Displaying items by tag: Standards Organisation of Nigeria

Nigeria: Lafarge Africa has applied to the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) to use the product name Roadcem for its CEM-II Portland limestone cement (PLC) when sold in bulk. The Nigeria Tribune newspaper has reported that Lafarge Africa supplies PLC in bulk for use as a soil stabiliser in roadbuilding. It sells supplies the product bagged to retailers as Classic PLC.

SON certified Lafarge Africa's PLC under its Mandatory Conformity Assessment Programme.

Nigeria: The Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) has awarded Mandatory Conformity Assessment Programme product quality certificates to Lafarge Africa. The certificates were presented after the company’s Mfamosing cement plant met confirmatory and standardisation requirements set by the SON, according to the Punch newspaper. The subsidiary of Switzerland-based LafargeHolcim said that the certifications further demonstrated its commitment to ensuring quality assurance and compliance with the relevant product standards within the regulatory framework of the government. The certification process followed a series of inspections and connected analysis.

The Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) has warned local cement producers to rein in their more outlandish claims. In a letter reported upon by the Economic Times newspaper this week, the government department has accused some manufacturers of making both objective and subjective claims about their products that strained credulity and didn’t fit the corresponding official standards. One industry source from the newspaper blamed the crackdown on some producers claiming that their cement products helped protect people from Covid-19! In their view the bureau was now over-enforcing its rules in retaliation. Given the severity of the outbreak in India - it has the second highest number of reported cases in the world this week - the response of the authorities is understandable to say the least.

The distinction between objective and subjective exaggeration that the BIS makes it worth looking at in more detail. For example, objective or supposedly fact-based claims the BIS cited included: ‘Protect Steel in Concrete’; ‘Protect Concrete from Corrosion’; ‘Corrosion Resistant’; ‘Weather Proof’; and ‘Damp Proof.’ Then, there were subjective, or more emotionally evocative, claims along the lines of ‘strong’ or ‘high performance.’ The BIS then outlines the specific ways in which objective and subjective assertions can be used. Objective claims should be avoided on marketing and packaging material. Subjective claims should, “explicitly indicate that such claims are not covered under the scope of BIS licence granted to them and the responsibility of such claims lies with them.”

Marketing is a big part of standing out in the crowded Indian cement market with producers sponsoring major sports teams. This might seem odd to readers elsewhere in the world but it demonstrates the target market, the importance of cement as a commodity to the general public and the power of brand awareness. Amubja Cement’s logo of a man with a Charles Atlas style physique cuddling a building sums up the message they want to convey: strength. No wonder producers are wary of the BIS wading in.

Standards also appeared in another news story this week with the announcement that Taiwan Cement Corporation (TCC) had obtained the first cement product carbon footprint label issued by the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) in the country. Its products will be marked with carbon footprint labels from the fourth quarter of 2020.

This shows a general trend in cement products towards showing sustainability credentials from putting environmental footprint data in front of specifiers for large projects towards making it a more basic retail selling point. Lots of other cement producers around the world have done and/or are doing similar things, from the dedicated slag cement manufacturers to the larger producers routinely releasing and promoting new low-CO₂ products. To pick one example from many, in July 2020 LafargeHolcim France introduced ‘360Score CO₂ emissions reduction ratings’ to its bagged cement range. The score, between ’A’ and ’D,’ corresponds to the factor of CO₂ compared to CEM-I Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC), with ‘A’ products producing less CO₂ than ‘D’ products in their overall creation.

To look at an older example of the need for standards generally, building collapses in Nigeria appeared to increase post-2000, with the misuse of lower-grade cements blamed for the situation. The Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) took action in 2014, local producers introduced higher strength cements and the problem was reduced. Given the intangible nature of measuring sustainability in cement products there is a need for reliable standards. Unlike performance metrics, such as a strength or durability, the CO₂ footprint of a cement product will generally remain utterly intangible for most end-users. The effects of CO₂ emissions are continually analysed and debated, but the negative climate effects of cement products are more akin to someone else’s house flooding on the other side of the world 50 years later, than one’s own house falling down a decade later due to using the wrong strength cement. So, some form of trustworthy enforcement for sustainability standards is crucial. Standards may represent ‘boring’ bureaucratic red tape at its most officious but we need them. In India and elsewhere though, the debate on enforcement continues.

