Displaying items by tag: Uzbekistan

Uzbekistan: South Korea-based Caris is considering build a cement plant in the Beruni region of Karakalpakstan. This follows the completion of geological studies in conjunction with the local government, according to the Dunyo News Agency. Caris is now working on a feasibility study for the project before arranging finance.

Uzbekistan: Akhangarantsement says that it has installed a ThyssenKrupp raw materials grinding unit at the site of an upcoming 5Mt/yr integrated cement plant in Tashkent Region. The equipment consists of a jaw crusher for primary crushing and a hammer mill for secondary crushing. The company said that the upcoming plant will “provide the market with a line of high-quality products for the construction of housing, industrial and infrastructure facilities.”

Uzbekistan: China-based Huaxin Cement has successfully ignited the kiln at its 2Mt/yr Jizzakh cement plant in Jizzakh Oblast. 200 employees attended the plant’ opening ceremony, which was streamed by video link to Huaxin Cement’s global headquarters in Wuhan Province. Huaxin Cement president Li Yeqing said, “Everyone has done a very good job, demonstrating the company's strength and personnel capabilities.” Trial operation had been due to begin in April 2020, but was delayed due to the coronavirus outbreak.

Uzbekistan: The government has announced the sale of shares in UzAssets, an investment company founded to privatise its 36% stake in Qizilqumsement. The Information Agency of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Uzbekistan (DUNYO) has reported that Qizilqumsement is a 51% subsidiary of Uzpromstroymaterialy, with the remainder held by private minority shareholders. Qizilqumsement operates the 3.8Mt/yr Qizilqumsement cement plant in Navoi, Navoiy Region.

Uzbekistan: JV Pro Euro Cement has announced the start of construction of an integrated cement plant in Namangan Region. Trend News Agency has reported that Czech Republic-based PSP Engineering will oversee procurement, construction and installation of the plant, with the support of Netherlands-based Arona International. The plant’s scheduled completion date is in mid-2023.

Uzbekistan: Russia-based Eurocement subsidiary Akhangaran Cement said that it shipped 180,000t of cement in May 2020, up by 11% year-on-year from 163,000t in May 2019. Uzbekistan Newsline has reported that the increase resulted from a combination of production modernisation, business process efficiency improvement and personnel training and development.

Akhangaran Cement general director Gennady Kulikov said, “Despite the special mode of operation associated with the coronavirus pandemic, the enterprise team at all stages of the technological process is set to work efficiently. Together with the achievements of high production results, employees pay special attention to ensuring industrial safety, production culture and organisation of workplaces.” The Akhangaran Cement cement plant’s new 3.0Mt integrated line is due for completion in mid-late 2020. It will enable the company to serve 100% of demand in the Toshkent region and 30% of Uzbekistan’s total domestic demand of 17.3Mt/yr.

Exports are the theme this week with news that the value of Turkey’s cement exports fell by 26% year-on-year in April 2020. Reporting from the Trend News Agency showed that the export market has been stable so far for the year to date, with some countries, like Kazakhstan, increasing exports and others, like France, decreasing exports. However the change in April may mark the start of a new trend.

As Tamer Saka, the chairman of the Turkish Cement Manufacturers’ Association (TÇMB), said earlier in the year, his country is one of biggest cement exporters in the world and among its most important markets are the US, Israel, Ghana and Ivory Coast. To look at one of these countries, United States Geology Survey (USGS) data shows that cement and clinker imports from Turkey to the US grew by 26% year-on-year to 1Mt for the first quarter of 2020 but that exports fell by 24% year-on-year to 0.11Mt in March 2020. Each of these countries is being affected in different ways by the coronavirus pandemic and at different times. Overall though, Saka’s and the TÇMB’s forecast in February 2020 that exports would rise by 15% year-on-year in 2020 is looking decidedly shaky. Any knock to the export market in Turkey is particularly unwanted given the poor state of the Turkish economy at the moment.

What would be useful to know here is how other major cement exporters are coping with the global situation. Data from the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics shows that Pakistan’s cement exports dropped by 31% year-on-year to 0.36Mt in April 2020. Data from the All Pakistan Cement Manufacturers Association (APCMA) for the same month tells a similar story. Its data shows a 57% drop in exports to 0.25Mt in April 2020, with a bigger share lost by plants in the north of the country than those in the south.

The other country to note is Vietnam. Here, data from the General Department of Vietnam Customs shows that cement exports fell by 9.7% year-on-year to 7.73Mt in the first quarter of 2020. This follows the announcement by Vietnam Cement Association (VCA) chair Nguyễn Quang Cung in May 2020 that all cement plant projects scheduled to begin in 2020 would be suspended. Luckily those currently being built avoided this fate. This has included a new line at Thanh Thang Group Cement’s integrated Bong Lang cement plant, which Germany’s Loesche has just sent a pair of clinker mills to this week.

These changes from the major cement exporters are bad for their host countries but the other side of the chain is how their destinations are affected. For example, Australia’s clinker imports nearly doubled between 2010 – 2011 and 2018 – 2019 to 4.1Mt. This compares to local clinker production of 5.6Mt in 2018 – 2019, according to the Cement Industry Federation and the Australian Bureau of Statistics. With this in mind, this week saw the resolution to a legal dispute between Wagners Holdings and Boral over a cement supply contract. Boral found a cheaper source of cement from Cement Australia in early 2019 and the two parties argued over their contract. This dispute may have nothing to do with foreign import levels but Wagners Holdings, Boral and Cement Australia all operate standalone clinker grinding plants and will all be subject to general market pricing trends. Higher international clinker levels may add pressure to pricing issues surrounding cement supply contracts in Australia and elsewhere.

Finally, cement trade flows aren’t the only commodity that has been affected by coronavirus disruption. The mass movement of workers home and then back to work is expected to complicate India’s return to business, as discussed in last week’s column. In this context it’s pleasing to come across one sign of normality. Local press in Hubei, China reported this week that workers from Huaxin Cement finally flew back to Uzbekistan. They were originally meant to commission a new plant in March 2020 but became stranded at home when they returned for the Chinese New Year. Commissioning of the plant is now planned for later in June 2020.

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Uzbekistan: Huaxin Cement has announced that 112 of its employees took the first charter flight from Hubei Province since the coronavirus lockdown began, arriving in Jizzakh, Jizzakh Oblast on 6 June 2020. Hubei Daily News has reported that Huaxin Cement’s upcoming 1.5Mt/yr integrated Jizzakh cement plant, previously scheduled for commissioning in March 2020, will now start operation in June 2020. Huaxin Cement thanked the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Civil Aviation authority for their support.

Uzbekistan: Imported cement has begun to enter Uzbekistan after the government ended a ban on the ‘import of cement products’ on 23 May 2020. Uzbekistan Daily News has reported that the protectionist measure was lifted due to a spike in cement demand from the construction sector following an easing in the country’s coronavirus lockdown.

Uzbekistan: Namangan Cement has announced the beginning of work at its 0.3Mt/yr integrated cement plant in Namangan region on a second line to boost the plant’s capacity to 1.2Mt/yr. The National News Agency of Uzbekistan has reported that the project will be completed in late 2021, creating 250 jobs. It will cost US$49m, of which Namangan Cement will provide US$14m directly, with the remaining US$35m taken on loan from Hamkorbank.