Displaying items by tag: Price

India: The price of imported petcoke has hit a multi-year high in March 2018. Increased demand and a shortage due to maintenance work at refineries has caused the rise in price, according to the Mint newspaper. In November, the Indian Supreme Court temporarily banned the use of petcoke in Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. The import duty of the fuel was then raised to 10% from 2.5%.

Deepak Kannan, managing editor of Asia Thermal Coal at S&P Global Platts, said that local demand for petcoke is around 23 – 24Mt/yr but that local supply is only 14Mt/yr. Much of the country imported petcoke comes from the US or Saudi Arabia. Petcoke prices are expected to relax in April 2018 as refineries return to normal operation.

Mozambique: Cimentos de Mocambique has denied increased the price of its cement products. At a press conference in Nampula Jorge Reis, the managing director of Cimentos de Mocambique, said that his company had nothing to do with the ‘sharp’ increases in the price of cement charged by retailers, according to the Mozambique News Agency. Reis said that the cement producer had not raised its prices since late 2016. He added that the company’s Nacala plant had been affected by an irregular electricity supply. It is currently negotiating with its electricity supplier to improve its service. Retailers have blamed the price hike on an alleged shortage of cement and difficulties in acquiring it from cement plants.

The Provincial Director of Trade and Industry, Norberto Narciso, said that information from Cimentos de Mocambique would be distributed to businesses in Nampula and in the neighbouring province of Niassa, which also acquires cement from Nacala. He also promised that the government’s National Inspectorate of Economic Activities would check the retail price of cement to see whether the retailers are respecting the ‘recommended profit margins’.

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.

India: Neeraj Akhoury, the managing director and chief executive officer of ACC Cement, says that a ban on imported petcoke to the National Capital Region will increase the cost of cement. Akhoury told the Business Standard newspaper that the cement producer would be able to cope with the restriction through the use of alternative fuels. The Environment Ministry put the ban into effect on 19 January 2018 to control air pollution. This follows a relaxation of a temporary ban on petcoke in December 2017 by the Supreme Court to the cement industry.

Nepal: The Department of Supply Management and Protection of Consumers Interest (DSMPCI) has ordered cement producers to reduce their prices within three days. Following a survey the DSMPCI found that the price of cement had risen by 10 – 16% in recent weeks despite input costs, such as raw materials and transportation costs, only growing by 7 – 9%, according to the Republica newspaper. The department has issued its directive via the Nepal Cement Manufacturers' Association.

China: Clinker imports more than quadrupled to 184,600t in the first 11 months of 2017. Data published by the Chinese Cement Association suggests that rising domestic cement prices encouraged the import market, according to Caixin Media. Most of the imports were purchased from Vietnam by companies based in Hainan, Shangdong, Zhejiang and Beijing.

India: The credit agency ICRA forecasts that rising energy and freight costs due to higher pet coke, coal and diesel prices during the first half of 2017 – 2018 financial year may hit the profits of cement producers. Petcoke prices grew by 32% year-on-year in the first half of the year and coal prices rose by 44%, according to the Press Trust of India. Sabyasachi Majumdar, an analyst at ICRA, said that higher power, fuel and freight costs were likely to continue. He added that the ability of cement companies to raise their prices was crucial to maintaining profit levels.