Displaying items by tag: Philippines

Vietnam: Vietnam’s cement exports totalled 14.9Mt in the first four months of 2021, up by 42% year-on-year from the levels in the corresponding period of 2020. China imported 7.38Mt (50%) of Vietnamese cement exports, up by 53% year-on-year. The Philippines imported 2.51Mt (17%), up by 17%, and Bangladesh imported 1.87Mt (13%), up by 38%.

The Viet Nam News newspaper has reported the total value of Vietnamese cement exports for the period as US$563m. China’s value of Vietnamese cement imports was US$258 (46%), the Philippines’ was US$112m (20%) and Bangladesh’s was US$63.1m (11%).

Indonesia: The newly cement producing province of North Sulawesi on Celebes exported 63,000t of cement in May 2021. The Philippines News Agency has reported the value of the exports as US$2.18m. The main destination for the province’s exported cement was Malaysia, which received 32,500t (51%) for US$1.10m, corresponding to 50% of the total value. Taiwan imported 23,500t (37%) for US$764,000 (35%) and the Philippines imported 1.87Mt (13%) for US$317,000 (15%).

Philippines: CRH and Aboitiz Equity Ventures subsidiary Republic Cement and Building Materials plans to roll out a quality control system to detect product quality across all of its cement plants by 2022. Business World News has reported that the company currently uses data science-based techniques at three sites. It says that it uses the method to predict the 28-day compressive strength without moulding and curing of a batch of cement.

Manufacturing vice president Lloyd Vicente said that with accurate predictions, “our operations can make it quick and precise adjustments to our recipe and other operating parameters, therefore reducing our CO₂ emissions.”

Vietnam: SSI Research has predicted that Vietnamese cement exports will not grow in 2021. The reason for this is the expected stabilisation of China’s domestic cement supply, which is forecast to increase its share of the market. The Viet Nam News newspaper has reported that China accounts for 57% of Vietnamese cement and clinker exports. Other factors restricting export growth are safeguard duties in Bangladesh and the Philippines and the Vietnam government’s mandatory minimum domestic sales regulations, variously between 65% and 70% of total output.

Philippines: The Philippine cement industry has met some of its investment commitments set out in the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI)’s adjustment plans for its imposition of safeguard measures against imported cement. The Manila Bulletin newspaper has reported that producers have invested around US$250m in making their product more competitive for local buyers although the industry has deferred US$1.54bn-worth of further agreed-upon spending to before 2025. The Tariff Commission (TC) said that companies’ reasons for delaying the completion of their adjustment commitments were Covid-19-led disruptions to production, transport and services. The DTI set out the commitments in the form of 20 plans, of which the industry has now fully implemented 12. The TC said that the sector is ‘determined’ to meet the remaining goals. It added that the damaging impacts of the coronavirus outbreak were lessened by the previous implementation of tariffs, which rose to US$0.20/bag in December 2020. The commission said "To date, it can be concluded that the intervention was timely and proper, as it has provided breathing space for the domestic industry and has mainly contributed to increasing the industry's market competitiveness."

Philippines: Republic Cement has said that it expects the cement sector in the Philippines to grow strongly in 2021 following a 10% decline in demand in 2020. Speaking to local press, the company’s president and chief executive officer Nabil Francis said that the drop in demand in 2020 was actually less severe than the expected 15%. He added, “We strongly believe that we will get back to 2019 level in 2021. That means 12% growth compared to 2020.” Francis added that the industry is expected to sell 35Mt of cement during 2021. The main driver is the bagged cement segment, with infrastructure and the non-residential, likely to grow less rapidly.

Francis additionally said that he welcomed the Department of Trade and Industry’s investigation into alleged dumping of cement into the Philippines from Vietnam. He said that the imported cement is sold at very low prices, its production having been subsidised by the Vietnamese government. He said the influx of imported cement has injured the local industry.

Philippines: The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) has launched a probe into the possible imposition of a new anti-dumping duty on imports of cement from Vietnam. The Philippine Star newspaper has reported that Vietnamese cement continues to enter the Philippine market at allegedly dumped prices despite the DTI’s safeguard measures on the product. The DTI is authorised to investigate where prices are believed to be harmful to the domestic industry. Cemex Philippines, Holcim Philippines and Republic Cement have applied for a probe.