Following the Standards Industry of Nigeria's (SON) decision earlier this week to ban 32.5 grade cement for all applications except for plastering, the country's cement industry is likely to be faced with some difficult decisions. The new rules state that 42.5 grade cement must be used for casting of columns, beams, slabs and for moulding blocks, while 52.5 grade cement is now mandatory for building bridges. As a developing country, Nigeria is home to a large number of construction and infrastructure projects. To ensure safety this means that the construction industry must be well-regulated.

Arguments against the use of low quality cement in Nigeria have been long drawn out as low quality cement has been blamed for a spate of building collapses, resulting in the deaths of 297 people in 1974 – 2010.

In support of the country's cement producers, SON's director general Joseph Ikem Odumodu was eager to point out that low quality cement is not to blame for Nigeria's building collapses. He said that cement grades 32.5, 42.5 and 52.5 are designed for different applications, which are not being adhered to by builders. While 42.5 grade cement is the minimum suitable grade for multi-story building construction like residential homes, 32.5 grade cement is frequently used instead as it is cheaper and more readily available.

Dangote Cement is currently the only company producing 52.5 grade cement in the country, which it sells at the same price as its 42.5 grade cement. The new SON decision is therefore expected to be good news for Dangote, potentially increasing sales volumes and improving the company's reputation.

With regards to the rest of Nigeria's cement producers, unless they are able to convert their production process for 42.5 and 52.5 grade cement extremely rapidly, Nigeria's cement imports and prices for domestic 42.5 and 52.5 grade cements are likely to increase, in contrast to recent trends. The new regulations, which SON has said will be strictly enforced, provide an excellent opportunity for market share expansion to those cement producers that respond rapidly. It might also be considered the ideal moment for companies to begin exploring brand identities and marketing campaigns. Lookout for our new report on cement branding in a future issue of Global Cement Magazine.

Dangote Cement let everybody know this week that it is now producing 52.5MPa grade cement in Nigeria. The move was a response to building pressure from professional and civil groups in the country which have reacted in recent months to the high incidence of building collapses in the country. With the 42.5MPa grade looking likely to become the new legal standard, Dangote's adoption of an even higher standard looks like canny marketing.

The background to this tussle lies in the spate of building collapses that have plagued Nigeria in recent years. A widely cited paper in the Global Journal of Researches in Engineering from 2010 reported at least 26 incidents in Nigeria between 1975 to 1995 with 226 fatalities. Later figures from 2004 to 2006 reported at least 10 incidents with 243 fatalities, a significantly higher prevalence than in the earlier period. The paper recommended adopting standards for building materials such as cement among other measures. Since the publication of this paper news reports have been hard to collate. Commentators placed the toll at 15 collapses with 30 fatalities for the first eight months of 2013 alone.

The Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) reacted to the latest outcry over building collapses by saying that they were caused by poor application, such as a using the wrong quality of cement for a particular task, not poor standards. According to the SON, 32.5MPa grade cement is recommended for activities such as plastering, flooring, block moulding, culvert making and building simple domestic houses. 42.5MPa grade is designed for the construction of tall buildings, bridges and load bearing columns.

Adopting a national standard of 42.5MPa grade is intended to stop misuse of lower grade cement being used for the wrong applications. One example commentators have mentioned is how to help illiterate builders select the right kind of cement for a given task. Choosing an overall higher standard is one solution to this problem. Education is another.

One fact that has emerged from the debate is that, according to Dangote Chief Executive Officer DVG Edwin, the SON imposed 42.5MPa grade as the minimum for imports before most imports were stopped in late 2012. Edwin used this as an argument for the SON enforcing the same standard for domestic cement production. Anything that can cut the number of building collapses can only be a good thing.