Displaying items by tag: Production
Update on Pakistan
24 October 2018As ever, there have been plenty of news stories from Pakistan recently covering the on-going fallout of the water shortage at the Katas Raj Temples in Chakwal, Punjab and an update on new production line at Maple Leaf Cement’s Iskanderabad plant. The two stories present two sides to the furious pace of the local industry and the potential price this growth might entail.
Graph 1: Cement despatches in Pakistan, 2012 - 2017. Source: All Pakistan Cement Manufacturers Association.
Graph 1 above sets the scene with an industry that has seen total despatches grow by nearly 30% to 42.8Mt in 2017 from 33.1Mt in 2012. About four-fifths of this is based in the north of the county. The big sub-story alongside this is that exports have fallen by half to 4.2Mt in 2017 from a high of 8.3Mt in 2013. The cause of this appears to be a decline in the Afghan market and a similar drop in waterborne clinker exports. Given the higher proportion of exports to the southern market this change has likely hit the industry in south harder despite overall depatches there rising. So far in 2018 similar trends are holding, except for exports, where the clinker export market has rallied significantly in the south.
The background to all this growth domestically is Chinese investment in the form of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). CPEC-related project include integrated road infrastructure, the modernisation of railways and the development of the city of Gwadar and its related infrastructure. In addition the local Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) is also having an effect and demographic pressures, such as a housing shortage, are also expected to support the construction market.
Data from the All Pakistan Cement Manufacturers Association (APCMA) placed cement production capacity at 54Mt/yr in September 2018 compared to 66Mt/yr in the Global Cement Directory 2018, which includes new capacity being built. This compares to around 10Mt/yr in the 1995 local financial year to an estimated 73Mt/yr by the State Bank of Pakistan in its third quarter report for 2017 - 2018. This rapid growth can be seen in recent stories such as the Iskanderabad plant expansion, Flying Cement’s mill order from Loesche, Kohat Cement’s mill order also from Loesche, a new solar plant at Fauji Cement at its Attock plant and the commissioning of DG Khan’s new plant at Hub. These stories are all from the last three months! The State Bank of Pakistan estimated that 11 producers hare now investing US$2.12bn on capacity expansions to add over 23Mt/yr by the end of the 2021 financial year.
One potential price for all of this growth is currently being illustrated in the ongoing legal wrangles about the use of water by cement plants near the Katas Raj Temples. What started as an investigation into why water levels were dropping at a pond at a Hindu heritage site seems to have transformed into a full scale inquiry into alleged corruption by local government around the setting up of cement plants. A report by the Punjab Anti-Corruption Establishment Lahore to the Supreme Court has found irregularities committed by government departments in connection to the setting up of cement plants by DG Khan and Bestway Cement in Chakwal. It seems unlikely at this stage that this inquiry will cause too much trouble for the local cement industry but it will certainly make it more complicated and potentially more expensive to st up new plants in the future.
Read Global Cement’s plant report from the DG Khan’s Khairpur cement plant in Chakwal
Sibirsky Cement production holds steady so far in 2018
18 October 2018Russia: Sibirsky Cement’s production from its three plants has remained stable year-on-year at 2.5Mt for the first nine months of 2018. Its Topkinsky plant manufactured around 1.7Mt, Krasnoyarsky Cement’s production rose by 8% to 0.54Mt and Timlyuysk Cement’s output fell by 8% to 0.27Mt, according to the Siberian News Agency. The decline at Timlyuysk Cement has been blamed on market saturation in the Buryat Republic in Siberia.
India: NCL Industries’ cement production rose by 36% year-on-year to 1.02Mt in the half year to the end of September 2018 from 0.75Mt in the same period in 2017. Its cement despatches increased by a similar amount to 1.02Mt from 0.75Mt. The company operates in cement, cement-based boards, ready-mixed concrete, prefabricated structures and hydroelectric power.
Ukrainian cement production falls in July 2018
05 September 2018Ukraine: Production of cement in Ukraine fell by 4.7% to 0.96Mt in July 2018 compared to the same month in 2017, according to the State Statistics Service. Production was also 6.1% less than in June 2018.
In the first seven months of 2018, cement production fell by 3.7% to 4.97Mt. Cement production was 9.31Mt for the whole of 2017.
Vietnam exceeds 2018 cement export ‘target’ in just eight months
04 September 2018Vietnam: The Vietnamese cement sector exported 2.01Mt of cement in August 2018, a 44% year-on-year increase but 90,000t less than in July 2018. During the first eight months of 2018, cement exports reached 20.1Mt, exceeding the whole year target of 18-19Mt, according to the Ministry of Construction’s Building Material Department (BMD).
Total production stood at 63.9Mt in the first eight months, a year-on-year increase of 30%. The domestic market consumed 43.8Mt. According to the BMD, the industry is likely to reach its consumption target of 65-66Mt in the domestic market for the whole of 2018.
On top of Vietnam’s current large cement capacity, the list of cement projects that are expected to come into operation after 2018 include some very large capacity projects. These include Sông Lam Cement’s production lines 3 and 4 with a total capacity of 3.8Mt/yr, Thái Nguyên Group’s Hà Tiên Cement Project in Bình Phước with an annual capacity of 4.5Mt/yr and the Tân Thắng Cement Project in Nghệ An Province with an annual capacity of 1.8Mt/yr.
Colombia continues gentle slide
31 August 2018Colombia: Cement production reached 1.02Mt in Colombia in July 2018, a 5.2% year-on-year fall compared to July 2017, according to DANE, the country’s statistics authority. In July 2018 the country shipped 0.99Mt to the domestic market, a 4.7% year-on-year fall.
So far in 2018, cement production reached 6.98Mt, a decrease of 1.8% compared to the period January - July 2017. In the 12 months to the end of July 2018, cement production reached 12.2Mt, a decrease of 2.2% compared to the period August 2016 to July 2017.
Cement production rises in Azerbaijan
20 August 2018Azerbaijan: In the first seven months of 2018, Azerbaijan produced 1.92Mt of cement, a 21.6% increase compared to the same period of 2017. The country also produced 17,000t of lime (a 27.3% increase) and 811,100t of finished concrete (an increase of 2.2 times).
Uzbekistan imports more cement
16 August 2018Uzbekistan: Uzbekistan imported cement worth a total of US$79.8m during the first half of 2018, six times more than in the same period of 2017, according to the State Statistics Committee of Uzbekistan. It was reported earlier that Uzbek cement production had decreased from 4.2Mt in the first half of 2017 to 3.9Mt in the first half of 2018.
Sales up in Puerto Rico
10 August 2018Puerto Rico: Total cement sales in Puerto Rico expanded by 30% in July 2018, compared to July 2017, representing the seventh consecutive monthly increase. Sales of cement rose to 50,739t. Cement production rose by 19% over the same period.
Akmenes improves but still makes a loss
10 August 2018Lithuania: Akmenes Cementas, Lithuania’s only cement producer, has announced that it expects improved cement sales in 2018 compared to 2017 and hopes to halve its annual loss.
The company suffered a net loss of Euro5.5m in 107, 21.7% lower than a Euro7.0m loss in 2016. Turnover in 2017 grew by 11% to Euro56.7m. The company sold 1.04Mt of cement, 4% more than in 2016.
In 2017 Akmenes sold 58% of its produce to the local market. It exported 35% to other EU countries and 7% to Belarus. The company hopes to increase cement sales and to halve its losses.