Displaying items by tag: Export

Pakistan: Cement sales rose by 15% year-on-year to 10.3Mt in the first quarter of the local financial year that ended in September 2017 from 9Mt in the same period in 2016. However, the export part of this figure fell by 16.7% to 1.29Mt, according to the All Pakistan Cement Manufacturers Association (APCMA). Exports fell faster in the south of the country, where the country’s ports are based, with a significant drop in seaborne trade.

“Robust construction activities within the country are supporting the cement sector, but it is still sitting on some idle capacity that could be exported through government facilitations like sharing the transport cost,” said the APCMA to the Nation newspaper. It added that the government should cut duties on cement to encourage the residential sector.

Ethiopia: Ethiopia earned US$17.3m from exports of 0.2Mt of cement exports in its latest financial year that ended on 7 July 2017. The Chemical and Construction Input Industry Development Institute added that the country’s cement industry is planning to reach a production capacity of 27Mt/yr by the end of the Second Growth and Transformation Plan (GTP-II) in the 2019 – 2020 year, according to the Walta Information and Public Relations Centre.

Saudi Arabia: The Saudi Industrial Exports Company (SIEC) has signed a memorandum of understanding with Al Jouf Cement Company to export its products internationally. The Saudi government lifted a ban on exporting cement in 2016.

Vietnam: The Vietnam Building Material Association estimates cement sales rose by 5% year-on-year to 59Mt in the first nine months of 2017. This represented 74% of its annual target, according to the Việt Nam News newspaper. 45Mt of cement was sold domestically, an increase of 4%, and 14Mt was exported. Cement production capacity is 86Mt/yr but demand is estimated at 60Mt/yr. The country is predicted to face a surplus of 26Mt in 2017, according to the Vietnam Cement Association.

Algeria: Mohamed Benmeradi, the minister of commerce, says that Algeria will stop importing cement in 2018. He stated on national radio that the country is producing enough cement and is now considering exports, according to the Liberté Algerie newspaper. The government is amending the import licence system to encourage local growth.

Ethiopia: Dangote Cement’s plant at Mugher is the second biggest earning plant in the group’s network. It reported revenue in excess of US$85.8m for the Ethiopian fiscal year that ended on 8 July 2017, according to the Agence de Presse Africaine. Sales and marketing deputy manager Tariku Alemayehu said that the majority of the earnings came from exports of over 2Mt of cement to neighbouring countries.

The Mugher cement plant recently built a 120bag/yr bagging unit for over US$21.5m. The cement plant is the largest in the country and it produces 32.5 and 42.5-grade cements.

Czechia: Cement production in Czechia grew by 4.1% year-on-year to 3.94Mt in 2016 as consumption rose by 3.9% from 3.82Mt, according to data from the Association of Cement Producers. The production figure was 17% lower than the country’s record of 4.77Mt that it made in 2007.

Speaking to the Czech News Agency the association's secretary, Jan Gemrich, said, "In 2016, one of the dominant areas was the extension of the transport network, chiefly the reconstruction of the D1 motorway, which is to last until about 2020. Another important area, though stagnating at present, is new housing construction for young families." For 2017 Gemrich expects cement consumption to record annual growth of around 3%.

Cement exports increased by 8.5% year-on-year to 585,000t, accounting for about 15% of national output. Imports grew by 7.7% to 463,000t.

Mozambique: Iran’s Qeshm Cement Company has prepared its first consignment of cement and clinker for exports to Mozambique. 47,000t of clinker and 3000t of clinker will be shipped on a free on board trade basis, according to the Bourse Press Agency. Hormoz Amiri, an official at Iran’s Qeshm Free Zone, added that the trading enclave plans to export 0.2Mt/yr of cement and clinker to Africa in the current Iranian financial year.

