Displaying items by tag: Vietnam

Vietnam: Holcim Vietnam has been officially renamed as Siam City Cement Vietnam following its acquisition by Thailand’s Siam City Cement. Holcim products will now be sold locally under the Insee brand, according to the Saigon Times. An agreement for Siam City Cement to buy LafargeHolcim’s 65% stake in Holcim Vietnam was announced in August 2016.

Vietnam: Tran Viet Thang, General Director of the Vietnam Cement Industry Corporation (VICEM), has blamed local taxes for increasing the cost of exports from the country. He blamed a government decision to exempt exported cement products from input value-added tax and a 5% export tax, according to the Viet Nam News newspaper. He also said that increasing input material costs and fluctuating foreign exchange rates had caused problems for exporters. Nguyen Quang Cung, Chairman of Vietnam Cement Association, added that cement export volumes had fallen by 5.9% year-on-year in 2016.

Vietnam has set an annual export target of 20 – 35% of the country’s total cement and clinker capacity by the year of 2030. Vietnam’s cement output is expected to reach 120 – 130Mt/yr by 2020 but local consumption is only expected to reach 93Mt/yr, leaving a significant excess.

Vietnam: Long Son plans to open its second production line at its Long Son cement plant in Thanh Hoa in late August 2017. The new line will more than double the plant’s production capacity to 5Mt/yr, according to the Viet Nam News newspaper. The company has spent US$176m on the new line.

Vietnam: Data from the General Department of Vietnam Customs has shown that exports of cement fell by 7.1% year-on-year to 14.7Mt in 2016 and by 16% year-on-year to US$561m in value. Bangladesh and the Philippines remained the major importers of cement and clinker from Vietnam in 2016, according to the Vietnam News newspaper. The Philippines imported 3.8Mt of cement and clinker worth US$185m from Vietnam in 2016 and Bangladesh imported 4.7Mt worth US$141m, accounting for 33% and 25.1% respectively of the country’s total clinker and cement exports in 2016. Increased competition in export markets has been blamed on rival products from Thailand and China.

Vietnam: Nguyen Quang Cung, chairman of the Vietnam Cement Association, has predicted that the country will face an oversupply of nearly 50Mt in 2020. The local industry’s cement production capacity was nearly 88Mt/yr in 2016. It is expected to reach 108Mt/yr in 2018 and up to 130Mt/yr in 2020, according to comments made by the association to the Saigon Times. Domestic demand is estimated to be 82Mt in 2020 thereby creating the shortfall. The association is also lobbying for a two-year delay in regulation changes made in 2016 that are expected to make exporting cement more expensive for producers.

Vietnam: Ha Tien is to close its cement grinding plant in the Thu Duc district of Ho Chi Minh City following failed attempts to move the plant. The cement producer was ordered to cease all operations at the plant by 31 December 2016, according to Vietnam News. The plant reduced its production capacity to 1Mt/yr from 1.7Mt/yr in 2015 following accusations of air pollution. Ha Tien attempted to move the plant to District 9 in 2016 but the proposal was turned down by city planners.

Vietnam: The Vietnam Building Material Association has predicted that revenue from cement exports is set to fall by 7% year-on-year to US$556m in 2016 from around 15Mt of cement and clinker. In the first 11 months of the year the country’s export volumes fell by 5.93% to 14Mt/yr. The decline has been blamed on competition from foreign companies inlcuding those in China, India, Pakistan and Thailand. The association also blamed the high cost of exports.

Vietnam: Vietnam’s exports of cement and clinker fell by 16.6% year-on-year to 11.3Mt in the first nine months of 2016. The value of the exports fell by 17.2% to US$429.3m. The Philippines, Bangladesh, Taiwan and Mozambique were among major importers of Vietnamese clinker and cement in the nine-month period, according to data from the Ministry of Industry and Trade. Local cement producers have faced competition from those in Thailand and China.

Vietnam: The Ministries of Industry and Trade and Natural Resources and Environment have started inspecting cement and thermal power plants following the discovery of various violations of environmental regulations at certain companies. A joint delegation from the two ministries will look into the production and waste treatment facilities of the factories, according to the Viet Nam News newspaper.

Trần Tuấn Anh, Minister of Industry and Trade, has also ordered companies regulated by his ministry to provide information on environmental protection to the media. Anh has made it mandatory for contractors and investors to complete environmental protection projects in accordance with the commitments stated in their environmental impact assessments released before operation starts. Producers are supposed to publicise information on their trials so that local authorities and residents can supervise them.

Vietnam: Deputy Prime Minister Trinh Dinh Dung has asked the ministries of industry and construction to revise the zoning plan for mineral mining for cement production and the cement industry development strategy to meet actual demand. The Ministry of Construction has said that the zoning plan to 2020, which was originally approved in 2010, needs changing following recent geological surveys, according to the Vietnam News Agency. The ministry is also compiling a cement industry development strategy for the 2017 - 2035 period with a vision towards 2025.

The construction ministry will collaborate with provinces and cities to look into the investment and exploitation of minerals for cement production, supply and demand for clinker and cement as well as using heat at cement plants for electricity generation. The country has 70 operational cement production lines with a production capacity of 82Mt/yr but consumption is 72Mt/yr. The government has approved shutting down 14 cement plants with a daily capacity of less than 2500t of clinker each, equivalent to 910,000t/yr, from the strategy since 2011.