Displaying items by tag: Export

Pakistan: Cement exporters based in Pakistan have urged the Ministry of Commerce to approach South African authorities with the aim of overturning the existing anti-dumping duty on Pakistani cement.
"Before anti-dumping duty, annual cement exports to South Africa were worth US$700m. Now it has gone down to US$100m," said Mohammad Rafiq Memon, Chairman of the Pakistan-South Africa Business Forum (PSABF). He said that the forum was trying its best to get this issue resolved and that Pakistan’s Ministry of Commerce should send a delegation to South Africa to convince the authorities to review the duty. He added that he was optimistic that South Africa would review the anti-dumping duty on cement imports and said that the situation was likely to improve by 2020.

He said that PSABF also has plans to establish a trade centre in South Africa by the end of December 2019, at which Pakistani manufacturers and exporters would be able to display samples of their products and services, along with relevant contact information. This would result in effectively promoting Pakistani products, not only in the South African market, but in other African states.

Iran/Afghanistan: Exports of cement from Iran to Afghanistan have increased following the resumption of US-led sanctions on Iran. Speaking on Afghanistan’s Tolo News TV, Janagha Navid, the spokesman of Afghanistan's Chamber of Commerce and Industries, said that Afghanistan imports 80,000t/yr of cement, while stressing that the country’s domestic cement production capacity could increase to 420,000t/yr.

Navid added that cement imports from Pakistan had decreased, while imports from Iran had risen, due to depreciation of the Iranian Rial against foreign currencies. He further highlighted that Afghan customers prefer Iranian cement over Pakistani cement, citing quality considerations. In 2018, Iran exported US$127m-worth of cement to Afghanistan, broadly similar to imports from Pakistan, which came to US$132m.

Tajikistan: The Ministry of Industry and New Technologies (MOINT) says that Tajik-Chinese joint ventures Chzhungtsai Mohir Cement, Huaxin Gayur Cement, and Huaxin Gayur Sughd Cement accounted for nearly 85% of local cement production in the first three months of 2019. Overall production grew by 9% year-on-year to 0.84Mt from 0.75Mt in the same period in 2018, according to the Asia-Plus News Agency. Around 36% of production was exported with more than 150,000t of cement to Uzbekistan, more than 140,000t of cement to Afghanistan and nearly 12,000t of cement to Kyrgyzstan. Tajikistan has 13 cement plants with a total production capacity of 4.7Mt/yr.

Pakistan: Cement despatches fell by 9% year-on-year to 34.6Mt in the nine months to the end of March 2019 from 34.8Mt in the same period to March 2018. Data from the All Pakistan Cement Manufacturers Association (APCMA) shows that despatches and exports fell in both the north of the country but that despatches fell and exports rose in the south. Exports more than doubled in the south to 3.14Mt. This was due to a reported start in seabourne clinker sales in the 2018 – 2019 year. Otherwise, overall cement exports to Afghanistan and India declined.

Algeria: GICA Group’s Hadjar Soud cement plant has made its first 37,000t clinker shipment to the Ivory Coast via the Port of Annaba. It is part of a 0.2Mt/yr consignment planned for 2019 from the unit, according to the Algeria Press Service. Overall, GICA intends to export 1.5Mt of clinker to African countries in 2019.

Indonesia: Exports drove Semen Indonesia’s cement sales volume growth in 2018. Its local sales volumes of cement grew by 1.2% year-on-year in 2018 to 27.4Mt from 27.1Mt in 2017 but exports increased by 68% to 3.16Mt from 1.87Mt. Sales volumes at its Thanh Long Cement subsidiary in Vietnam grew by 7.9% to 2.57Mt from 2.39Mt due to a sharp increase in exports. The group’s revenue rose by 10% to US$2.17bn from US$1.96bn. Its net profit nearly doubled to US$218m from US$117m.

Semen Indonesia completed its acquisition of Holcim Indonesia for US$1.75bn in February 2019. Prior to the purchase it had a cement production capacity of 38.2Mt/yr and Holcim Indonesia had a capacity of 14.8Mt/yr.

Japan: Sumitomo Osaka Cement has completed a new cement silo at its Kochi plant. The upgrade is part of a long-term plan to focus on exports to Southeast Asia. The cement producer intends to establish an overseas business presence outside of Japan.

Afghanistan/Pakistan: The share of exports of cement from Pakistan to Afghanistan fell to 24% in the first eight months of the current 2019 Pakistan financial year compared to 48% in the 2018 period. The Cement Manufacturers And Export Association has blamed this on Afghanistan opening its market to imports from other countries including Iran, according to the Frontier Star newspaper. It has urged the government to take measures to cut local production costs and force anti-dumping tariffs on Iranian cement imports.

The association said that the cement industry in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has been most affected by the decline in exports to Afghanistan. Exports from these regions fell by 16% year-on-year in the first nine months of the current Pakistan financial year to February 2019.

Afghanistan/Uzbekistan: Uzbekistan’s Almalyk Mining and Metallurgical Complex (AMMC) has started exporting cement to Afghanistan. A trial consignment of Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC) was despatched from the company’s new 1.5Mt/yr Sherabad cement plant in Surkhandarya, according to the Trend News Agency. It intends to export 0.5Mt/yr to Afghanistan. As part of a contract signed with the Hamid Company just under 1000t of cement has been sent by train to Mazar-i-Sharif.

Pakistan: The All Pakistan Cement Manufacturers Association (APCMA) has reported that cement exports during first eight months of the current Pakistani fiscal year, from 1 July 2018, saw growth of 52.3% year-on-year compared to the same period of the prior fiscal year. Exports were 4.65Mt compared to 3.05Mt.

In February 2019 exports were up by 69.1% year-on-year at 0.51Mt. The southern part of the country, particularly the Sindh region, fared considerably better than the national picture, as cement exports from the region increased by 185% to 0.35Mt in February 2019. Local consumption in the region was also higher, albeit less dramatically, with sales of 0.67Mt as compared to 0.61Mt a year earlier. However, plants in the north continued to suffer, with exports falling by 16% to 1.86Mt over the eight-month period from 2.21Mt a year earlier. In February 2019 exports from the north declined by 8.7% to 0.17Mt

Among other factors, the export of cement to India has been suspended due to a 200% increase in the import duty, as the Indian government had announced to de-list Pakistan from the status of ‘Most-Favoured Nation.’ The APCMA also said that rain in almost all parts of Pakistan had also affected construction activities.