
Displaying items by tag: Iran
Iran’s cement production capacity reaches 90Mt/yr
13 January 2025Iran: The country’s cement production capacity has reached 90Mt/yr, with 85% of machinery and parts manufactured domestically, according to Majid Vafapour, head of the Cement Industry Employers Association.
Vafapour said domestic demand is fully met, with any surplus exported. He noted that reduced infrastructure activity due to funding constraints has driven higher exports.
Vafapour said “If international challenges are resolved and domestic projects regain momentum, the current 90Mt/yr capacity could be fully utilised for domestic consumption.”
Efficiency initiatives, including the use of additives, could boost output by 20% without new facilities, according to The Tehran Times. However, energy supply disruptions have left over 30 kilns idle, according to Vafapour, and clinker reserves have dropped below strategic levels.
Türkiye's exports decline from January to November 2024
02 January 2025Türkiye: Türkiye's global cement exports contracted by 6.4% from January to November 2024, totalling US$4bn, according to the Trade Ministry. However, November 2024 saw a modest increase of 0.3% in cement exports, amounting to US$346m. From November 2023 to November 2024, the total value of cement product exports reached US$4.3bn.
Türkiye's cement exports to Iran decreased by 42% year-on-year, totalling nearly US$11.7m during the same 11-month period. Despite this decline, exports in November 2024 rose slightly by 1.5% year-on-year, reaching over US$1.6m.
Armenia extends cement and clinker import restrictions
29 November 2024Armenia: The Armenian government has extended restrictions on the import of cement and clinker from Iran and ‘other countries’ for another six months on 28 November 2024.
The restrictions were first adopted on 13 January 2022 and have been repeatedly extended since then. The latest decision takes effect on 20 January 2025 and is valid until 20 July 2025.
As a result, domestic cement production increased to 1.14Mt in 2023, a rise of 13% year-on-year, while clinker imports rose by 125,200t (19%) and cement imports increased to approximately 270,000t. During the first eight months of 2024, cement imports rose to 305,100t, a 260% increase compared to the same period in 2023, due to lower Iranian cement prices. Concurrently, local cement production declined by 31% to 485,900t in the first half of 2024.
Cement production cut due to gas shortages in Iran
26 November 2024Iran: Ali Akbar Alvandian, the Secretary of the Cement Industry Employers' Association, says that cement plants have been forced to cut production due to a shortage of gas. He said that plants near cities had been forced to halve production, according to comments made to the ILNA news agency. Plants in the countryside, however, have been able to cope better by using mazut heavy fuel oil. In addition cement companies were also negatively affected by electricity rationing over the summer. At its peak, in August 2024, 70% of kilns were closed.
Despite these issues there have been no significant changes in the price of cement due to the country’s use of commodity exchanges. However, exports have decreased by 17% year-on-year in the first seven months of the year. Most of the country’s clinker is exported to Iraq, Kuwait and India. The main destinations for cement include Afghanistan, Russia, Kuwait, Armenia, Turkmenistan and Pakistan.
Kyrgyzstan: 174,800t of cement entered Kyrgyzstan in the first half of 2024, more than double first-half 2023 import volumes of 83,200t. Neighbouring Kazakhstan supplied 152,000t (87%) of the total, according to data from the Kyrgyz National Statistical Committee. Central Asia News has reported that other imports originated from China, Iran and Uzbekistan.
Kyrgyzstan’s first-half cement production declined by 2% year-on-year in the period under review, to 1.3Mt. However, it grew by 10% year-on-year in June 2024. The country exported 190,000t of cement throughout the first half of 2024, all of it to Uzbekistan, down by 21% from first-half 2023 levels.
No imports into my backyard
21 August 2024A couple of stories have popped up this week regarding restrictions on cement imports. First, authorities in Taiwan have launched an anti-dumping investigation into Vietnamese cement. Secondly, and perhaps more surprisingly given its growing economy, the authorities in Kyrgyzstan are planning to ban overland imports of cement from within Central Asia. More on that later…
First, to the Far East, where Taiwan’s Trade Remedies Authority has launched an anti-dumping investigation into cement and clinker imported from Vietnam. It will assess imports covering the year from 1 July 2023 to 30 June 2024 and target seven specific Vietnamese cement producers among others. The Vietnamese companies are mandatory respondents – they will be compelled to answer investigators’ questions.
Vietnamese cement has long been among the cheapest in the region due to the country’s drive to hit production targets, rather than simply meeting demand. The situation has resulted in a vast amount of cement available for export. This, coupled to Vietnam’s long, indented coastline, makes it easy to ship cement overseas.
