Displaying items by tag: Export

Vietnam: The Vietnam National Cement Corporation (VICEM) has reported that Vietnamese producers exported 13.6Mt of cement between 1 January 2020 and 31 May 2020, down by 1.4% year-on-year from 13.8Mt in the corresponding five months of 2019. Producers exported 7.07Mt of cement to China, up by 26% from 9.55Mt, 2.08Mt to the Philippines, down by 29% from 2.93Mt, and 1.36Mt to Bangladesh, down by 9.9% from 1.51Mt. The total value of exported cement fell by 14% to US$505m from US$590m.

Nigeria: Dangote Cement has dispatched 27,800t of clinker to Senegal from its new Lagos cement terminal in Apapa Port, Lagos State. M2 Presswire News has reported that the terminal will now begin dispatches of 984,000t/yr of clinker to Cameroon. Dangote Cement aims to serve the whole of West Africa with 4Mt/yr of clinker exports from the terminal. Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) acting director general Chuma Oruche said, “The export of clinker by Dangote Cement will be beneficial to the Nigerian economy in terms of export earnings, job creation and wealth creation for families connected with these achievements.”

Exports are the theme this week with news that the value of Turkey’s cement exports fell by 26% year-on-year in April 2020. Reporting from the Trend News Agency showed that the export market has been stable so far for the year to date, with some countries, like Kazakhstan, increasing exports and others, like France, decreasing exports. However the change in April may mark the start of a new trend.

As Tamer Saka, the chairman of the Turkish Cement Manufacturers’ Association (TÇMB), said earlier in the year, his country is one of biggest cement exporters in the world and among its most important markets are the US, Israel, Ghana and Ivory Coast. To look at one of these countries, United States Geology Survey (USGS) data shows that cement and clinker imports from Turkey to the US grew by 26% year-on-year to 1Mt for the first quarter of 2020 but that exports fell by 24% year-on-year to 0.11Mt in March 2020. Each of these countries is being affected in different ways by the coronavirus pandemic and at different times. Overall though, Saka’s and the TÇMB’s forecast in February 2020 that exports would rise by 15% year-on-year in 2020 is looking decidedly shaky. Any knock to the export market in Turkey is particularly unwanted given the poor state of the Turkish economy at the moment.

What would be useful to know here is how other major cement exporters are coping with the global situation. Data from the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics shows that Pakistan’s cement exports dropped by 31% year-on-year to 0.36Mt in April 2020. Data from the All Pakistan Cement Manufacturers Association (APCMA) for the same month tells a similar story. Its data shows a 57% drop in exports to 0.25Mt in April 2020, with a bigger share lost by plants in the north of the country than those in the south.

The other country to note is Vietnam. Here, data from the General Department of Vietnam Customs shows that cement exports fell by 9.7% year-on-year to 7.73Mt in the first quarter of 2020. This follows the announcement by Vietnam Cement Association (VCA) chair Nguyễn Quang Cung in May 2020 that all cement plant projects scheduled to begin in 2020 would be suspended. Luckily those currently being built avoided this fate. This has included a new line at Thanh Thang Group Cement’s integrated Bong Lang cement plant, which Germany’s Loesche has just sent a pair of clinker mills to this week.

These changes from the major cement exporters are bad for their host countries but the other side of the chain is how their destinations are affected. For example, Australia’s clinker imports nearly doubled between 2010 – 2011 and 2018 – 2019 to 4.1Mt. This compares to local clinker production of 5.6Mt in 2018 – 2019, according to the Cement Industry Federation and the Australian Bureau of Statistics. With this in mind, this week saw the resolution to a legal dispute between Wagners Holdings and Boral over a cement supply contract. Boral found a cheaper source of cement from Cement Australia in early 2019 and the two parties argued over their contract. This dispute may have nothing to do with foreign import levels but Wagners Holdings, Boral and Cement Australia all operate standalone clinker grinding plants and will all be subject to general market pricing trends. Higher international clinker levels may add pressure to pricing issues surrounding cement supply contracts in Australia and elsewhere.

Finally, cement trade flows aren’t the only commodity that has been affected by coronavirus disruption. The mass movement of workers home and then back to work is expected to complicate India’s return to business, as discussed in last week’s column. In this context it’s pleasing to come across one sign of normality. Local press in Hubei, China reported this week that workers from Huaxin Cement finally flew back to Uzbekistan. They were originally meant to commission a new plant in March 2020 but became stranded at home when they returned for the Chinese New Year. Commissioning of the plant is now planned for later in June 2020.

