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Displaying items by tag: Export
Statistics Canada reports falling cement shipments in 2015
14 January 2016Canada: Cement manufacturers produced 1.11Mt of cement products in November 2015, down by 12.2% compared to October 2015. Domestic cement shipments fell by 15% from October 2015 to 1.08Mt in November 2015. Including imports, shipments were down by 19.9% to 1.10Mt.
Tajikistan reportedly starts exporting cement to Afghanistan
04 January 2016Tajikistan: Tajikistan has reportedly started to export cement to neighbouring Afghanistan.
According to the press centre of the Customs Service under the Government of Tajikistan, 12 trucks carrying 370t of cement proceeded via the Panji Poyon border crossing on the Tajik-Afghan border in late December 2015.
Huaxin Gayur Cement Co., Ltd in Yovon, Khatlon reportedly signed an agreement with Afghanistan's construction company Shamal Sharq in early December 2015 to supply 500t of cement to Afghanistan.
Lafarge partners with ZRL to increase cement exports to the Democratic Republic of Congo
17 December 2015Democratic Republic of Congo/Zambia: Lafarge Zambia and Zambia Railways Limited (ZRL) have collaborated to increase cement exports to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
A policy directive is being followed by the government in order to increase exports and help stabilise the local currency. Lafarge will begin to export 400t/week of cement to the DRC in 2016 and will multiply its exports to Malawi and the DRC by a factor of four. Lafarge has become the biggest user of rail in the country and the first cement producer to be fully-associated.
Pakistan: The Ministry of Commerce has initiated World Trade Organisation (WTO) dispute settlement proceedings to fight South African anti-dumping duties on cement from Pakistan. The basis of Pakistan's argument is that the injury determination mechanism followed by South African authorities (ITAC) is flawed and does not reflect true analysis of the situation.
The Pakistan challenge has raised the issue that the South African authorities used an extended period of investigation of four years for causation analysis and didn't properly examine the evidence in the light of trends over that period. In addition, Pakistan considers that South Africa failed to examine the relationship between the alleged dumping and the worsening of the condition of the domestic industry especially by failing to consider the effects of the decartelization of the domestic cement producers. It also accuses South Africa of not properly examining the entire product under investigation and instead limiting its injury analysis to bagged cement and disregarded sales by the domestic industry of the bulk cement. Finally, the challenge has pointed out that the South African authorities didn't provide a fair opportunity to Pakistani cement exporters to defend their case, denying access to the trade statistics.
In May 2015 South Africa imposed various rates of duties on Pakistani cement exports ranging from 15 – 68% plus anti-dumping duty on the import of Pakistani cement. Since March 2015 Pakistan has been pursuing the matter on a legal and diplomatic basis.
Pakistan cement exports hit by South Africa’s import duty
08 October 2015Pakistan: Cement exports from Pakistan fell by 36% year-on-year to 467,000t in September 2015, as the import duty by South Africa took a heavy toll on its exports.
"Around 45 – 50% of total cement exports were destined for South Africa before the duty was imposed," said Sheikh Adeel, Senior Manager of Sales and Marketing at Maple Leaf Cement. South Africa has imposed duty as high as 77% on Pakistan's cements. Adeel said that the drop in exports has adversely affected exporters in Punjab. The transportation cost from Punjab to Karachi Port also rose by US$20/t.
Another industry official said that the industry is not utilising its production capacity. "There is enough idle capacity. The government should step in to support the industry to export surplus volumes, otherwise cement exports will continue to decline in the coming months," said Shahzad Ahmed, a spokesman of the All Pakistan Cement Manufacturers Association (APCMA). "We expect the government to announce export incentives for the cement industry."
In September 2014, cement exports stood at 730,000t, according to APCMA data. Total cement dispatches were recorded at 2.95Mt in September 2015 compared to 3.15Mt in September 2014, showing a cut of 6.34%. The industry data showed that cement dispatches to domestic markets were 2.48Mt in September 2015 compared to 2.42Mt in September 2014, up by 2.6%.
The local industry has been demanding that the government curb cement imports from Iran, which they said is eating into local share. "The industry expects the government to take effective steps to stop the penetration of Iranian cement in Pakistani markets through massive under invoicing and/or mis-declaration," said Ahmed. He added that the mills in the south suffered more than those operating in northern part of the country.
In the south, domestic cement dispatches declined to 399,581t in September 2015 from 431,133t in September 2014. Domestic consumption in the north, however, rose to 2.08Mt in September 2015 from 1.99Mt in September 2014. Ahmed said that domestic dispatches in the north were nominally higher than the 2.02Mt of consumption in September 2015. "This shows that the pace of construction in the north has not been hit as badly as in the south," he said. The export decline was almost the same both in north and south. Cement exports from the north declined to 306,564t in September 2015 from 480,025t in September 2014. Exports from the south dipped to 160,698t in September 2015 from 249,906t in September 2014.
Cement consumption up in Vietnam but exports fall
07 October 2015Vietnam: Consumption of cement in Vietnam between 1 January 2015 to 30 September 2015 rose by 3% year-on-year to 52.1Mt compared to the same period of 2014, according to the Ministry of Construction. The ministry's Building Material Department said 40.3Mt of cement were sold on the domestic market, a year-on-year increase of 8%, while export volumes fell by 12% to 11.9Mt.
