 2018 - exporting 1.5Mt. It imported 20,000t, primarily of white cement.

Tajikistan: Tajikistan continued to import a small volume of cement in 2019, despite a year-on-year increase in the production and export. The country produced 4.2Mt of cement, 0.4Mt (10.5%) more than in 2018. 20,000t of cement was imported into the country in 2019, especially white cement, which is not produced in Tajikistan.

Exports of cement rose during 2019 to 1.5Mt, at a value of US$68.1m. 980,000t were exported to Uzbekistan, 576,000t were exported to Afghanistan and 80,600t were exported to Kyrgyzstan.

Belarus: Belarusian cement producers recorded production volumes of 4.7Mt in 2019, corresponding to capacity utilisation of over 100%. Volumes increased by 4.6% from 4.5Mt in 2018. The Arab Times has reported that the country imported 0.5Mt of cement with a value of US$28m. US$18m of this came from Russia, while a further US$3.7m, US$2.8m and US$2.0m came from Latvia, Ukraine and Turkey respectively.

On 6 February 2020 the State Council of Ministers reinstated protectionist licencing laws requiring importers of cement to have special permissions to bring cement from outside of the Eurasian Economic Union into the country. This affects all current sources of imported cement to Belarus apart from Russia.

There have been rumours in the press this week that LafargeHolcim is weighing up its options in South Africa. Reports in the local press allege that the building materials company has tasked Credit Suisse Group with finding a buyer for its business. This may or may not be true, only time will tell, but South Africa certainly feels like a market where LafargeHolcim should be considering its future.

As a prominent but smaller producer in the country, Lafarge South Africa is behind PPC and AfriSam in terms of clinker production capacity. InterCement’s subsidiary Natal Portland Cement and Dangote’s subsidiary Sephaku Cement have a similar production base with an integrated plant each and one or two grinding plants. Halfway through 2019 LafargeHolcim was describing market conditions as ‘difficult’ in the country with it being the sole Sub-Saharan market holding back regional growth for the group. By the third quarter the situation had reportedly improved but net sales and cement sales volumes were flat for the year to date. A clearer picture should emerge when LafargeHolcim publishes its fourth quarter results at the end of February 2020.

PPC provided its view of the market in its half-year results to 30 September 2019. Its estimate was that the South African cement industry declined by 10 - 15% for the period, creating a competitive environment. It added that the situation had been, ‘exacerbated by imports and blender activity.’ Both its revenue and earnings fell year-on-year, although a 30% rise in fuel costs didn’t help either. Sephaku Cement suffered a similar time of it, with a 19% fall in cement sales volumes during the first half, although it reported improvement in the subsequent quarter. Overall, it blamed falling infrastructure investment for pressurising the market and allowing blending activity to mount. Sephaku Cement was also wary of the local carbon tax that started in June 2019 warning of a potential US$2.8m/yr bill.

PPC noted that cement imports had risen by 5% to 0.85Mt in the year to August 2019. This followed a lobbying effort by The Concrete Institute (TCI) in mid-2019 to implore the International Trade Administration Commission (ITAC) to look into rising imports levels. At the time the TCI’s managing director Brian Perrie expressed incomprehension that a country with six different cement production companies with an over-capacity rate of 30% could be facing this problem. This latest broadside tails South Africa’s previous attempt to fend off imports when it instituted anti-dumping duties of 17 – 70% against importers from Pakistan in 2015. Imports duly fell in 2016 but rose again in 2017 and 2018, mainly from Vietnam and China.

All of this sounds familiar following LafargeHolcim’s departure from the ‘hyper-competitive’ South-East Asian countries in 2019. Those countries also suffered from competition and raging imports. Bloomberg pointed out in a report on the local industry in 2016 that PPC’s, AfriSam’s and LafargeHolcim’s kilns had an average age of 32 years, suggesting that efficiency and maintenance were going to be concerns in the future. Also of note is LargeHolcim’s decision to move its South African operations from one subsidiary, Lafarge Africa, to another, Caricement, in mid-2019.

Some level of market consolidation would certainly help local overcapacity. Plus, surely, LafargeHolcim’s mix of inland integrated capacity and a grinding plant near the coast could prove enticing to some of the Asian companies pumping out all of those imports. The thought on the minds of potential buyers everywhere must be, if LafargeHolcim chief Jan Jenisch was bold enough to sell up in South-East Asia, how can he not in South Africa?!”

Poland: The Association of Cement Producers in Poland estimates that cement production reached 19Mt in the country in 2019, around 1% more than in 2018. According to estimates, imports from Belarus and Turkey, the producers of which do not have to purchase EU Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) permits, grew by 0.25Mt and 50,000t respectively. The Association expects that sales will remain a similar level in 2020.

Polish electricity prices rose by about 35-40% during 2019, caused to a large extent by the surge in ETS permit prices. This, said Xavier Guesnu, CEO of Lafarge Polska, is leading to a marked increase in imports from outside of the EU. There are concerns that, if unchecked, this could adversely affect domestic cement producers.

Ghana: Carlos Ahenkorah, Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry, says that government is considering a temporary block on imports on cement. However, he added the catch that it would only do this if local producers could ensure ‘fair’ pricing, according to the News Statesman newspaper. He made the comments at an award dinner organised by CIMAF.