Displaying items by tag: Shipping

Vietnam: Cement producers and exporters will pay an additional 5 – 10% tariff on their exports of cement and clinker from 1 January 2023. Viet Nam News has reported that the move aims to bring down local cement prices by increasing supply in the country. These have risen over the past six months, while export prices have remained level.

The Vietnam National Cement Association (VNCA) says that its members are struggling to increase exports in a highly competitive export market. In the six months up to the end of August 2022, China, the Philippines, Bangladesh, Malaysia and Taiwan all reduced their imports of Vietnamese cement. The decline included a ‘substantial’ reduction of imports by China and the Philippines. Exporters faced logistical difficulties in shipping cement to the Philippines, while China’s consumption dropped due to new Covid-19 restrictions and low residential construction activity there.

The VNCA forecasts cement production of 108Mt in 2022, against a national demand of 65Mt. It projected that a series of infrastructure projects will bolster domestic consumption between 2022 and 2025.

US: Royal White Cement has leased a site on the Houston Ship Channel in Houston, Texas. Local press has reported that the company plans to build its second cement terminal in the city there. Houston Peninsula Terminals will operate unloading systems for the storage of cement across three facilities at the site. It is also equipped with multiple railway tracks and heavy truck loading facilities. Royal White Cement owner Marcel Fadi said that the move would help the producer to expand its footprint in Houston and beyond.

Fadi said "We have long operated in the Houston market, but this direct access to storage and bulk unloading along the channel will provide greater efficiencies and flexibility, allowing Royal White Cement to handle and store approximately 100,000t of multiple cementitious products such as slag, grey cement, and white cement."

India: Indian cement producers imported four shipments with a total of 160,000t of petcoke from Venezuela during the first quarter of the 2023 financial year. Reuters News has reported that a fifth shipment of 50,000t of petcoke is due to arrive in Mangaluru, Karnataka, in mid-August. A further, 30,000t, delivery is also scheduled for shipment from Venezuela during the month. Shipping takes around 50 days.

Ramco Cements enjoyed a US$15 – 20/t discount on its two 50,000t shipments of Venezuelan petcoke in June and July 2022, for which it paid US$10.7m and US$11.1m respectively. Its chief financial officer Sivaraman Vaithiyanathan said
"The quality of petcoke is very good and it has very low sulphur."

Australia: Hallett Group plans to establish a slag cement grinding plant in Port Augusta, South Australia. Magnet News has reported the cost of the project as US$83.9m, towards which the producer has received US$13.4m in government funding. The plant will produce cement using South Australian ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBFS) from Nyrstar’s Port Pirie and Liberty Primary Steel’s Whyalla steel refineries and fly ash from the site of the former Port Augusta power plant. Its operations will be 100% renewably powered. An accompanying new distribution facility at Port Adelaide will ship the cement to markets. The project will create 50 new jobs.

When the Port Augusta grinding plant becomes operational in 2023, its products will reduce regional CO₂ emissions by 300,000t/yr, subsequently rising to 1Mt/yr, according to the company’s expansion plans.

Hallett Group chief executive officer Kane Salisbury said "We're talking about 1% of the entire country's 2030 [CO₂ reduction] commitment, delivered through this project." Salisbury added "We're looking at turning South Australia into a global leader in manufacturing green cement."

France: Hoffmann Green Cement Technologies has acquired ABC Broyage, which operates a slag grinding plant in North Dordogne. The producer says that ABC Broyage will import granulated blast furnace slag (GBFS) via La Rochelle and supply ground GBFS to its H1 and H2 green cement plants in Bournezeau. This will give Hoffmann Green Cement Technologies self-sufficiency in its raw materials processing.

Co-founders Julien Blanchard and David Hoffmann said “Managing our supply chain has always been one of Hoffmann Green's strategic priorities. After securing our supplies of co-products and their storage, we are now focusing on optimising their processing through the acquisition of ABC Broyage and the development of vertical integration.” Blanchard and Hoffmann noted that, besides strengthening the company’s control over its raw materials supply, ABC Broyage’s slag grinding capacity also secures its margins in the ‘current highly inflationary context.’

Russia: Kaliningrad region is redirecting cement deliveries to the region to sea transport following the implementation of trade sanctions by neighbouring Lithuania. The first consignment of cement redirected from the railroad, on the Kholmogory dry-cargo carrier, is scheduled to be transported on the Bronka - Kaliningrad shipping route by the end of June 2022, according to Interfax. The Ursa Major cargo ship will also be used on the Ust-Luga - Baltiisk shipping route. Additional ships will be used to increase transport capacity to supply the Russian enclave.

Deputy head of the regional government Alexander Rolbinov said, "Now, with the support of the Russian Transport Ministry, the logistics of supplying the region with essential cargos are changing. In particular, we are fully redirecting cement deliveries to sea transport. We have already worked out with Eurocement the required amount of material for the construction industry, which will be packed in 'big bags' and shipped by the fleet. The situation is under the constant control of the governor."

The Kaliningrad region needs about 600,000t/yr of cement. Previously cement was transported by rail through the European Union (EU). However, EU economic sanctions in response to the war in Ukraine started being implemented directly by Lithuania from 18 June 2022. The Russian government has threatened Lithuania with retaliatory sanctions.

Pakistan: DG Khan Cement has despatched a shipment of 50,000t of cement for Houston, US, from Karachi. The Balochistan Times newspaper has reported that the shipment is the first of 12 consignments of the same size under an order for 600,000t of low-alkali cement. If successful, the order may double to 1.2Mt. The producer is using jumbo bags to transport the product on its 42-day journey overseas.

Marketing director Fareed Afzal said that Pakistani businesses need to diversify their export markets and strengthen foreign currency reserves. He added that DG Khan Cement continues to reduce its products' carbon footprints by using renewable energy, waste heat recovery (WHR) and alternate fuels (AF).

Pakistan: DG Khan Cement Company is ready to export 50,000t of cement to the US following a certification process. The Tomini Felicity bulk carrier was reportedly being loaded at the Port of Karachi in mid-June 2022 for shipping to Houston in Texas, according to the News International newspaper. The transport is part of a 100,000t deal with a US-based company that was arranged in mid-2021. The intervening period has been spent arranging the necessary certificates. The export is believed to be the first time a Pakistan-based producer has sent cement to the US.

Belgium/France: Ciments Calcia plans to transition 60% of its truck transport of cement in Belgium and France to rail. The company says that the shift will eliminate 5% of its CO₂ emissions. 400 rail cars currently distribute cement from Ciments Calcia’s 10 production sites. The producer said that the planned increase became possible due to logistics solutions developer Everysens’ transport digitisation software.

South Korea: Korea Cement Association (KCA) members’ cement shipments fell by 90% over two days to 13,000t on 8 June 2022 from 180,000t/day prior to a truck driver strike which began on 7 June 2022. The association claimed that producers lost US$23m-worth of sales in the first two days of the strike, which also affects other industries. 17 ready-mix concrete batching plants in the Seoul area have suspended operations. The Korea Herald newspaper has reported that the association representing the construction industry has also voiced concerns about the supply situation.