Displaying items by tag: Belarus

Europe: The Council of Europe has banned imports of cement from Russia as part of a fifth set of economic and individual sanctions. The import ban, in response to the war in Ukraine, also includes wood, fertilisers, seafood and alcoholic spirits. It has been valued at Euro5.5bn/yr. Other measures within the European Union (EU) include blocking coal and other solid fossil fuel imports from August 2022, stopping access of Russian flagged ships at ports, banning Russian or Belorussian road transport within the region and additional restrictions on the export on materials such as jet fuel, computer parts and certain types of machinery. Imports of coal into the EU are currently valued at Euro8bn/yr.

Josep Borrell, High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy at the European Council said, “These latest sanctions were adopted following the atrocities committed by Russian armed forces in Bucha and other places under Russian occupation. The aim of our sanctions is to stop the reckless, inhuman and aggressive behaviour of the Russian troops and make clear to the decision makers in the Kremlin that their illegal aggression comes at a heavy cost.”

Belarus: The Belarusian Universal Commodity Exchange says that it expects to auction 1.5Mt of cement in 2022. BELTA News has reported that the figure corresponds to 50% of the annual production of Belarusian Cement Company.

Belarus: State-owned utilities provider Beltopgaz is targeting national peat production of 11Mt in the five-year period ending on 31 December 2025. BelTA News has reported that the new target is an outcome of an on-going comprehensive modernisation of peat production in the country. The 2021 peat season ended on 1 September 2021. During the year, Belarus produced 1.5Mt of peat, 14% of the five-year target.

The cement industry currently consumes 300,000 peat briquettes per year, 43% of the total produced nationally.

Belarus: The Belarus Architecture and Construction Ministry recorded a 25% year-on-year increase in Belarus’ first-half cement exports in 2021. Business World Magazine News has reported that the value of cement exports in the period rose by 38%. The ministry said that challenges included the on-going coronavirus pandemic and restrictions, bad winter weather and anti-dumping measures in neighbouring Ukraine.

The state is working to enhance Belarusian cement producers’ presence across Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) markets. This includes the establishment of a trading house with Kazakhstan to double the export of building materials to that country.

Poland: The Polish Cement Association (SPC) has forecast a 2% year-on-year drop in cement sales to 18.5Mt in 2021. President Krzysztof Kieres attributed the fall to growing imports and reduced construction due to a cold start to the year. He predicts that sales will rise again, by 4% to 19.3Mt, in 2022.

The SPC has warned that the industry faces large costs in meeting the European Green Deal’s required 40% CO₂ emissions reduction by 2030 and achieving carbon neutrality by 2050. In particular, the local industry noted that the rising European Union (EU) CO₂ price has caused a direct increase in electricity prices. It has called on the government and the EU to compensate it for this rise.

Imports of cement also present a key challenge. In 2020, imports of Belarusian cement increased by 80% to 440,000t and imports of Ukrainian cement increased by 50% to 32,000t. The association expressed strong support for the European Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) as a means of protecting the industry against imports both from neighbouring countries outside the EU and via polluting shipping from cement exporters further afield such as Turkey.

Belarus: The Belarus Energy Minister Viktor Karankevich has met with energy research institute Belgiprotopgaz to discuss the latter’s plans for the transition to the use of peat as fuel for cement production. Business World Magazine has reported that the country launched a major modernisation of peat production for 2021 – 2025 in late 2020. If successful, the domestically produced resource will replace imported natural gas in cement kiln lines.

Belarus: Belarusian Cement Company subsidiary Krasnoselskstroimaterialy has reported total costs savings across its operations of Euro1.34m in 2020. Belarus: Daily News has reported that the company undertook several and diverse measures to achieve the reduction.

The company said, "We have replaced imported bottom ash mix with high-aluminium clay from our own deposit.” It added, “The coal content of the fuel mix rose to 85%. We have also optimised the use of raw materials in the production of cinder blocks. This has helped to reduce the cost of their production by means of decreasing the usage rates for cement, lime and thermal energy."

Cement imports were one of the themes in this week’s news, with stories on the topic from South Africa and Ukraine. The former concerned the latest chapter in that industry’s saga on slowing down imports. The International Trade Administration Commission (ITAC) has started a review on tariffs imposed on cement from Pakistan that were introduced in 2015.

Local producers in South Africa have experienced mixed fortunes since 2015, such as PPC and AfriSam’s failed merger attempt or the introduction of a local carbon tax, and were starting to complain again about imports even before the effects of coronavirus in 2020. This led the Concrete Institute to lobby ITAC in 2019 about rising imports from other nations, principally Vietnam and China.