Despite the rise in the first nine months, cement consumption in September 2015 fell by 9% to 5.4Mt. 4.3Mt went to the domestic market, 11% less than in August 2015. The reduction in total consumption volume of cement in September 2015 was stated to be due to the impact of the rains and the 'ghost month' when people often avoid starting construction projects.
Experts expect cement consumption on the domestic market to be better by the year-end when the construction season begins. However, the cement industry will find it difficult to export cement by the year-end because other cement exporters in the region are set to increase their volumes.
Le Van Toi, Head of the Building Material Department, said that the enterprises should promote domestic consumption of cement and then improve competitive ability of cement products for exports.
Cementos Andino counts cost of Haitian overland import ban
07 October 2015Dominican Republic/Haiti: Cementos Andino, based in the Dominican Republic, has reported that it will register extra costs of US$44,189/month due to a Haitian ban on cement entering the country overland. Nelson Bello, president of Cementos Andino, explained that maritime transport will increase costs, due to unloading and handling services at ports, among other activities.
Cementos Andino exported 458,818t of cement between 2006 and August 2015, generating US$48.4m. Panama and Haiti were the main destinations.
Iran losing export markets
28 September 2015Iran: Iran is gradually losing its domestic and foreign cement markets, according to Abdolreza Sheikhan, secretary of Iran's Cement Industry Employers Association. Iran's cement industry has lost some 8% of its domestic market and 20% of its export markets in the first five months of current fiscal year (21 March 2015 to 22 August 2015).
"Cement supply and demand is not balanced in the market and this has created problems for producers," said Sheikhan. However he did not disclose exact statistics about the country's cement sales. However, each cement producing plant is permitted to store clinker equal to two months output. This means that up to 5Mt of surplus clinker could be stored in the country at any one time.
Tajikistan plans to become net cement exporter
24 September 2015Tajikistan: Tajikistan is increasing its cement capacity in order to resume exports by 2020, Tajikistan's Ministry of Economic Development and Trade has reported.
Currently, there are six new cement plants operating in various capacities under construction, which will allow Tajikistan to cover its domestic needs, as well as to resume exports. The plants are being financed by domestic and foreign funding. Several medium and large capacity cement plants, including projects in Sughd and Khatlon, are being built thanks to Chinese investments.
The construction of the Tajikistan-China joint venture cement plant, Tajchina has already begun and is expected to start operation in 2015. Other cement plants are planned for construction in the Dangara, Bobokon, Gafurov, and Isfara districts, as well as in Istiklol city. Currently, the country's largest cement plant is Huaxin Gayur Cement, a joint venture between a subsidiary of China's Huaxin Cement and Gaur Limited Liability Company.
Tajikistan's Ministry of Industry and New Technologies said in January 2015 that six new cement plants would be established within the next two years. By improving the country's cement sector, which currently is comprised of 10 plants, Tajikistan expects to become a net cement exporter. Earlier, Tajikistan imported cement in large quantities from Pakistan, Iran and China.
Iran snookers Pakistan’s cement exporters
02 September 2015South African cement producers may be cheered this week with the news that Iranian cement is causing grief in Pakistan once more. Imported cement from Iran is allegedly undercutting local product in Pakistan through massive 'under-invoicing.' Sources quoted in Pakistan – itself a cement exporter (!) – described the situation as 'incomprehensible.'
The issue here is that Iran is doing to South Africa what Pakistan is doing to South Africa: selling cement cheaper than locally produced product. It's especially ironic this week because one Pakistani cement producer, Lucky Cement, is taking the fight against South African anti-dumping duties to the courts.
A report from July 2015 reckoned that Pakistan's cement exports might drop by 10 – 15% at the start of 2016 as economic sanctions on Iran are lifted. The report had a bit more sense than the usual scaremongering. It predicted that removing sanctions in Iran would not affect competition in Afghanistan as Iranian producers generally targeted Kandahar.
Despite this, cement exports to Afghanistan from Pakistan hit a high of 4.73Mt in the 2010 – 2011 financial year, according to All Pakistan Cement Manufacturers Association (APCMA) data. Since then they dwindled slightly for the next couple of years before decreasing more sharply from mid-2013. Overall exports fell by 11.57% to 7.2Mt in the 2014 – 2015 period. Pakistan's exports to Afghanistan may have been hit by the departure of North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) forces and a new cement plant in neighbouring Tajikistan.
In part the battle seems to be about tax. In June 2015 the APCMA lobbied the Pakistan government to cut duties. At the time these included a 5% federal excise duty and a 17% general sales tax on the retail price of cement. One APCMA spokesman reckoned that these taxes added US$1.56 per bag of cement. More recently the APCMA rallied against a tax on cement exports and an increase in import duties on coal. In this climate, repeated news stories on Iranian exports to Pakistan dodging taxes don't sound so good.
Meanwhile, back in South Africa, Lucky Cement has started to take legal action against anti-dumping duties imposed upon its cement exports by the International Trade Administration Commission of South Africa (ITAC). The ITAC imposed provisional anti-dumping duties of 14.3 – 77.2% on Portland Cement originating in or imported from Pakistan from 15 May 2015 for six months. The duty was imposed on bagged cement. Pakistan-based cement producers may defend themselves by saying that they are following the laws of the countries they are exporting to. In theory Iranian exports to Pakistan that pay the correct taxes should be the same price as Pakistani products.
What this debacle shows is that things could get a whole lot worse for coastal cement markets within easy reach of Iran once the sanctions fall. National bodies like the ITAC across the Middle East, South Asia and East Africa should start tightening up their import policies now.