A great question was asked at yesterday’s Virtual Global CemTrans Seminar: what impact did the recent blockage of the Suez Canal cause to the cement industry? Luckily, Rahul Sharan from Drewry was on hand discussing freight costs following the start of the coronavirus pandemic.

As most readers will know, the Suez Canal was blocked in late March 2021 when the 200,000dwt Ever Given ran aground, at around six nautical miles from the southern entry of the canal. The ultra large container vessel was subsequently refloated and towed away just under a week later. While this was happening the fate of the ship became a global news story with business analysts totting up the cost of the obstruction. 40 bulk carriers were reported as waiting to transit the waterway the day after the blockage started and some of these were carrying cement. Reporting by the BBC noted that 369 ships were stuck waiting on either side of the blockage on the day before the ship was finally freed. The Suez Canal Authority (SCA) estimated their loss of revenue from the incident at US$14 – 15m/day. Analysts like Allianz placed the cost to the global economy at US$6 - 10bn/day.

In Sharan’s view the blockage of the Suez Canal happened at a potentially risky moment for cement and clinker shipping because there was already congestion in shipping lanes built up on the east coast of South America and around Australia. However, a delay of a week around the canal, followed by the resulting congestion dispersing quickly over the following days, does not seem to have had any major impact so far.

Sharan’s presentation at Global CemTrans also included a summary of cement shipping. The key takeaways were that clinker shipping overtook cement shipping in 2019 with a connected increase in fleets investing in handymax-sized vessels. He also pointed out the key cement and clinker importing countries in 2019, before the coronavirus pandemic started causing market disruption. For cement: the US, the Philippines and Singapore. For clinker: China, Bangladesh and the Philippines. Turkey and Vietnam were the biggest exporters for both in that year.

The Ever Given incident has highlighted the continued importance of the Suez Canal for global trade for commodities. Goods still need to be physically moved around, however much stuff we digitise. It also contrasts with the issues that the Egyptian cement sector has faced in recent years such as production overcapacity. While domestic cement plants have struggled to maintain their profits, plenty of cement carriers have been transiting through the Isthmus of Suez. Local producers may well have gazed at them and wondered where they were going.

One of them, Al-Arish Cement Company, took action in this direction this week with its first export shipment of clinker. The Clipper Isadora ship disembarked East Port Said port for Ivory Coast. Future shipments are planned for West Africa, Canada, the US and Europe. Ship tracking reveals that the Clipper Isadora has not taken the Suez Canal on this occasion.

The proceedings pack for the Virtual CemTrans Seminar 2 2021 is available to buy now

Philippines: Eagle Cement recorded full-year consolidated net sales of US$286m in 2020, down by 30% year-on-year from US$408m in 2019. The company said that it recorded a stronger performance in the second half of 2020, according to the Manila Times newspaper. Second-half sales fell by 14% year-on-year to US$165m. Its full-year net income fell by 44% to US$70.1m from US$124m.

Chief executive officer Paul Ang said "The halting of our operations due to pandemic-related restrictions took a hit on our results in the first half of 2020 but the remaining half proved that we are well-positioned to bounce back. We saw improvement in our volume and we are able to bring down our production cost in 2020.” He added "We will continue to work on aggressive marketing and better pricing strategies for this year and this will be complemented by focusing on cost control initiatives in our operations, which will enable us to deliver better returns in 2021."

Philippines: Republic Cement, a subsidiary of Ireland’s CRH, has won the Quarry Operations award at the 2021 Presidential Mineral Industry Environmental Awards in Quezon City for its work sustainably supplying limestone to its Bulacan and Batangas cement plants. The Batangas quarry also won the Safest Quarry award, while the Bulacan quarry won the Best Mining Forest Programme in the Non-metallic category. The company’s Iligan quarry won the Platinum Achievement for Quarry Operations award. President Lloyd Vicente received the prizes.