Namibia: Ohorongo Cement has opened a US$0.3m terminal at Ondangwa in the north of the country. Clemens H Kashuupulwa, the governor of Oshana Region, officiated at the event. The depot is intended to target the four northern regions in Namibia as well as export cement to southern Angola. The site follows a Private Public Partnership agreement with TransNamib to lease land at Ondangwa railway station, and is part of the Northern Railway Extension project that extends from Tsumeb to Oshikango. It will distribute various cement types, including CEM II 42.5 N, CEM I 42.5 R, CEM II 32.5 N B-LL for the local market. It will also ship CEM II 42.5 N with Portuguese labelling for Angola.

After a couple of weeks looking at the capacity-rich cement markets of Angola and Vietnam, we turn our attention this week to some of those countries on the receiving end of overcapacity.

Costa Rica is an unlikely place to start but it came to our attention this week due to a short but significant news item. In summary, the amount of cement imported into Costa Rica increased by a factor of 10 between 2014 and 2016, from around 10,000t to over 100,000t. This is around 5% of its 2Mt/yr domesitic capacity, so the change is already fairly big news. The fact that an incredible 97% of this came from just one country, China, makes the story far more interesting as it shows the effects that Chinese overcapacity can have on smaller markets.

But when we look at how the value of the cement imports has changed over time, we see an even more dynamic shift. While the amount of cement imported into the country increased by nearly 10-fold, the value of the same imports only increased by around half as much between 2014 and 2016. If these figures can be taken at face value, the implication is stark. Taking the very low base as effectively ‘zero,’ each tonne of cement imported must cost around half as much as it used to.

Digging a little deeper and the picture gets more complicated. While they have fallen, Costa Rican cement prices have not fallen by 50% and why the sudden deluge of imports anyway? In 2015 the country changed its rules on cement imports to facilitate more flexible imports and lower prices for consumers. It did this by changing a regulation relating to how long cement can be stored, previously set at just 45 days, with the aim of allowing cement to come from further afield and, crucially, in bulk rather than bags.

The effects on price were immediate. Previously as high as US$13/bag (50kg) in December 2014, fairly high by global standards, Sinocem, the first Chinese importer, immediately sold its first shipment at US$10/bag. This effect of lower prices has now forced the average sales prices down to around US$10/bag across the country by 2017. This is good for consumers but not necessarily the local plants.

Back in 2015, the two local integrated plants operated by Cemex and Holcim warned that cement quality would suffer if cement bags were not used within 45 days. This apparently self-serving ‘warning’ went unheeded by the Ministry of Economy, Industry and Trade (MEIC), which pointed out that other countries in South America, as well as the European Union and United States, had no analogous short use-by dates for cement bags.

The rule remains in place, although discontent rumbles on. Indeed LafargeHolcim noted in its third quarter results for 2016 that ‘Costa Rica was adversely affected by increased foreign imports.’  This may well be a little bit of posturing and it doesn’t square with the fact that Costa Rica exported three times more cement that it imported in 2016. Of total exports of 0.34Mt, over 95% went to neighbouring Nicaragua, which has a single 0.6Mt/yr wet process plant owned by Cemex. It seems that the two Costa Rican plants have found a way to keep a little bit of the Chinese producers’ margin for themselves.

Of course, Chinese cement overcapacity doesn’t only affect the Central American market. It has been rippling all around the Pacific Rim. In July 2017, this column looked at the decision by Cementos Bío Bío to stop making clinker at its Talcahuano plant in Chile. It now favours grinding imported clinker from Asia. Before that, Holcim New Zealand closed its Westport cement plant in 2016, finally admitting that domestic clinker was not viable.

In the grand scheme of things, this all makes sense. The market has forced those operating on thin margins to adjust. Ultimately, the end consumer is likely to benefit from lower prices, at least for as long as reliable low-cost imports can be secured. What happens, however, if China actually gets round to curtailing its rampant cement capacity, or simply decides to charge more for its cement? Flexible imports, the main aim of the Costa Rican rule change, may then prove vital, as long as there is more than one international supplier of cement.