Displaying items by tag: Tajikistan

Tajikistan: The Huaxin Gayur – Sughdcement 1Mt/yr cement plant in northern Tajikistan has been commissioned. The plant was built by the Tajik Ghayur-Sughd Cement company in partnership with the Chinese Huaxin Gayur Cement company. President Emomali Rahmon was present at the event.

Construction of the plant started in 2014 on the area of 48 hectares and it had an investment of US$127m. The plant employs more than 1300 people with over 90% from Tajikistan. A 25MW hydropower plant was also built to provide the plant with a regular electricity supply.

Tajikistan: Tajikistan has reportedly started to export cement to neighbouring Afghanistan.

According to the press centre of the Customs Service under the Government of Tajikistan, 12 trucks carrying 370t of cement proceeded via the Panji Poyon border crossing on the Tajik-Afghan border in late December 2015.

Huaxin Gayur Cement Co., Ltd in Yovon, Khatlon reportedly signed an agreement with Afghanistan's construction company Shamal Sharq in early December 2015 to supply 500t of cement to Afghanistan.

Here are the major stories from the cement industry in 2015 as the year draws to a close. Remember this is just one view of the year's events. If you think we've missed anything important let us know via LinkedIn, Twitter or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Will the year of the mega-mergers pay off?
2015 showed a global cement industry that was consolidating. Amongst the multinational producers Lafarge and Holcim finished their merger and HeidelbergCement announced that it was buying Italcementi. Yet alongside this international trend the large Chinese cement producers, who represent over a quarter of the world's production capacity, have continued their own-government-favoured consolidation. The on-going boardroom scuffles at Shanshui have been a lively example of this.

Where this will leave the cement industry as a whole in 2016 is uncertain but mergers and consolidation are no 'magic bullet' for difficult market conditions. After the fanfare subsided from the launch of LafargeHolcim the first quarterly report emerged in late November 2015 reporting falling net sales, net volumes and profit markers.

BRICing it – growth stalls in Brazil, Russia, India and China
The economies of the BRIC nations – Brazil, Russia, India and China – have all suffered in 2015. Brazil and Russia are enduring recessions. Growth in China and India is slowing down. All of this has a knock on in their respective construction sectors.

Over in China, we report today that production capacity utilisation is estimated to be 65% and that cement companies lost US$2.63bn in the first nine months of 2015. The same source says that at least 500Mt/yr of production capacity needs to be eliminated. That represents nearly a third of Chinese total production capacity or about an eighth of global cement production capacity.

Multinationals African plans accelerate
One consequence of all these international mergers is the transformation of the situation in Africa. Suddenly LafargeHolcim has become the biggest cement producer on the continent, followed by HeidelbergCement, Dangote and PPC. Africa becomes the big hope for the multinationals as established markets continues to flounder and growth in Asian and South American markets slackens. Perversely though, should African development growth slow it may cast a poor light on the mega-mergers of 2015 in the coming years.

Dangote Cement is growing fast and it may overtake HeidlebergCement soon as the second largest cement producer in Africa. Yet it may not be plain sailing for the Nigerian company. As we report today, sources in Gambia say that Dangote's plans to open a cement plant are on hold in part to protect its domestic suppliers.

The Gambian government has denied a licence to Dangote to open a cement plant. Dangote has built its empire in recent years by forcing out cement importers from Nigeria. As it expands in other countries in Africa it may now be facing a backlash to playing the nationalist card at home as other countries too desire 'self-sufficiency' in cement production.

Iran shakes off the sanctions
In July 2015 Iran and the P5+1 countries agreed to lift trade sanctions from Iran. The implications for the local cement industry are immense given that the country was the joint-fourth largest producer in 2014, based on United States Geological Survey data. Remove the sanctions and, in theory, the local economy should boom leading to plenty of construction activity. Notably, at the launch of LafargeHolcim the new CEO Eric Olsen was asked for the new group's position on Iran. It didn't have one but this will change.

China expands along the Silk Road
China's cement industry may be suffering at home but it has been steadily expanding in Central Asia. Notably Huaxin Cement has plants in Kazakhstan and Tajikistan and it has new projects in the pipeline. Business may be down at home but steady advancement abroad may offer the Chinese cement industry the lifeline it needs.