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Azerbaijan: Akkord Cement has reported sales of 237,000t of cement in the first four months of 2020, up by 20% year-on-year from 197,000t in the same period of 2019. April 2020 sales fell to 31,200t due to the impacts on demand of the coronavirus outbreak. Trend News has reported that Akkord Cement’s 1.0Mt integrated Gazakh cement plant in Ganja region produced 3250t of clinker for export, up by 10% from 2960t in 2019. The company says that it ‘plans to organise exports’ of clinker from the 3300t/day clinker capacity plant to Iraq and Qatar ‘after the country leaves the coronavirus quarantine regime.’ It added, “The export of clinker to Iran in the future is also being considered.”

Vietnam: Data from the General Department of Vietnam Customs shows that cement exports fell by 9.7% year-on-year to 7.73Mt in the first quarter of 2020. The value of these exports declined by 17.4% to US$301m, according to the Viet Nam News newspaper. Exports to China dropped by 5.4% to 2.73Mt, exports to the Philippines dropped by 27.5% to 1.47Mt, exports to Bangladesh dropped by 5.5% to 1.34Mt and exports to Taiwan dropped by 7% to 0.46Mt.

UK: RDF Industry Group has convened a refuse-derived fuel (RDF) industry working group to meet on a fortnightly basis to discuss the sectoral impacts of coronavirus. The Group said that it ‘is working with competent authorities to ensure the free flow of RDF is maintained.’ It acknowledged that RDF supply is essential to European cement production, adding, “The flow of RDF from the UK to off-take facilities in Europe is continuing, with the industry overall functioning well.”

Vietnam: Data from the Ministry of Industry and Trade shows that clinker exports fell by nearly 40% year-on-year to 7.5Mt in the first quarter of 2020. Clinker export values dropped by 19% to US$360m in the same period, according to the Viet Nam News newspaper. Previously, the Ministry of Construction forecast that cement demand would increase by up to 5% to 103Mt in 2020 due to a recovery in the real estate market. Around a third of this was expected to be exported. Local consumption of cement and clinker grew by 2% year-on-year to 98Mt in 2019.

Pakistan: Data from the All Pakistan Cement Manufacturers Association (APCMA) shows that local cement sales fell by 17% year-on-year to 3.2Mt in March 2020 from 3.9Mt in the same period of 2019 due to a contraction in construction activity, according to the News International newspaper. Exports rose by 5% to 0.51Mt but this is expected to fall as markets decline around the world due to the coronavirus outbreak. Both local sales and exports grew in the first two months of 2020.

The government has introduced an incentive package for the construction industry which is expected to help increase local cement consumption. The cement industry is also anticipating a reduction in federal excise duty, which it described as ‘very high’ regionally.

EU: Cembureau has welcomed the European Commission (EC)’s proposal for consultations on setting up a carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM) for imported goods including cement, and set out a number of ‘design principles’ that it says ‘should apply’. According to Cembureau, a CBAM ought to be: complementary to EU emissions trading scheme (ETS) free allowances (in the initial phase) and World Trade Organisation (WTO) compatible, based on importers’ verified emissions, including indirect emissions, applicable to all ETS sectors and capable of providing a CO2 charge exemption for EU exporters.

The EC has said that it will present a final proposal for a CBAM by mid-2021.

Spain: Oficemen, the Spanish cement industry association, has joined other voices in the construction sector to advocate for the continuation of construction works, including infrastructure projects, during the coronavirus outbreak. According to the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Tourism, "The closure of the works is not obligatory, as this activity has not been expressly suspended." However, increasing numbers of local authorities are stopping them, including those in Barcelona, which has ordered the closure of all building work in the city, both public and private.

Oficemen's president, Víctor García Brossa, argued, "Once the service sector is paralysed, construction becomes one of the main pillars of the Spanish economy" asserting that its work is "of the utmost importance… to prepare our country for the way out of this crisis." Regardless of whether works can officially continue or not, García Brossa has confirmed that the current situation predicts a ‘sharp short-term drop’ in cement consumption.

In February 2020, cement consumption in Spain fell by 0.5% year-on-year to 1.17Mt, about 5500t less than in February 2019, according to Oficemen’s latest data. This represented the fourth consecutive month of falls, although in year-on-year terms (from March 2019 to February 2020) consumption increased by 3.9%.

Exports continued their dire performance, falling for the 33rd consecutive month. A decrease of 31.4% month-on-month was seen in February 2020, which was down by 24.2% year-on-year compared to February 2019.