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Six cement makers fined for price rigging in South Korea 05 January 2016
South Korea: South Korea's antitrust watchdog has fined six local cement makers a combined US$168m for fixing the prices of cement products and divvying up the market, according to Dow Jones.
According to the Fair Trade Commission (FTC), cement companies have allegedly colluded to rig the prices of cement products by controlling output and market share in 2011. The suspected companies are Ssangyong Cement Industry Co., Tongyang Cement & Energy Corp., Hanil Cement Co., Sungshin Cement Co., Hyundai Cement Co. and Asia Cement Co. Ssangyong was set to take 22.9% of the total market share, while Tongyang and Hanil were in charge of 15.1% and 14.9%, respectively.
"Managers of the six companies had regular monthly meetings to oversee whether or not the members had complied with the arranged shipments," said the FTC. The prices of cements surged by 43% year-on-year in April 2012.
Industry leader Ssangyong was slapped with US$73.6m of fines, followed by Hanil with US$34.5m and Sungshin with US$36.7m. Tongyang was exempted from the penalty, as the cement maker has been under court receivership since October 2013.
The FTC said that it will strictly crack down on price-rigging practices in backbone industries to build sound market order and fair competition.
Egypt: Minister of Industry and Foreign Trade Tarek Qabil announced that the ministry would issue conditions for tender documents and requirement specifications of cement production in the coming days to meet the future needs of the local market.
The Minister said that the Cabinet has recently approved defining a fixed value for the cement licences paid to the government based on economic feasibility. The government will also be accepting qualified applicants. Qabil added that issuing new cement licenses would contribute to filling future demand, which is expected to reach 90.4Mt by 2022.
Qabil also noted the importance of the cement plants' compliance with the environmental standards and requirements set by the Ministry of Environment, especially in light of the plants dependence on coal.
Peru: The Peruvian division of Mexican cement company Cemex has received approval from the Ministry of Production for the environmental impact assessment (EIA) requested for the development of a cement grinding and packaging plant in Ventanilla, Callao.
Tianjin Cement Industry Design & Research Institute orders two Loesche LM 53.3+3 CS mills for PT Semen Baturaja 05 January 2016
Indonesia: Tianjin Cement Industry Design & Research Institute Co., Ltd. has placed an order for two type LM 53.3+3 CS LOESCHE mills for clinker grinding for PT Semen Baturaja. Each of the clinker grinding mills has a designed a capacity of 175t/hr and material is ground to a fineness of 3400 Blaine. Each mill is fitted with a gearbox with a power of 4200kW.
The lead time for the main components of the mill is nine months and the gearboxes are supplied within 12 months.
Gas shortage cripples 35% of Iran's cement production 04 January 2016
Iran: About 35% of Iran's cement kilns, or 30 – 35 of a total of 97 kilns at 71 cement plants, are not working due to the gas shortage and technical problems, reported Abdolreza Sheikhan, Secretary of Iran's Cement Industry Employers Association on 2 January 2016.
Iran's cement sector is suffering a gas shortage, according to Sheikhan. He said that the country's cement output has decreased by 10 – 12% in 21 March 2015 – 21 November 2015. Sheikhan has forecast that Iran's annual cement output will fall by some 12% compared to the preceding fiscal year, which ended on 21 March 2015. During the year, Iran produced over 61Mt of cement.
The National Iranian Gas Company has stopped supplying gas to a number of cement plants due to a wave of cold weather. However, the ongoing problem is not due to output shortage, but because of a delay in inaugurating a projected compressor station, according to Iranian media. It was already planned that the country's gas transmission capacity would increase by 80Mm3/day in 2016 by installing five compressor stations en route to the transmission pipeline, but the stations have not become fully operational yet.