Cop out at COP21?
And finally... The 2015 Paris Climate Conference announced a diplomatic coup d'etat in December 2015. However, it apparently forgot to include any binding targets. The Cement Sustainability Initiative (CSI) pre-empted the decision by announced its aim to reduce CO₂ emissions by clinker producers by 20 - 25% by 2030... Provided the entire cement industry follows its lead. Cement plants burning vast swathes of dirty fossil fuels may not have to worry quite yet.

For more a more detailed look at trends in the cement industry check out the Global Cement Top 100 Report in the December 2015 issue of Global Cement Magazine.

Global Cement Weekly will return on 6 January 2016. Enjoy the holidays if you have them.

Tajikistan: The government of Tajikistan is looking for investors for construction of a 1Mt/yr cement plant near the Tuyun-Tao limestone deposit in the Shakhritus district in the south of the country, according to Avesta news agency.

The project has been included in the government's investment portfolio for implementation through direct investments, according to the Tajik State Committee of Investment and State Property Management. The project requires US$350m of investment. Some Russian, Iranian and Chinese companies earlier showed interest in the deposit. Indeed, in 2012, Chinese building materials corporation CNBM prepared a feasibility study for the project, but the project did not reach implementation phase due to its high cost and the absence of infrastructure.

The past few weeks have been notable for the high number of cement plant projects announced. Aside from further Dangote developments in Africa, (which doesn't seem to be able to go a week without announcing some 'milestone' or another,) a growing number have been in 'new' markets, especially in Central Asia.

The list from the past month or so is impressive. In east Asia Myanmar's Ait Thit Man group has announced that it will double its capacity from 5000t/day to 10,000t/day. In the south, Shree Cement wants to build another new facility in India. In west Asia, Pakistan, a country that has not seen significant cement capacity investment in the past few years, will be getting a new plant in Salt Range courtesy of China's Yantai Yantai Baoqiao Jinhong.

Turkmenistan looks set to build a 1Mt/yr plant as part of a massive government industrial stimulus package. China's Jilong Group wants to build a 0.8Mt/yr plant in Issyk Kul, Krygyzstan. Another Chinese producer, Xinjiang Tianshan will be bringing a 1.2Mt/yr plant to Georgia. Even today (Wednesday 30 September 2015), we have heard that there will be further Chinese investment, this time by Shangfeng Cement. It has announced financing for two new plants: in Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Both are set to be 1.2Mt/yr facilities.

Two trends are clear from this. 1. Land-locked Central Asian and other relatively undeveloped countries elsewhere in Asia are finally coming to the cement plant party. 2. It is the Chinese producers that have the upper hand in these markets. This is based partly on cultural, political, geographical and historic links between China and these former Soviet nations. It is partly due to the lower 'face value' cost of Chinese equipment compared to European manufacturers. (The efficiency with which the lower cost equipment is installed and its running costs remain potential pitfalls, according to the Europeans.) Finally, it has a lot to do with the collapse of domestic demand for cement plants in China itself, where the economy continues to teeter on the brink.

The steady rise of the Central Asian cement sector and the increasing international activities of Chinese cement plant manufacturers have been 'on the cards' for years. To date, they have been trends waiting to happen, but 2015 looks to be the year that these factors finally combined and translated into large numbers of projects.

For Central Asian countries the prospects that come with a larger and more dynamic cement industry should enable greater independence, accelerated infrastructure development and economic growth. For the Chinese, setting up cement plants in Central Asia is a natural expansion of its multi-billion dollar activities in the African cement sector, where Sinoma recently signed a massive deal with Dangote Cement. As noted previously in this column, Africa can't continue to add capacity at the current rate forever.

For European manufacturers of cement plants, the other side of this story is not as pretty. AGAB, the large plant manufacturing group of Germany's Verband Deutscher Maschinen- und Anlagenbau (VDMA), has recently released its Status Report 2014/2015, which reports on activities from 2014. AGAB members' cement plant order volume fell by an incredible 63% in 2014 to Euro198m. This is a fall from Euro529m in 2013 and six times lower than the Euro1.2bn peak of 2008. Some of this is domestically driven but the vast majority of it is export markets.

The same report also shows that, for construction of all types of large industrial plants, Chinese producers have increased their global market share from 5% in 2006 to 17% in 2014. Over the same period, Western European producers have seen their share fall from 45% to 33%, although an increase in overall project volumes mean that these producers received roughly the same value of orders in each year. US suppliers, although not a major consideration for the cement sector, saw their share of orders fall from 22% to 20%. Japan also lost a third of its stake over the same period, falling from 15% of sales in 2006 to just 10% in 2014.

