Blended cement is the focus of this month’s Technical Forum, namely the complexities of understanding its classification and labelling under the European EN 197 system. The moderator also takes a look at the reasons for the high level of blending activities in inland South Africa and why tensions in the domestic market have led to consolidation with cement producers acquiring cement blenders or setting up their own operations.
Having recently spent a considerable amount of time in South Africa, the moderator has noted many interesting aspects to the domestic cement industry and market. Among them is a mixture of regional markets with different trading conditions, long established incumbents with aggressive new entrants in some of those regional markets, low thermal energy costs in the main, inland market, limestone reserves and clinker manufacturing plants distant from the main population centres, and an extensive rail network for clinker, cement and raw material distribution.
