Displaying items by tag: market

India: Ratings agency Crisil has forecast all-Indian cement consumption growth of 11% year-on-year to 440Mt during the current financial year, which ends on 31 March 2024. Crisil attributed this to a 51% year-on-year rise in infrastructure spending, to US$6.75bn throughout the year. Press Trust of India News has reported that infrastructure projects currently account for 30% of all cement consumption.

South Korea/Egypt: The South Korean government plans to implement a 72% import duty on white cement from Egypt. Yonhap News has reported that the Korea Trade Commission (KTC) recommended the duty as an anti-dumping measure, following its investigation into the impacts of Egyptian imports on the South Korean white cement industry. This consists of Union Corporation’s 200,000t/yr Chongju white cement plant in North Chungcheong.

South Korea consumed 100,000t of white cement in 2022. Egyptian white cement commanded a 10% (10,000t) market share. The domestic cement industry complained to the KTC against Royal El Minya Cement and Albatros International Cement Trading in March 2023. An additional probe will now follow to assess the correct rate for the duty.

Peru: The Central Reserve Bank of Peru expects national cement consumption to fall by 3.7% in 2023. The Gestión newspaper has reported that demand declined month-on-month over seven successive months up to August 2023. It fell by a double-digit figure year-on-year in the first half of 2023. In August 2023, imports of cement declined by 95% month-on-month, to 2000t from 38,000t.

Peruvian Chamber of Construction executive director Guido Valdivia said "The first factor to consider is El Niño. If it starts in November 2023, it will affect construction output in 2023; if it is postponed to 2024, we expect a drop of only 3.3% in 2023.″ The Peruvian Property Developers’ Association (ASEI) forecast a 4% drop in construction output in 2023, followed by growth of 3.2% in 2024.

Grupo Gloria’s vice president, cement, concrete and lime, Luis Díaz told investors that the gap between Peruvian cement production and consumption will close ‘substantially’ during the remaining months of 2023, due to raised demand from infrastructure projects.

The core of the Caribbean cement industry consists of the Dominican Republic (with 5.9Mt/yr in integrated capacity), Cuba (4.7Mt/yr) and Jamaica (3.5Mt/yr). Haiti and Trinidad & Tobago also command small, single integrated plants, while there are numerous grinding plants and cement terminals along the region’s extensive coastlines. The industry has been the subject of new commercial and capital expenditure-related announcements in the past fortnight. Regarding the Caribbean’s cement producers, these developments seem to lack a single clear direction.

Caribbean market leader Cemex revealed that it was considering selling up in the region’s largest market, the Dominican Republic, on 1 September 2023. Bloomberg cited unnamed sources stating that the Mexico-based cement giant hired financial services JPMorgan Chase to explore the possible divestment of local subsidiary Cemex Dominicana. Exactly one year had passed since Cemex completed its sale of Cemex Costa Rica and Cemex El Salvador to Guatemala-based Cementos Progreso for US$329m. Sources clued in on the latest development reportedly expect Cemex Dominicana to command a selling price three times greater than the Central American divestments combined.

Cemex has discussed its scattered disposal of global assets since 2019 as a strategic realignment towards its main markets, in particular those in North America and Europe. On this understanding, the Caribbean straddles an invisible line between Cemex’s strategic core in North America and Central America on its periphery.

Just to the north of the line lies Jamaica. There, Cemex subsidiary Caribbean Cement will expand its Rockfort cement plant by 30% to 1.3Mt/yr through a US$40m upgrade, scheduled for completion in early 2025. Late last week, Caribbean Cement told investors that the upgrade will equip the plant with new equipment, including a new dosing system. The producer expects this to help the Rockfort plant to further increase its alternative fuel (AF) substitution rate. It co-processed 5.6% AF in its kiln during the first half of 2023, more than double its first-half 2022 substitution rate of 2.7%. Caribbean Cement began exporting cement to Turks and Caicos on 16 September 2023, and plans to increase its shipments there and elsewhere. Managing director Yago Castro reassured Jamaicans that Caribbean Cement would also continue to help meet domestic demand.

Currently, Caribbean Cement and fellow Jamaican producer Cement Jamaica compete in the domestic market against imports, including some cement from Dominican Republic-based Domicem. This enters the country via Buying House Cement’s Montego Bay terminal. Montego Bay Cold Storage, an affiliate of Buying House Cement, shared plans for a second, US$8m cement terminal in the city earlier in 2023. The facility is expected to help meet growing demand from residential and hospitality sector construction.

More new production capacity is soon to come online in the form of a 1.23Mt/yr grinding plant in the Dominican Republic. Cemento PANAM will own and operate the plant, while Germany-based Gebr. Pfeiffer will supply a 3750 C-4 vertical roller mill via engineering, procurement and construction contractor CBMI Construction.

