Panama: The Ministry of Commerce and Industries (MICI) is planning to introduce regulations testing cement imports for Hexavalent chromium (chromium VI). Edgar Arias, Director of Standards and Industrial Technology of the MICI, said at a trade forum that the new rules had been agreed, according to La Estrella de Panamá newspaper. At present cement is tested at the discretion of the importer. Under the new regulations cement will be tested before it leaves its country of origin, when it arrives in Panama and for a third time at the point of sale at the discretion of the authorities.

Panama imports 10,000 – 20,000t/month of cement from countries including China, Turkey and Vietnam. Around 20 importers handle the market. Import tax on cement ranges from 10 – 20% depending on the point of origin.

Kuwait: Kuwait Cement has made its first delivery of oil well cement to National Petroleum Services. It is producing the product at its Shuaiba plant, according to the Arab Times newspaper. It holds API Monogram licencing from American Petroleum Institute (API) to produce this type of cement.

Egypt: Suez Cement’s Kattameya plant has been damaged by the collapse of a soil barrier around a nearby wastewater treatment lake. The incident caused a flood of 1.5Mm³ of treated water that reached the edge of the cement plant. The plant’s quarry, some power cables and lighting and a road was damaged. No members of staff at the plant were hurt.

The subsidiary of HeidelbergCement estimates that the flood caused around Euro0.5m worth of damage. It says that it previously raised the issue of the wastewater treatment lake with its owner in 2010 following a risk assessment. This led to the construction of the soil barriers.

Ivory Coast: Imports of clinker rose by 2.3% year-on-year to 3.10Mt in 2018 from 3.03Mt in 2017. The value of the product increased by 9.7% to US$162m from US$148m, according to Connection Ivoirienne. Clinker surpassed crude oil as the most imported commodity by volume into the country in 2017.