Qatar: Qatar National Cement Company (QNCC) is preparing to export up to 3Mt/yr of clinker to markets in Asia and Africa. QNCC chairman and managing director Salem Butti al Naimi said that the company was actively taking to Indian companies and that an agreement might be signed soon, according to the Qatar Tribune newspaper. He also mentioned potential targets in Iraq, Yemen and other Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states.

Pakistan: Lucky Cement’s revenue grew by 12% year-on-year to US$729m in the first nine months to 31 March 2019 from US$654m in the same period in 2018. Its local cement and clinker sales volumes dropped by 13% to 4.4Mt from 5.1Mt. Export sales more than doubled to 1.5Mt from 0.7Mt, Overall sales volumes rose to 6Mt. Its income fell by 18% to US$80m from US$97.3m. It said that its cost of sales rose by 14.1% due to rises in the cost of coal, packing material and other fuel prices.

The cement producer said that a 2.6Mt/yr expansion project in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa would be completed by the end of 2019. Contacting for a new 1.2Mt/yr plant in Samawah in Iraq has been finalised including a power plant from Finland’s Wärtsilä. Commercial production at the site is planned for mid-2020.

Philippines: The Tariff Commission has delayed a public hearing on the formal investigation on the imposition of safeguard measure on cement imports. The meeting was scheduled to take place in early May 2019, according to the Philippine Star newspaper. The commission said it was postponed in order to give it time to visit plants and check its data.

The investigation started in February 2019 to check whether a provisional safeguard duty imposed by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) should remain in place. The DTI applied a US$4/t tariff in the form of a cash bond on imported cement in mid-January 2019 for a period of 200 days in response to a surge in imports.

Namibia: The Development Bank of Namibia (DBN) says it will consult the government about its minority stake in Ohorongo Cement following the purchase of a majority share in the cement producer by Singapore’s International Cement Group. International Cement Group acquired a 69.8% share in Ohorongo Cement from Germany’s Schwenk Namibia in March 2019, according to the Namibian newspaper. The DBN said that it originally invested in Ohorongo Cement to promote economic development in Namibia.