Displaying items by tag: Export

Algeria: Trade Minister Said Djellab has revealed that the country’s cement exports are expected to reach a value of US$400m by 2021. Export earnings were around US$20m in 2018 and then tripled to US$60m in 2019, according to the El Mujahid newspaper. The minister made the comments at a ceremony marking an export of cement from a Ciment Lafarge Souakri (CILAS) plant. He added that the local market has a cement production capacity of 40Mt/yr and that only 22Mt/yr is required domestically. Producers are targeting countries in west Africa, including Guinea Bissau, Senegal, Gabon and Mali.

Azerbaijan: Azerbaijan’s three cement works of an integrated capacity of 5Mt/yr produced 2.5Mt of cement in the nine months to 30 September 2019, down by 1.2% compared to 2.6Mt over the same term in 2018. Overall sales were low in the period, but exports picked up in the quarter to 30 September 2019, stimulating production levels of 0.9Mt, representing no change year-on-year.

Brazil: Paulo Camillo Penna, the president of SNIC, the Brazilian national cement industry union, has expressed caution about growing cement sales so far in 2019. Data from SNIC shows that cement sales grew by 3% year-on-year to 40.5Mt in the first nine months of 2019 from 39.4Mt in the same period in 2018. Growth was driven by central and southern regions of the country, particularly in São Paulo. Exports grew by 22% to 90,000t from 74,000t. However, Paulo Camillo said that apparent growth in 2019 was partly due to a truckers strike in May 2018 that overly depressed the year’s sales. Despite this, he added that a survey of the construction industry released by the National Confederation of Industry (CNI) was showing slow but steady improvement.

Argentina: Data from the Association of Portland Cement Manufacturers (AFCP) shows that cement consumption fell by 6% year-on-year to 8.5Mt in the first nine months of 2019 from 9Mt in the same period in 2018. Local despatches dropped by 5% to 8.5Mt to 8.9Mt, although exports rose slightly.

Germany: Data from the German Cement Works Association (VDZ) shows that cement consumption rose slightly to 29Mt in 2018. Imports were 1.5Mt and exports rose by 1.5% year-on-year to 6.3Mt. The association says that this shows the industry is in a stable phase that is expected to continue in 2019 and 2020.

"There has been an upward trend in the German cement market for four years now, thanks in particular to the positive development in the apartment block sector," said VDZ president Christian Knell. He added that annual growth in consumption had slowed but that this was ‘hardly surprising’ given the ‘tight’ capacities along the construction value chain.

Pakistan: Gharibwal Cement has blamed reduced exports due to tensions on the Pakistan-Indian border and rising input costs for a reduction in its sales. Its net sales fell by 3% year-on-year to US$72.3m in the year to 30 June 2019 from US$74.5m in the same period in 2018. Its cement dispatches fell by 11.4% to 1.68Mt from 1.89Mt. Its earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) dropped by 6.5% to US$18.7m from US$20m.

The cement producer said that work on a new 0.15Mt clinker silo is in progress and this is expected to be completed by June 2020. It is also building a rainwater reservoir to capture precipitation for use in the production process. The company operates a 2.1Mt/yr integrated plant at Ismailwal in Punjab Province.

Nigeria: Aliko Dangote, the chairman of Dangote Cement, plans to increase his company’s cement production capacity in Africa by 29% to 62Mt/yr. It aims to add 6Mt/yr in Nigeria in 2020 to support exports to grinding plants in Cameroon and West Africa, according to Bloomberg. The cement producer previously said it had a production capacity of 45.6Mt/yr in 2018 from operations in 10 countries.

Paraguay: Bolivia-based Itacamba Cemento has increased its cement exports to Paraguay in the eight months to 31 August 2019 to 38,000t, 10% of the latter’s market demand. This represents an increase of 322% compared to 9000t in the same period of 2018. Pagina Siete has reported that the company additionally imported 36,000t of clinker, a 32% decrease of from 53,000t in the eight months to August 2018. Itacamba Cemento general manager Alexander Capela has expressed the company’s desire to use the Paraguay-Paraná Waterway to export surplus finished product, mainly to wholesale distributors in Asunción. The company aims to consolidate its 1.2Mt/yr capacity to meet Bolivia’s increasing domestic demand, currently 4.5Mt/yr.

Itacamba Cemento began exporting cement to Paraguay in 2017 due to the favourable exchange rate and hence a high profit margin for Bolivian produce exchanged for Paraguayan guaraní.

Turkmenistan: The state-owned 1.0Mt/yr integrated Lebap cement plant has exported 0.2Mt of cement to neighbouring countries in the eight months to the end of August 2019. Uzbekistan received the majority of this. Neitralnii has reported that the plant has produced test batches of cement using basalt instead of its usual iron ore. It has noted increased durability, density and frost resistance, as well as lower costs and financial impact. The substitution of the locally-sourced ferrous rock for imported haematite is part of the central Asian country’s state programme of import substitution.

Saudi Arabia: Najran Cement has received a licence to export clinker from the Saudi Ministry of Commerce and Investment. The licence is valid for a year from 4 September 2019.