Displaying items by tag: Ministry of Industry and Commerce

Bahrain: New rules have placed strict demands on local producers and importers. A regulation signed by Industry and Commerce Minister Abdulla bin Adel Fakhro requires all cement sold in Bahrain to meet BS EN 197-1 and GSO ASTM C150 standards and be circulated with a conformity certificate from the Bahrain Standards and Metrology Directorate. News of Bahrain has reported that there will be regular laboratory testing, specific storage and transport conditions, and penalties for non-compliance. The move reportedly marks a push to raise the standard of construction materials.

Laos: The Ministry of Industry and Commerce says that the value of cement exports rose by 25% to US$19m in the first quarter of 2018 from US$15.2m in the same period of 2017. However, imports fell by 14% to US$16.4m from US$19.1m, according to the Vientiane Times newspaper. Exports have risen as new production capacity has been commissioned in the country.

Laos exported a value of US$0.2m in 2016 but this grew to US$47.6m in 2017. Imports fell to US$68m in 2017 from US$84.3m in 2016. The country has 16 cement plants and other units are being built. At present the country has a capacity of 4.4Mt/yr. This is expected to grow to 6.7Mt/yr once all the current projects are completed. Local infrastructure projects are driving local demand including the several hydropower plants and the Laos-China railway.

Sri Lanka: The Sri Lanka Consumer Affairs Authority (CAA) has allowed Insee Cement and Tokyo Cement to increase the prices of a 50kg bag of cement. The Ministry of Industry and Commerce gave its approval subject to the ratification of the CAA as it is a price-controlled commodity, according to the Times of Sri Lanka newspaper. The cement producers made the request to raise their prices due to increasing costs of raw materials. However, the country’s three other producers have not made any request to the CAA to raise their prices and the cost of imported cement is reported unchanged.

Zimbabwe: PPC Zimbabwe’s managing director Kelibone Masiyane has said that duty on cement imports has done little to discourage the market. The government introduced a 25% duty on every 100t of imported cement in 2016, according to the NewsDay newspaper. He singled out imports from Zambia as well as those from South Africa, Mozambique and Botswana.

“In addition to liquidity challenges, we continued to face pressure from cheap imports. Government has tried to assist by introducing duty on imported cement, but the reality on the ground is that imports continue to pour in, particularly from Zambia,” said Masiyane. Despite this he added that PPC Zimbabwe was confident that the local economy would pick up in 2017 supported by infrastructure projects.

The Cement and Concrete Institute of Zimbabwe lobbied the Ministry of Industry and Commerce to ban imported cement in 2016. In a paper it suggested including a protection tariff to equate the landed price of imported cement to the cost of the local product, granting of import licences to local producers, cancelling or reviewing all issued permits that are circulating in the country and lowering duty on raw materials.

Zimbabwe: The Cement and Concrete Institute of Zimbabwe has presented a paper to the Ministry of Industry and Commerce suggesting government intervention in the cement industry including banning imported cement. The paper also calls for a protection tariff on imported cement of US$50/t, granting import licences to local producers, cancelling or reviewing all issued permits in circulation in the country and lowering duty on raw materials according to local press.

The country’s cement producers include Lafarge, PPC and Sino Cement. Together they have a cement production capacity of 1.85Mt/yr compared to an estimated demand of 1.17Mt/yr in 2016. Together these cement producers have invested nearly US$185m in cement plants upgrades within the last five years. However, a surplus of cement in the region means that South Africa, Mozambique, Zambia and Botswana export cement to Zimbabwe which is threatening the local producers’ investment.