Displaying items by tag: Sanction

Guyana: Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo has received complaints about ‘delinquent’ cement suppliers, stating that the government will sanction any errant supplier, reports News Room Guyana.

Contractors engaged in road works along the East Bank of Demerara complained of challenges with cement suppliers. These suppliers were reportedly providing smaller quantities of cement and cement with lower-than-needed compressive strength.

The vice president noted that the Ministry of Public Works has been engaged on the matter and will issue a warning to suppliers soon, stating that, if the claims were true, the suppliers would lose the right to supply cement for government projects.

The situation comes amid the government's major infrastructure plan for the country. The ‘largest ever expansion’ of infrastructure is unfolding in Guyana under the current administration, although there have reportedly been some implementation challenges.

Cuba: State-owned Cementos Cienfuegos has started to burn waste tyres in order to save on imported petcoke costs. Cuba is suffering a coal shortage due to reinforced economic sanctions led by the US.

The plant is using 130-150 tyres per day as part of a project that, in its initial phase, makes it possible to replace 5% of its petcoke requirements. Plant manager Ernesto Gálvez, explained the plant eventually aims to burn 400 tyres per day.

Pakistan/Iran: Pakistan's cement exports may drop by 10 – 15% at the start of 2016 as more Iranian cement will enter on the world market after sanctions have been lifted, according to Dawn.

Pakistani manufacturers will have to increase their export market destinations. However, local Pakistani cement industry officials believe that 'quality-conscious' countries like the UAE, India, Qatar and Sri Lanka may still prefer Pakistani cement as it is 'better' than its Iranian counterpart.

The officials are optimistic that the budget allocation for Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) may play a positive role in incrasing domestic cement consumption and may dilute to some extent the negative impact posed by the anti-dumping duty in South Africa on Pakistani cement and influx of Iranian cement on the international market. Around 60 – 65% of Iran's cement exports go to Iraq, 10 – 15% to Afghanistan and the remaining to other countries including Pakistan.

The removal of sanctions is not expected to aggravate competition in Afghanistan, as it is only feasible for Iranian producers to target the Kandahar region closer to the border. The main market for Pakistani producers is Kabul and Jalalabad, where Iranian cement will not be competitive due to the higher transportation cost.

Iran is the fourth largest manufacturer of cement in the world with a capacity of around 80Mt/yr. This capacity is set to rise in the next two years. The country's cement production stands at 66Mt/yr, around 84% capacity utilisation, out of which 28% is exported.