Displaying items by tag: Export

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.

Haiti: Jamaica’s Caribbean Cement has begun exporting clinker to Haiti. The Jamaica Observer reports that the first shipment of 7500t of clinker was of surplus material from the company’s 1.3Mt/yr Rockfort Plant. The plant has received US$162m in capital expenditure since 30 June 2015.

Vietnam: Vietnam’s August 2019 cement output has been estimated at 7.9Mt, up by 8.7% from August 2018. This would give an eight-month figure of 63.1Mt, up by 7.6% year-on-year. Data from government’s General Statistics Office placed the country’s 2018 output at 90.2Mt, a figure likely to be exceeded by early December 2019.

In the first half of 2019, Vietnam exported 31.3% of its cement, supplying 68% of China’s imports of cement and clinker over that period. Global Cement has previously reported that Vietnamese companies were seven of the top ten importers of cement to the Philippines from 2013 to 2018.

Tajikistan: About 2.33Mt of cement was produced in Tajikistan over the first seven months of 2019, according to the Ministry of Industry and New Technologies. This value is 0.21Mt higher than in January-July 2018. The country produced 3.84Mt of cement in 2018, 23% more than in 2017.

Uzbekistan/Afghanistan: The Almalyk Mining and Metallurgical Combine plans to ship several batches of high-quality cement to Afghanistan by the end of 2019, according to a company press statement. It elaborated that it had signed a number of contracts for the supply of three products in mid-July 2019. Its cement will be used in the construction of infrastructure and social facilities in several regions of the country. Deliveries will be made from the group’s Jizzakh and Sherabad plants.

The company is also actively increasing exports to other neighbouring countries. The Jizzakh cement plant has already exported over 1600t of white cement to Tajikistan, 1280t to Kyrgyzstan, 512t to Kazakhstan and 147t to Turkmenistan in 2019. Over the first half of 2019, the plant exported over 28,000t of cement products at a value of more than US$1.6m.

Vietnam: Cement and clinker exports from Vietnam are well on track to meet the central target for 2019, with turnover of nearly US$750m generated in the first seven months, according to the General Department of Customs’ statistics.
During the period, 17.3Mt of cement and clinker were shipped overseas.

In the first half of 2019 the country exported 15.6Mt of cement and clinker, which generated revenues of US$667m. This represents a 1.3% rise in volume and 18% rise in value compared to the same period of 2018.

The Vietnam Cement Association attributed the seven-month’s performance to positive demand from the global market and the export prices of cement, which have increased by 15-17% year-on-year. The closure of China’s worst-polluting cement plants and forced campaign operation at many others has created a significant opportunity for Vietnamese firms to increase exports.

The ministry forecasts that overall demand for cement from Vietnam’s cement producers would be likely to increase marginally to 98-99Mt by the end of 2019, comprising 70Mt domestic sales and 28-29Mt in exports.

Saudi Arabia: Yanbu Cement’s sales revenue grew by 14% year-on-year to US$128m in the first half of 2019 from US$110m in the same period in 2018. Its net profit after Zakat and tax more than doubled to US$30.1m from US$12m. The cement producer attributed this to higher prices and growing clinker exports.

Pakistan: Data from the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics shows that cement exports fell by 2.5% year-on-year to 1.16Mt in the second quarter of 2019 from 1.22Mt in the same period in 2018. After a strong first quarter exports remained high in April 2019 before starting to decline in May and June. Overall, exports rose by 22.8% year-on-year to 2.7Mt in the first half of 2019.