While AGAB's report anticipates increased competition from Chinese producers, it is by no means all 'doom and gloom' for Europe's traditional large plant manufacturers. It highlights the fact that Russia, the largest single market for heavy plant in 2014 and a significant consumer of European-made cement equipment, has decided against Chinese equipment in some cases. It also highlighted that the weakness of the Euro helps exports from Germany and the rest of the Eurozone and suggests that the sector should look to increase its service and consultation offering in order to build on its existing reputation for high quality equipment.

Tajikistan/Uzbekistan: Chinese cement producer Shangfeng Cement plans to raise US$240m through a non-public share offering. It will be used to partly fund investments in Central Asia. A total of US$130m will be invested in projects in Tajikistan, US$137m will be invested in projects in Uzbekistan and US$16m will be used to replenish working capital.

The first phase of the Tajik project, with a construction period of 18 months, will be capable of producing 0.96Mt/yr of clinker and 1.2Mt/yr of cement. Its products will be sold in southern and central Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and northern cities in Afganistan.

The Uzbek project will be the same size, with its products sold to eastern Uzbekistan, southern Kyrgyzstan and northern Tajikistan.

Tajikistan: Tajikistan is increasing its cement capacity in order to resume exports by 2020, Tajikistan's Ministry of Economic Development and Trade has reported.

Currently, there are six new cement plants operating in various capacities under construction, which will allow Tajikistan to cover its domestic needs, as well as to resume exports. The plants are being financed by domestic and foreign funding. Several medium and large capacity cement plants, including projects in Sughd and Khatlon, are being built thanks to Chinese investments.

The construction of the Tajikistan-China joint venture cement plant, Tajchina has already begun and is expected to start operation in 2015. Other cement plants are planned for construction in the Dangara, Bobokon, Gafurov, and Isfara districts, as well as in Istiklol city. Currently, the country's largest cement plant is Huaxin Gayur Cement, a joint venture between a subsidiary of China's Huaxin Cement and Gaur Limited Liability Company.

Tajikistan's Ministry of Industry and New Technologies said in January 2015 that six new cement plants would be established within the next two years. By improving the country's cement sector, which currently is comprised of 10 plants, Tajikistan expects to become a net cement exporter. Earlier, Tajikistan imported cement in large quantities from Pakistan, Iran and China.

Tajikistan: Tajikistan's parliament has formed an agreement with China's Huaxin Cement for the construction of two new cement plants, including a 1Mt/yr plant in Bobojon Ghafurov District and a 1.2Mt/yr plant in the Dangara Free Economic Zone. According to local media, Tajikistan will possess a 30% stake in the Bobojon Ghafurov plant and a 45% stake in the Dangara plant.

Tajikistan's Ministry of Industry and New Technologies said in January 2015 that that six new cement plants would be established within the next two years. By increasing the country's cement sector, which currently comprises ten plants, Tajikistan expects to become a net cement exporter.

Tajikistan: All of the necessary equipment will be delivered to Tajikistan for a cement plant that is being built at the Chormaghzak Pass in Vahdat Township before the end of 2014, according to Abduhalim Qodirov, the director general of the Tajik-Chinese joint venture, TOJCHIN, which is building the plant.

Construction of the plant began on 1 October 2014. The first line, which has 600,000t/yr of cement production capacity, will be introduced into operation in April 2015.
"360 specialists, mainly citizens of Tajikistan, are involved in construction of the plant," said Qodirov, noting that the plant would have a cement production capacity of 1.2Mt/yr when completed. The plant is expected to provide 500 jobs. The total cost of the project is US$30m, including US$23m invested by Chinese business circles and US$7m contributed by Tajik private entrepreneurs.

Under the law passed by Tajikistan's lower house (Majlisi Namoyandagon) of parliament on 12 November 2014, TOJCHIN is exempted from paying value added tax (VAT) and customs duties (totalling US4.6m) on equipment shipments.

Iran: Iran stopped exporting cement to Tajikistan in June 2014 and its cement exports to Iraq are 'ambiguous', according to Ebrahim Gholamzadeh, managing director of Iran's Lamerd Cement Company. Gholamzadeh, who had his comments reported by Iranian media, added that no official has followed up the issue and that there is no organized management in exports of cement to Iraq.

Iran exported around 18Mt/yr of cement in the previous Iranian calendar year, which ended on 20 March 2014. In the past Iranian year, Iran exported cement to 24 countries, including Iraq, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Pakistan, Qatar, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, Georgia, Oman, India and China.