Displaying items by tag: Export

Sweden: Cementa plans to restrict its exports to the Baltic countries and Denmark. Finwire News has reported that the subsidiary of Germany-based HeidelbergCement is enacting the measure in order to focus its cement supply on its Swedish customers.

US: The US Geological Survey (USGS) recorded a 0.8% year-on-year increase in total US cement shipments in the first half of 2021 to 50.4Mt from 50.0Mt in the first half of 2021. Domestic deliveries constituted 85% of the total at 42.6Mt, against 7.75Mt of imports (15%). Clinker imports were 1.23Mt, with a total value of US$81.6m. Turkey was the lead exporter of clinker to the US in 2020 at 470,000t (38%), followed by Saudi Arabia with 466,000t (38%) and Canada with 276,000t (22%).

Indonesia: Semen Indonesia’s revenue grew by 1.2% to US$1.13bn in the first half of 2021 from US$1.12bn in the same period in 2020. Its sales volumes of clinker and cement rose by 5.7% to 19.2Mt from 18.1Mt. Earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) increased by 2.1% to US$247m from US$242m. The state-owned cement producer said that sales volumes were supported by growing domestic sales volumes and improving exports. It added that the national cement production capacity utilisation rate had fallen to 56% in 2020 from a high of 82% in 2014 due to new cement plants being built and a drop in domestic demand growth due to the coronavirus pandemic in 2020.

Nigeria: Dangote Cement says it has resumed exporting clinker from its Onne and Apapa terminals to Cameroon. Two ships delivered 57,000t of clinker and 0.34Mt of clinker was exported by road in the first half of 2021. The cement producer started exports in 2021 but was forced to suspend them in April 2021 following high demand for cement domestically.

The group’s revenue grew by 44.8% to US$1.68bn in the first half of 2021 from US$1.16bn in the same period in 2020. Cement sales volumes rose by 26.1% to 15.3Mt from 12.1Mt. Its earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) increased by 61% to US$853m from US$530m. In Nigeria cement demand was attributed to increasing housing infrastructure, commercial construction and government projects including roads and railways. Outside of Nigeria, strong performance was noted in the Republic of the Congo, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Senegal and Tanzania.

“This strong intrinsic performance is magnified by the lower second quarter results in 2020 due to the effect of Covid-19. The growth trend continues and we are focused on meeting the strong market demand across all our countries of operation,” said chief executive officer Michel Puchercos. He added that the group restarted clinker exports from Nigeria in the second quarter of 2021 following a ‘strategic decision’ to pause them in response to high demand domestically. The cement producer intends to commission its new 3Mt/yr Okpella plant in the third quarter of 2021. He also said that the company’s ongoing alternative fuels project is at an ‘advanced stage’ with procurement and installation of equipment occurring at all plants.

Algeria: Ahmed Zeghdar, the Minister of Industry, says that he will help reduce the difficulties that Groupe des Ciments d'Algérie (GICA) faces with its exports. During a meeting with the management of GICA the minister said that the government would assist with logistical problems linked to sea and land transport, according to the Expression newspaper. He also urged the company to increase its exports due to high domestic cement production capacity. GICA produced over 11Mt of cement in 2020 and this is expected to rise to nearly 17Mt in 2021. Its exports reached a value of nearly US$600m in 2020 and are forecast to reach US$1bn in 2021.

There has been a significant investment in the South Korean cement industry this week with the news that Hanil Hyundai Cement has ordered a steam-based waste heat recovery (WHR) system from Japan-based Kawasaki Heavy Industries. The 22.6MW system will be used on two of the production lines at the Yeongwol plant in Gangwon Province. The supplier says that installation is expected to generate about 30% of the energy the plant needs and save around 10,000t/yr of CO₂ in the process. Delivery is scheduled for late 2022.

This order may be the first investment following the announcement in late June 2021 that the state-owned Korea Development Bank had pledged around US$870m towards supporting the cement sector in making carbon reduction upgrades by 2025. These are intended to include moving away from burning fossil fuels in cement production and increasing the use of recycling materials. At the time of the agreement between the bank and the Korea Cement Association (KCA), Hanil Hyundai Cement noted that the local alternative fuels substitution rate was 24% compared to 46% in the European Union and 68% in Germany.