Even with export volumes falling by 1.2% year-on-year to 31.3Mt in 2023, around a third of Vietnam’s capacity, this is a massive volume of cement - and it’s only getting cheaper. The average export value of Vietnamese cement and clinker fell from US$46-48/t at the start of 2023 to just US$31-32/t in May 2024, a decline of 30-35%. These changes have been due, in part, to an increase in tax on clinker exports from 5% to 10% on 1 January 2023 and an anti-dumping investigation launched by the Philippines in March 2023. Falling prices and volumes represent a ‘double-whammy’ for producers, several of which have announced that they made losses in the first half of 2024. Vicem’s top management said that challenges also arose at home due to a reduced demand following limited civil engineering projects and a stagnant real estate market.
It is easy to see why Taiwanese cement producers may feel threatened by the prospect of greater volumes of cheap cement on their doorstep. Taiwan only made 4.9Mt/yr of cement in the first half of 2024. With domestic prices in the region of US$65-70/t according to Cement Network, this provides a very attractive margin of US$33-39/t for Vietnamese producers to export to Taiwan. It will be interesting to see how far the country’s authorities are willing to go to protect the country’s producers and whether any anti-dumping policies lead to further falls in the landed volumes of Vietnamese cement.
Meanwhile, 4600km to the west, Kyrgyzstan has announced that it will enforce a six-month road import ban on several types of cement including Portland cement, alumina cement and slag cement. The ban, affecting both cement and clinker, will take effect on 1 October 2024 and last for six months. According to the State Statistical Committee of Kyrgyzstan, the country saw a 76% year-on-year increase in cement imports – mainly from Iran, Kazakhstan, China and Uzbekistan - between January 2024 and May 2024. The total import volume over the five months was 125,737t. For a country that made just 1Mt over the same period, this is a major change.
The overland import ban is more of a surprise than the Taiwan / Vietnam situation, as Kyrgyzstan recently reported that the North of the country was experiencing a ‘construction boom’ and cement shortages. However, two new plants due to start production in the coming months could help the country out... unless it too would like to export its newly-developed cement production capacity.
And here we arrive at a ‘classic’ impasse. From Pakistani cement in South Africa, to price arguments in West Africa, import bans in Central Asia and Vietnamese cement in Philippines and Taiwan, more and more exporters are finding that their markets are already self-sufficient in cement, with the US perhaps the notable exception. Soon there will be nowhere left for cement to be exported to. Are we at peak cement?
Iran's cement production and exports decline
06 August 2024Iran: Head of the Iran Cement Association Hamid Farmani reported a 10% decline in Iran's cement production to 76Mt in the year ending 19 March 2024, reports The Tehran Times. Association member Ali-Akbar Alvandian also noted that cement exports fell to 10.5Mt during the period of 21 March 2023 - 21 December 2023, from 13Mt in the previous corresponding period. Annual production is calculated at 90Mt, 60Mt of which is used domestically. 13 white cement projects in the country are currently semi-finished, and if completed will lead to a capacity increase of 8.8Mt/yr.
Farmani said “We predict that in the coming years, the per capita consumption of cement in Iran will approach advanced and developing countries, and the consumption will increase from about 800kg per person to 2000kg per person.”
Iranian cement plants use mazut as fuel amid gas shortage
15 January 2024Iran: 70% of cement plants by capacity were reportedly using the low-quality heavy fuel oil mazut as cement fuel on 13 January 2024. Iranian Labour News Agency has reported that plants transitioned to the fuel from natural gas amid an on-going gas shortage. This has led to a rise in costs and increased pollution from cement plants.
Iran’s Cement Industry Employers’ Association said that the industry’s supply of natural gas has dropped to 7Mm3/yr, from 27M3/yr normally.
Syria: Abdul Qader Jokhadar, the Minister of Industry, has cited using Iran-based expertise in developing filtration system in cement plants to reduce emissions as an example of how the two countries can cooperate. Jokhadar met with Morteza Shahmirzaei, the director of the General Company for Petrochemical Industries and deputy to the Oil Minister of Iran, to discuss industrial development, according to the Syrian Arab News Agency. Other areas of collaboration include manufacturing electric batteries, agricultural machinery, tyres and optical cables.
Afghanistan: Ghori Cement says that its Baghlan cement plants currently produce 600t/day of cement, corresponding to annual production of 0.22Mt/yr. The producer states that production is restricted by shortages of electricity and vehicles. With regular supply of these, it would increase its production by 33% to 800t/day (0.29Mt/yr), according to the company.
Production at the Baghlan cement plants was previously suspended for four months in mid-2022 due to high coal prices. This was resolved when the government began supplying the plants with coal at a pre-agreed price. The plants then reopened with a daily production of 520t/day (0.19Mt/yr), up by 49% from 350t/yr (0.13Mt/yr).
The provincial government said that an upgrade with equipment from China and Iran since increased production by 15% to its present 600t/day (0.22Mt/yr).