14 August 2019

South Africa: The South African cement industry is calling on the International Trade Administration Commission (ITAC) to probe a flood of imports into the country. South Africa, which has six cement producers and more than 30% over-capacity, has become a net importer of cement. Imports have increased by 139% since 2016, according to The Concrete Institute’s (ITC) managing director Brian Perrie.

Perrie said in an interview that TCI, representing AfriSam, Dangote Cement South Africa, Lafarge Industries South Africa, Natal Portland Cement and PPC were approaching ITAC to investigate whether the industry required protection from an 18-month surge in imports.

He said that imported cement was undercutting South African prices by as much as 45%, while local producers also had to meet the requirements of the Southern African Customs Union (SACU), meet black empowerment and other social requirements and, at the same time, protect thousands of jobs in the domestic industry. Also, the recent carbon tax translated into a 2% increase in selling prices, putting the local industry at a further price disadvantage. “Trade remedy protection is required," said Perrie, pointing out that producers did not want a ‘ban’ on imports, rather some form of protection to ‘level the playing field.’

South Africa instituted anti-dumping duties of 17 – 70% against importers from Pakistan in 2015. Imports duly fell in 2016 but rose again in 2017 and 2018, mainly from Vietnam and China. Perrie said that 350,441t of cement arrived in the second quarter of 2019 alone, the most since the third quarter of 2015. Most came in through Durban (260,909t), an 85% increase on the first quarter.

Nepal: A large number of cement plants are reported to have violated standard manufacturing practices and are selling products that are not up to international standards, according to the Nepal Bureau of Standards and Metrology.

The national standards body said that 25% of factories were producing sub-standard products, based on the tests of samples and market inspections conducted in the last fiscal year that ended in mid-July 2019. Some of the larger manufacturers included in the 25% were Hongshi Shivam Cement, CG Cement and Arghakhanchi Cement. A further 14 smaller suppliers were also included.

Liberia: The management of Star Cement has welcomed government approval from the Government of Liberia that will allow it to build a cement grinding plant in Monrovia. The special investment incentive was signed into law by President George Manneh Weah in a move stated to be consistent with his promise of giving ‘power to the people.’

The US$41m facility will have the capacity to produce 0.6Mt/yr of cement. Star Cement’s management is optimistic that it will create employment opportunities, both directly at the plant and via the wider construction and distribution sectors. It is also expected that the new capacity will cause a reduction in cement prices, to the benefit of Liberians, particularly those building their own houses.

Meanwhile, the company is aggressively making efforts to ensure that Liberia benefits from the ECOWAS Trade Liberalisation Scheme (ETLS) by commencing cement exports. This will help the country to earn US Dollars.

Star Cement expects to begin production within the second half of 2020, at which point it will share shares to Liberians who wish to invest in the cement sector.

Spain: Cemex España plans to build a cement import terminal at the port of El Musel in Asturias in northern Spain. Cemex has requested 2491.2m2 of space within the second tranche of the Olano Engineer Dock. It is expected that the installation will be built by June 2020.

The Euro5m facility will have 6000t of cement storage capacity from two 41.1m-high silos with bulk truck loading capacity of 200t/hr and a cement bagging plant with a capacity of 1950bags/hr (25kg).