Back in 2013 cement imports from Pakistan to South Africa were 1.1Mt. This represented the vast majority of all imports to the country. Tariffs of 14 – 77% were imposed on Pakistan-based exporters in mid-2015, initially for six months, but this was then extended. Roughly a year later in mid-to-late 2016, Sephaku Holdings said that imports of cement had ‘significantly’ declined on a year-on-year basis, particularly from Pakistan. By the end of June 2016 approximately 0.16Mt had been imported compared to 0.5Mt in the previous period. However, it noted that 75% of the volume was from China. Since then imports started to creep up. Cement imports reportedly rose by 84% year-on-year in 2018 and then by 11% in 2019. Data from construction industry data company Industry Insight suggests that Vietnam accounted for 70% or 0.47Mt of the 0.68Mt of cement imported into South Africa in the first nine months of 2020. The remaining 30% or 0.20Mt came from Pakistan. In this kind of environment it seems unlikely that ITAC will do anything other than extend tariffs.

Meanwhile in the northern hemisphere, in Ukraine this week a court in Kiev dismissed a challenge by the Belarusian Cement Company to remove cement import tariffs from Russia, Belarus and Moldova that were introduced in mid-2019 for five years. Notably, a law firm representing Dyckerhoff Cement Ukraine, HeidelbergCement Ukraine, Ivano-Frankivsk Ukraine and CRH subsidiary Podilsky Cement commented favourably upon the court’s decision to uphold tariffs. These producers form UKRCEMENT, the association of cement producers of Ukraine. However, the association doesn’t include Russia-based Eurocement, which operates Ukraine’s largest cement plant at Balakleya. Relations have been poor between Russia and Ukraine since a war between the countries that started in 2014. So any trade tariffs implemented upon Russia and/or Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) members will inevitably carry the whiff of geopolitics. Yet, in Ukraine’s defence, it also started an anti-dumping investigation into cement imports from Turkey in September 2020. Nationalism may be relevant but let’s not discount hard-nosed economics just yet.

Turkey’s involvement in Ukraine leads to last week’s presentation at Global Cement Live by Sylvie Doutres, DSG Consultants on cement and clinker trade in and out of the Mediterranean region. Readers can watch the presentation here but the headline story here was the trend of reducing exports away from southern European countries such as Spain, Italy and Greece, to greater exports from North African countries and Turkey over the last decade. Turkey particularly has pushed its share of exports even more in 2020 despite (or perhaps because of) a tough domestic market. The general trend here away from southern Europe has been blamed on European Union-based (EU) producers becoming less competitive often against newer plants in nearby countries.

Battles between producers and government tariff policies are a perennial feature of any market in commodities such as cement. The ebb and flow of import and export markets cover many factors including production costs, distribution networks, tariff structures and more. Distinctive features of cement trading, for example, are the high cost of transporting heavy building materials over land and the world’s chronic cement production overcapacity. In the EU’s case one reason that often gets blamed is the emissions trading system (EU ETS) and the mounting cost it is imposing upon cement production. For example, today’s story that Holcim España wants to convert its integrated Jerez plant into a grinding unit has been blamed on falling exports and a reduction in ETS credits. It is noteworthy then that the EU ETS rate breached the Euro30/t level in December 2020. This may be good news for the sustainability lobby but the exodus of exports away from Southern Europe tells its own story. What form the EU ETS carbon border adjustment mechanism takes as part of the EU Green Deal will be watched closely by producers both inside and outside the EU.

Global Cement Live continues on 21 January 2021 with Kevin Rudd, Independent Cement Consultants, presenting 'Independent or third party factory acceptance testing of major cement plant equipment and critical spare parts and the challenges of Covid’

Ukraine: The District Administrative Court of Kiev has dismissed Belarusian Cement Company (BCC)’s claim against the government’s Interdepartmental Commission on International Trade for the cancellation of anti-dumping duties on cement. The duties on imported cement are 57% the value of goods from Belarus, 94% from Moldova and 115% from Russia. The commission introduced the tariffs in late May 2019 and they will expire in late May 2024.

The law firm representing third parties Dyckerhoff Cement Ukraine, HeidelbergCement Ukraine, Ivano-Frankivsk Ukraine and CRH subsidiary Podilsky Cement said "The court recognised the need to protect the violated rights of national cement producers in Ukraine from dumped imports of goods to Ukraine.” It added that the imports had caused ‘significant damage’ to national producers.

Algeria/Belarus: Belarus-based automobiles producer Belaz says that it has received an order for twelve dump trucks from Groupe des Ciments d'Algérie (GICA), Algeria’s leading cement producer with 13.5Mt/yr installed cement production capacity. Business World Magazine News has reported that the company will use the trucks for conveying raw materials in its Saoura quarry in Adrar Province. It previously bought twelve 60t-capacity Belaz-7555I trucks and nine front-loaders in mid-2020. The latest order is due for arrival in September 2020.

Belaz produces the 450t-capacity Belaz-75710, the largest-capacity dump truck in the world.