Graph 1: Cement production in South Korea, 2010 – 2020. Source: Korea Cement Association

By European or American standards South Korea kept its coronavirus cases under control in 2020. A robust testing and contract tracing regime (K-Quarantine) managed to prevent the country enforcing stricter measures until late in 2020. A fourth wave of infections, currently underway in July 2021, due to the more contagious Delta variant, has started to change this. Despite being able to keep its economy open though, the construction sector still took a hit although not as bad as initially feared.

Cement production fell by 6% year-on-year to 47.5Mt in 2020 from 50.6Mt in 2019 following a downward trend since 2017. The KCA expected worse after a poor third quarter in 2020 when it was preparing for shipments to fall below the level last seen in the midst of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) crisis in the late 1990s. On top of this the industry was also potentially facing a new tax on production towards the end of 2020. One large local producer, Ssangyong C&E, reported a 5% year-on-year drop in sales to US$864m in 2020 from US$910m in 2019. However, it managed to increase its operating profit over the same period. So far in 2021 the sector faced supply shortages in the spring. The KSA blamed the winter plant maintenance schedule and a lack of railway wagons and trucks.

The timing of the Korea Development Bank investment in the cement sector is interesting given the movement on the European Union carbon border adjustment mechanism. Cement exports seem unlikely to be affected but business lobbyists like the Federation of Korean Industries are well aware of the effects schemes like this might have upon commodities like steel and aluminium in the first phase and then the implications for car production later on. Target markets for cement exports such as the US, Peru, Chile and the Philippines might all become vulnerable should carbon-based trade restrictions become more prevalent. Of course export markets remain vulnerable to more usual hindrances. For example, in March 2021 the Philippines extended its safeguard measures on cement imports to various countries including South Korea.

Following a round of market consolidation in the late 2010s, the South Korean cement sector now appears to be entering a phase of sustainable realignment. In late May 2021 Prime Minister Moon Jae-in announced plans to hasten the country’s carbon reduction targets ahead of the United Nations Climate Change Conference scheduled for November 2021, including a carbon tax. With cement production on a downward trend since 2017 and the coronavirus crisis far from gone it will be instructive to see how far the intervention of the Korea Development Bank will go.

Vietnam: The Ministry of Finance has proposed increasing the export tariff for clinker to 10% from 5%. The ministry said that exports of cement and clinker were not sustainable as they use non-renewable resources, according to the Viet Nam News newspaper. It added that cement producers also benefit from low electricity prices. Customs data shows that the country exported nearly 33Mt of cement and clinker in 2020. 22Mt or 73% of this total consisted of clinker.

Peru: Cement production in the 12 months ending on 30 June 2021 was 12.2Mt, up by 43% year-on-year from 8.54Mt in the previous 12 months. Data from the Association of Cement Producers (ASOCEM) shows that local dispatches totalled 11.9Mt, up by 42% from 8.41Mt.

Cement exports recorded a drop, down by 7% to 0.16Mt from 0.17Mt, while clinker exports rose by 44% to 0.52Mt from 0.36Mt. High demand led to an increase in imports to 0.94Mt of cement, up by 59% from 0.59Mt, and 1.41Mt of clinker, almost triple the previous year’s volume of 0.48Mt.

Spain: Cement consumption grew by 17% year-on-year to 7.31Mt of cement in the first half of 2021 from 6.23Mt in the same period in 2020. Oficemen, the Spanish cement association, said that the figure for 2021 remained 1.4% below the same period in 2019 though. However, the consumption in June 2021 was looking promising compared to both the same month in 2020 and 2019. Exports increased by 36% to 3.8Mt in the reporting period. The association celebrated this figure but warned that high electricity and CO2 taxes could potentially have a negative effect on future exports by the sector.

Azerbaijan: Holcim Azerbaijan has exported its first of planned regular weekly shipments of cement to Gerogia. The Azer News newspaper has reported that transport partner ADY Express, a subsidiary of Azerbaijan Railways, will carry out the orders. It has allocated 50 train cars to make the trip four times monthly, resulting in total shipments of 15,000t/month.