Global Cement News

US: The Portland Cement Association (PCA) forecasts that cement consumption growth will drop to 2.6% in 2019 and 1.6% in 2020. This compares to 2.9% in 2018. The PCA’s Market Intelligence Group has blamed the softening on rising interest rates, local financial problems at the state level and a general end to the recovery period following the financial crash in 2008.

“We are expecting relatively modest but sustained interest rate increases after 10 years of low and stable rates,” said PCA Senior Vice President and Chief Economist Ed Sullivan. “The Federal Reserve’s actions will gradually slow the construction sector’s growth due to, among other things, the higher mortgage rates for residential buildings and higher borrowing cost for non-residential buildings.” He added that tax cuts passed at the end of 2017 had boosted the overall economy but that rising debt levels was likely to frame the discussion of future federal public infrastructure spending.

El Salvador: Guatamala’s Cemento Regional has ordered a Plug&Grind modular grinding unit for a project in El Salvador. The project includes a Plug&Grind Classic, a modular packaging and palletising system, raw material and cement storage halls and silos for bulk dispatching. The new unit is scheduled to be commissioned in the first half of 2019. It will have a production capacity of 12t/hr.

Australia: Industry groups, including cement producers, are lobbying against a new import tax, the Biosecurity Imports Levy. They allege that that new tariff will increase costs by 3000 - 5000% on the inputs for cement, steel and aluminium production, according to the Australian newspaper. The new levy was introduced in the May 2018 budget for implementation in July 2019. It intends to tighten the country’s biosecurity.

Industry lobbyists complain that it will impose a US$0.7/t levy on ‘non-containerised’ cargo for biosecurity inspections, dramatically increasing the cost of inspection for bulk imports of materials. They also deny that it will improve biosecurity outcomes.

Cement Industry Federation chief executive Margie Thomson said that the tax unfairly punished non-containerised cargoes. “It shouldn’t be a tonnage levy, when the biosecurity risk is not­associated with the product.”

Kazakhstan/Uzbekistan: Kazakhstan’s SAS-Tobe Technologies has increased its exports to Uzbekistan. It is the first Kazakh manufacturer accredited at the Uzbek Commodity and Raw Materials Exchange, according to the Podrobno News Agency. The company has sold around 1500t through the exchange in the last two months. It now plans to export over 50% of its 0.25Mt/yr production capacity.

Uzbekistan: Cement production has fallen by 4.7% year-on-year to 5.6Mt in the first nine months of 2018 from 5.9Mt in the same period in 2017. The decline has been blamed on rising gas and electricity prices, according to the Trend News Agency. Energy prices have risen by at least 60% so far in 2018. 4.5Mt of production, or over 80%, was sold through the Uzbek Commodity Exchange.