Displaying items by tag: Iran

Iran: Cement and steel producers have been ordered to stop production for up to three weeks due to insufficient electricity supplies. A spokesman for the electricity industry said that the cut in supply was now necessary after heavy industrial customers had failed to observer a voluntary request, according to the Fars News Agency. Electricity supplies will be reduced to 10% of normal levels during the period.

Georgia: Georgian Cement Company (GCC) has warned of cement dumping by Iran and Turkey. The subsidiary of LafargeHolcim is lobbying the government for protective legislation, according to Prime News. GCC operates a 0.3Mt/yr cement grinding plant at Poti. The country consumes 2.5Mt/yr and 1.5Mt/yr of this comprises imports. HeidelbergCement and Eurocement also operate plants locally.

Iran: Abyek Cement Complex has relaunched a 8500t/day production line at its plant in Abyek, Qazvin province following repairs. Alireza Razm Hosseini, head of the Ministry of Industry, Mine and Trade, attended the event. The production line is the largest in the country, according to the ministry. Cement produced at the plant will be exported.

The Tehran Times newspaper has reported that the relaunch brings the total national capacity to 80Mt/yr across 74 plants. Domestic demand was 70Mt in the 2021 financial year, which ended on 21 March 2021.

Iran: Hashem Nezamabadi, the managing director of Kaveh Pars Mining Industries Development Company, says that the Mostazafan Foundation and its subsidiaries have started production of oil well cement. Subsequently the country will no longer need to import this type of cement, according to the Trend News Agency. The specialist cement will be used to support the country’s oil industry.

Armenia: The Armenian parliament has agreed to establish a customs duty of Euro22/t for cement and Euro3/t for clinker on imports from Iran and other countries. The government had initially hoped to imposed Euro39/t and Euro14/t on cement and clinker respectively but this was declined by the legislative body, according to the ArmInfo News Agency. Imported cement will also be recognised as licensed. The new bill will come into effect in July 2021.

A previous customs duty of Euro22/t imports of Iranian cement was set up in mid-2019. However, Iranian cement imports were then banned at the start of 2021. Production by local producers grew in 2020 and imports fell.

Iran: Hossein Modares Khyabani, the former head of the Ministry of Industry, Mine and Trade, has called for cement to be traded on the Mercantile Exchange, a commodities exchange based in Tehran. He hoped that the move would enable cement producers to upgrade plants and increase exports, according to the Islamic Republic News Agency. The aim is to have producers generate mhigher profits and build infrastructure development.

Local cement production grew by 13% year-on-year to 68Mt in the Iranian calendar year to March 2021. However, gas, electricity and transportation costs all grew significantly during the period.

Iran: National cement production increased to 68.3Mt in the 2021 financial year, which ended on 20 March 2021. The figure corresponds to 79% utilisation of the country’s 87.0Mt/yr production capacity. The Tehran Times newspaper has reported that Iranian cement consumption during the year was 65.0Mt and exports were 11.0Mt. Iran supplied both cement and production equipment to its neighbouring countries.

Kazakhstan: Kazakhstan’s cement production increased to 10.8Mt in 2020. Kazakhstan Newsline has reported that 2020 is the first year in which domestic cement production has exceeded 10Mt. Capacity utilisation across the nation’s 16.5Mt/yr of installed cement capacity was 66%.

HeidelbergCement’s 0.8Mt/yr Caspi Cement plant exceeded its rated capacity by 10%. Kazakhcement’s 1.0Mt/yr Shar cement plant and ACIG’s 0.5Mt/yr Khantau cement plant both produced no cement in 2020. Gezhouba-Shiyeli Cement’s Shiyeli cement plant stood idle for several months in early 2020 when management and engineering staff became stranded in China due to the coronavirus outbreak.

Kazakhstan Association of Cement and Concrete Producers executive director Erbol Akymbaev said, “The production capacities of Kazakhstani factories exceed the needs of the domestic market by 41%: domestic consumption in 2020 amounted to just over 9Mt. Access to neighbouring markets is complicated by the fact that states protect their own producers. For example, in Russia, according to GOST, additional certification of imported products is required." He added that the cement industries of the two main cement exporters to Kazakhstan – Iran and Russia – are unregulated in terms of CO₂ emissions. Kazakhstan’s commitment to a reduction in its emissions of 15% by 2030 gives it a competitiveness disadvantage.

Iran: Cement production rose by 14.4% year-on-year to 35.6Mt in the first half of the local calendar year that started in March 2020 from 31.1Mt in the same period in the previous year. The sector exported 5.8Mt of cement with a value of US$128m to 28 countries according to the Mehr News Agency. India, Afghanistan, Russia, Iraq, Qatar, Kenya, Kuwait, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Armenia, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, China and Oman were among the export destinations of cement.

Uzbekistan: Cement companies produced 7.8Mt of cement in the first nine months of 2020, a rise of 2.6% year-on-year from the same period in 2019. The Trend News Agency reports that the country exported US$24.2m-worth of cement in the period, to Afghanistan, Singapore, Russia, China and Turkey. The value of its cement imports – from Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, the Kyrgyz Republic, Iran and Russia – exceeded this by more than double at US$870m.