Cement News tagged: International
Petcoke ban lifted for the cement industry
The Supreme Court of India has relaxed its ban on the use of petcoke and allowed it to be used in the cement and limestone industries. The Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) and the Environmental Pollution Control Authority (EPCA) both agreed that the use of petcoke in cement is not harmful due to the absorption of sulphur in the cement production process, according to the Financial...
Punjab government proposes ban on new cement plants in Potohar
The Punjab government has proposed to ban the establishment of new cement factories in the Potohar region of Pakistan, according to the Nation. This proposal has been attributed to the noticeable decline in groundwater levels alongside an increase in pollution. The Department of Industries, Commerce and Investment has supplied a summary to the Chief Minister’s Office, requesting the cement...
Zambian economic zone to establish cement plant
A US$500m cement plant is expected to be set up near the Lusaka South Multi-facility Economic Zone (LS-MFEZ). The plant will help in boost development at the zone through provision of cement in line with the requirements of industry and infrastructure under construction in the area. LS-MFEZ Acting Managing Director, Mukela Lubasi, said on Monday that with the ongoing developments at MFEZ, i...
Uzbekistan cement only to be sold through exchanges
Uzbekistan’s monopoly enterprises will sell cement only through exchange auctions from 1 January 2018, according to a new resolution of the country’s government on the production and consumption of cement in 2018. It is expected that 8.44Mt of cement will be sold to domestic customers in this way. The volumes not sold during the first trades will be put up for sale again within a month befor...
Akranes cement plant to be demolished
The cement plant in Akranes, west Iceland, will be demolished, according to reports by the country’s broadcaster RÚV. The demolition crews moved in earlier this week and has received widespread support from the town’s 7000 residents, some of whom have been linked to the plant for generations. “Generally, everyone believes [the plant] should go. It has deteriorated and I think everyone is in...
Ho Chi Minh City concerned over cement shortages
Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh City has expressed concern of a potential shortage of cement and construction sand in 2020, according to the Saigon Times. Tran Trong Tuan, director of the Ministry of Construction, said the city had currently 10 cement grinding plants with a capacity of over 10Mta but if all grinding units are forced to move out of the city by 2020 to prevent environmental pollution ce...
Puerto Rican cement sales fall 16% in November
Overall cement sales in Puerto Rico fell by 15.8 per cent YoY in November, representing a modes improvements when compared with the previous two months. Output from Puerto Rico's cement plants decreased 24.1 per cent YoY, following a drop of 52.9 per cent reported the previous month. In 2016 cement sales fell 12.3 per cent YoY while production saw an 11.5 per cent decrease during the sam...
Cement plants in Pakistan reach 95% capacity utilisation
Cement plants in Pakistan reached 94.65 per cent capacity utilisation during the July-November period of 2017, according to The Nation. In November 2017 the country recorded a 9.89 per cent increase in domestic consumption. In the same month, mills in the northern region of Pakistan dispatched 2.9Mta locally which is a 10.2 per cent increase YoY. However, November 2017 also saw exports fro...
Vietnamese cement sales rise by 3.5% in first 11 months
Vietnam sold 72.79Mt of cement in the first eleven months of this year, a rise of 3.5 per cent from a year earlier and this fulfilled 91 per cent of the full-year target. Of the total, 55.63Mt were sold domestically, up two per cent YoY, while 17.3Mt were exported, rising two per cent YoY, the Dau Tu Chung Khoan newspaper reported Monday. However, export taxes have made cost increase by ...
Nepal sees an increase in capacity utilisation
Nepal's manufacturing industries utilised 57.3 per cent of their capacity on average in FY16-17 that concluded in mid-July, acording to an "Economic Activities Study Report 2016-17" released by the Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB). There has been strong rebound in capacity utilisation of industries producing construction materials such as iron steel and cement. "Improved electricity supply and har...
Nepal's clinker import cost rises 33%
The cost of importing clinker to Nepal rose by 33 per cent in the first four months of the current financial year due to increased demand, reports The Kathmandu Post. The demand surge has been attributed to reconstruction work following earthquakes in 2015 and upcoming hydropower projects. In the July-November 2017 period NPR3.2bn (US$30.9m) was spent on importing 0.34Mt of clinker through B...
Argentina's cement consumption up 17% YoY in November
The Argentine cement market expanded 16.5 per cent in November 2017 with consumption increasing to 1,179,763t from 1,013,083t, according to the latest data from the country’s cement producers' association, AFCP. When compared with October 2017, domestic demand edged up 2.5 per cent from 1,150,794t. Cement production increased 15.4 per cent YoY to 1,174,989t in November from 1,017,760t in No...
Pakistan's dispatches reach 18.5Mt during 5MFY18
Initial data from local research houses suggests that Pakistan cement manufacturers dispatched 18.5Mt during 5MFY18, taking cumulative capacity utilisation to 95 per cent during five months period from July to November 2017. According to local research house reports, cement dispatches in November 2017 alone are expected to surge by five per cent YoY to 3.94Mt. Cement mills situated in the...
Call to investigate recent local price hikes in China
Some Chinese cement producers and suppliers were taking advantage of Beijing’s environmental crackdown to artificially hike prices, according to the Wuhan Concrete (Mortar) Association. This has led to the suspension of some construction projects. "Particularly upstream cement producers and suppliers have taken the opportunity to exaggerate the impact from the environmental crackdown and ou...
Indonesian cement demand up 13% in October
The Indonesia cement market expanded 12.5 per cent YoY to 6.754Mt in October 2017, according to data from the Indonesian Cement Association (ASI). The key market of Java reported a 17 per cent increase with local demand rising from 3.202Mt in October 2016 to 3.745Mt one year later with growth particularly robust in Banten, West and Central Java. Indonesia’s second-largest market, Sumat...
Possible power price hike to increase Vietnamese production costs by US$35m
Vietnamese cement producers can expect a production cost rise by around VND800bn (US$35.2m) annually if a hike in power prices comes into effect, according to local industry sources. Vietnam’s Prime Minister, Nguyễn Xuân Phúc, recently approved a 6.08 per cent rise in retail electricity prices to VNC1720.65/kWh (excluding VAT), effective from 1 December. If the price hike is extended to...