Displaying items by tag: Turkmenistan

Turkmenistan: Cabinet of Ministers’ Deputy Chair Shamuhammet Durdylyev has announced plans for the country to produce a new grade of cement. Turkmenpor News has reported that the cement, designated 500-G20-K, will contain basalt porphyries. Durdylyev has said that the Ufra deposit in the Balkan region of western Turkmenistan will supply the basalt porphyries, adding, “These mineral substances significantly improve the quality of cement.”

The move’s aim is reportedly to boost Turkmen cement plants’ productivity without increasing the reliance on imports.

Uzbekistan: Uzbekistan imported 3.27Mt of cement in 2019, down by 6.8% year-on-year from 3.51Mt in 2018. The value of cement imported fell by 13% to US$154m from US$176m. Trend newspaper has reported that cement imports from Kazakhstan fell by 32% to 0.97Mt from 1.43Mt. Imports from Tajikistan and Turkmenistan also fell, but rose by 85% from Iran, to 0.59Mt from 0.32Mt.

Uzbekistan, which has a 12.9Mt/yr installed cement production capacity, removed its zero rate of customs duty on cement in October 2019 in order to help align domestic demand with production.

Turkmenistan: Iron ore reserves of between 70Mt and 75Mt of around 20% iron recently discovered in the Turkmenbeshi district of western Turkmenistan could replace other ingredients in ordinary Portland cement (OPC) clinker production in the region, resulting in savings of US$10m/yr for producers. Trend News has reported that the deposits, located near Turkmencement’s 1.3Mt/yr integrated Kelete plant and Polimeks’ 1.0Mt/yr integrated Jebel plant, could sustain production for a century.

Turkmenistan: President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov has instructed the Türkmensenagat State Agency to build three new plants using foreign investment. During a working meeting with the management of industrial and communication sectors he said that the new plants were required to satisfy local demand and increases exports, according to the Central Asian News Service.

Turkmenistan: Lebap Cement plant produced nearly 0.74Mt of cement in the first half of 2019, exporting around 0.24Mt (32.5%). The plant has a capacity of 1.5Mt/yr but only made 0.94Mt in 2018, giving it a capacity utilisation rate of 63%. However, if Lebap continues to produce cement at the rate seen in the first half of 2019, it will have operated at nearly 100% of its capacity across the calendar year.

Turkmenistan: The state-owned 1.0Mt/yr integrated Lebap cement plant has exported 0.2Mt of cement to neighbouring countries in the eight months to the end of August 2019. Uzbekistan received the majority of this. Neitralnii has reported that the plant has produced test batches of cement using basalt instead of its usual iron ore. It has noted increased durability, density and frost resistance, as well as lower costs and financial impact. The substitution of the locally-sourced ferrous rock for imported haematite is part of the central Asian country’s state programme of import substitution.

Turkmenistan: A cement plant in Balkan province has started producing sulphate-resistant cement. A first batch of 7000t of the product has been manufactured, according to the Trend News Agency and local media. The Institute of Chemistry of the Academy of Sciences of Turkmenistan worked on the project with specialists from the Ministry of Industry and Turkmengeologiya State Corporation.

A few news stories in recent weeks have emerged concerning falling cement sales in Central Asian countries. Steppe Cement reported in mid-April 2016 that its cement sales had fallen by 12% year-on-year to US$5.98m in the first quarter of 2016 from US$6.79m in the same period in 2015. The cement producer noted an overall drop of 16% in the cement market in Kazakhstan, with a slowing reduction in March 2016 compared to the preceding four months. It forecast that the domestic cement market would contract by 1.1Mt in 2016 to 8.5Mt. The country has a cement production capacity of 11.85Mt/yr according to Global Cement Directory 2016 data. So on average this would see a drop in the capacity utilisation rate to 72% from 81%.

Likewise, Italcementi reported a fall in cement consumption in the fourth quarter of 2015 although overall in 2015 it reported consumption up by 9%. It is currently upgrading its Shymkent cement plant to a dry kiln with testing planned for early 2016. Meanwhile, HeidelbergCement – the other multinational present in the country, reported cement sales growth of over 9% due in part to the ramp-up of its new CaspiCement cement plant. How this will turn out after HeidelbergCement takes control of Italcementi remains to be seen.

Then, Holcim Azerbaijan reported that its sales had fallen by 37% to US$56m in 2015. It blamed the resultant loss it made on not being able to cut its production costs fast enough to match the falling revenue. The parent company LafargeHolcim blamed it on a ‘significant’ decline in public and private construction. Elsewhere, the World Bank reported a 13% drop in the construction sector in the second half of 2015 as the government cut investment.

Tajikistan may have broken this pattern as it reported that its cement production volumes rose by 33% to 373,000t in the first quarter of 2016. Over half of this output came from the 1Mt/yr Huaksin Ghayyur Cement plant that was commissioned in March 2016. The same news source reported government estimates that local demand will be 3.5Mt/yr in 2016. Similarly, Turkmenistan reported growing cement production in 2015 due to the opening of the 1.4Mt/yr Polimeks cement plant in Lebap. Otherwise there has been little reported recently from the cement industries in Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan although the World Bank has reported that their economies are in reasonable shape.

The multinational cement producers all noted the economic problems caused by low oil prices in the Central Asian countries in which they operate. In February 2016 this was reinforced by the International Monetary Fund after its latest visit to Azerbaijan. The World Bank also expects little growth in gross domestic product (GDP) in the region in 2016. Low oil prices have followed economic problems in Russia that have also impacted upon the region due to its economic ties with that country and membership of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).

This is bad news for the local markets but it is especially bad news for the Chinese cement industry. As China has faced production overcapacity and falling prices at home, its suppliers and producers have sped off down the Silk Road to seek expansion prospects elsewhere. With this route blocked, the Chinese industry faces one fewer opportunity to avoid the crunch at home.

For more information of the cement industries in Central Asia read Global Cement's feature on the region from January 2016

Turkmentistan: Turkmenistan produced over 3Mt of cement from January to November 2015, exceeding its annual plant according to local media. Between 2007 and 2015 the country has increased its cement production by 3.8 times.

Turkmenistan: Turkmenistan has produced around 3.3Mt of cement since early 2015, in part due to the completion of a 1.4Mt/yr plant was put into operation by Turkish Polimeks in Lebap. The plant produces portland cement, oil well cement and sulphate-resistant cement used in hydraulic units. Polimeks also put into operation a similar plant in Balkan.