In a market where the nearest cement exporter is only a short sail over the horizon, producers have to compete fiercely for their market shares, even at home. Disputes over Caribbean Community member states’ rights to protect domestic cement production have gone as high as the Caribbean Court of Justice. It ended Barbados-based Rock Hard Cement’s hopes of resuming exports to Trinidad & Tobago last year.

The Caribbean’s cement producers will be acutely aware of Cementos Argos’ planned expansion of its north-facing Cartagena, Colombia, cement export facility, hot on the heels of a previous, US$42m expansion. The South American giant says that it is targeting the US, where it anticipates an upcoming construction boom. Caribbean countries present other possible markets for producers like Cementos Argos, yet their cement industries might equally emulate any successes it enjoys in the US. Like Argos in Colombia, Jamaica’s Caribbean Cement is part of a group with an existing presence in the US. Its on-going investments in the Rockfort plant signal a readiness to catch the trade winds rapidly picking up in the Caribbean.

Jamaica: Caribbean Cement plans to increase its exports of its cement. The Gleaner newspaper has reported that the company announced its successful despatch of a 3400t shipment of cement to Turks and Caicos on 16 September 2023. The shipment consisted of 2267 jumbo bags of its higher early strength cement.

Managing director Yago Castro reassured Jamaicans that Caribbean Cement would continue to prioritise the domestic market. He continued “However, there is a market out there for us. We will actively look for opportunities to reallocate the spare capacity to the export market."

France: Hoffmann Green Cement Technologies reported revenues of Euro1.68m during the first half of 2023, more than triple those recorded in the first half of 2022 (Euro544,000). The producer’s sales volumes of its clinkerless cement also more than tripled, to 7340t. It says it is on course to achieve its full-year 2023 target of 24,000t. The commissioning of its H2 plant in France raised the company’s installed production capacity by 250,000t.

Co-founders Julien Blanchard and David Hoffmann said "Thanks to the daily work of all our teams, we are accelerating the marketing of our innovative clinker-free cement in a construction market with demand for truly carbon-free solutions. Considering the seasonality of our sales, we intend to intensify the transformation of our order book into sales during the second half of 2023.”

South Africa: The cement industry produced 13Mt of cement during the 2023 financial year, which ended on 31 March 2023. This corresponds to a capacity utilisation rate of 59% across its 22Mt/yr installed capacity. The Business Day newspaper has reported that the industry competes in the domestic market against imports that are 40% lower in price.

Russia: A court has accepted a request by the Prosecutor General’s Office to drop a claim for the appropriation of Russian assets of Germany-based Heidelberg Materials by the Russian government. The assets include shares in cement producers HeidelbergCement Rus and Shale Cement Plant Cesla, as well as minerals producers Gurovo-Beton and Syryevaya Kompaniya.

A lawyer for the prosecutor’s office said “The state's interests can be protected by other lawful means.”

Heidelberg Materials suspended new investments in its Russian business on 10 March 2022. The Prosecutor General’s Office subsequently requested its expropriation, following which a court froze the assets in August 2023. Interfax News has reported that representatives of Heidelberg Materials’ Russian business then made an undertaking to the Russian government, according to which they would maintain their prices, production volumes and number of employees.

Pakistan: Data from the All Pakistan Manufacturers Association (APCMA) shows that local cement industry recorded a 37% year-on-year surge in dispatches during August 2023, with total shipments reaching 4.52Mt, up from just 3.29Mt in August 2022. While impressive on the surface, this appears to represent a return to normality following nationwide disruption due to massive flooding in the summer of 2022.

The APCMA’s data shows that a significant driver of this growth was the domestic market, where cement dispatches rose by 30% to 3.79Mt, compared to 2.91Mt in August 2022. Simultaneously, exports surged by 87%, with volumes growing from 387,440t in August 2022 to 724,777t in August 2023.

Cement plants in the north of Pakistan dispatched 3.25Mt in August 2023, marking a 25% increase from the 2.0Mt dispatched in August 2022. In the southern region, plants dispatched 1.27Mt of cement, an 81% rise compared to the 700,436 tonnes in August 2022.
Exports from northern-based plants increased by 79%, from 91,963t in August 2022 to 164,195t in August 2023. Similarly, southern mills reported a significant increase, with exports surging by 90% to 560,582t in August 2023, up from 295,477t during the same month in the previous year.

An APCMA spokesperson emphasised the industry's challenges, including rapid currency depreciation, soaring petroleum prices and rising electricity tariffs. These factors are driving up production costs and affecting transportation, potentially impacting consumer prices. The spokesperson urged the government to address these issues to support the industry as it navigates this ‘challenging terrain.’

Argentina: Cement production in the province of Buenos Aires rose by 11% year-on-year between January and July 2023, to reach 4.18Mt. This was the highest first seven-month figure since 2012.

However, the capital was not representative of the wider national picture. Across Argentina, consumption fell by 0.3% year-on-year over the seven months to 7.22Mt. Production fell by 0.7Mt to 7.25Mt over the same timeframe.