Cement News tagged: International
Cement demand in Spain falls 9% in January
Spanish cement consumption declined 8.6 per cent in January 2020 to 1,035,484t when compared with the year-ago period. The latest fall represents the third-consecutive month of decreases, not seen since the last quarter of 2016, according to Oficemen. In the rolling year until January 2020 the growth of domestic cement demand slipped 1.4 percentage points to 4.5 per cent YoY. "The beginnin...
TÇMB re-elects chairman and announces export success
The Turkish Cement Manufacturers’ Association (TÇMB) has re-elected Dr Tamer Saka as its chairman, with Dr Saka having already served in the role since July 2019. Following his re-election, Dr Saka highlighted the successes of the country’s cement export industry in 2019. "The total export of clinker and cement in 2019 increased 68 per cent and realised as 23Mt. The total export value of the ...
Energy-related CO2 emissions remain flat in 2019
Global energy-related carbon dioxide emissions stopped growing at around 33Gt in 2019, despite the world economy expanding by 2.9 per cent, according to the International Energy Agency’s (IEA) global CO 2 emission report. In advanced economies, total energy-related CO 2 emissions fell by 3.2 per cent to 11.3Gt from 11.7Gt. The decline in emissions has been attributed to milder weather in lar...
Brent oil prices expected to average US$62/bbl in 2020
Brent oil is forecast to average US$62/bbl in 2020 on the back of voluntary (Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, UAE) and involuntary (Iran, Venezuela) declines in OPEC supply, according to a Bank of America (BofA) Global Research report. OPEC supply is expected to decline 1.2mbpd from the 4Q19 into the 4Q20, however, a roughly stable output is then seen through to 2025. The BofA report also projects Brent...
Railway and tax measures expected to impact Pakistan's cement sector
The development of a railway line from a coalfield in Thar, Sindh province, to link to the rest of country, the start of a cargo train to Afghanistan and government measures to trace cement dispatches are expected to impact indirectly on the progress of the cement industry in Pakistan. A 105km-long railway line will be laid from Chhor to Islamkot to transport coal from Thar coalfield to the ...
Azerbaijan sees cement production decline in January
Azerbaijan has recorded a 24 per cent YoY fall in cement production to 191,900t in January 2020, according to the country’s State Statistical Committee. However, ready-mix concrete output advanced 21.7 per cent YoY to 114,900t. The volume of building bricks climbed 8.3 per cent to 37,200m 3 and the production of prefabricated structures also increased 19.4 per cent to 3,700m 3 . Overall, t...
Legislative Assembly approves Costa Rican cement tax
In the first debate, Costa Rica’s Legislative Assembly has approved a bill that seeks a five per cent tax on the sale of all cement. The initiative establishes that the tax will be on all bulk and bagged cement that is destined for consumption or marketing at the national level, according to the Legislative Assembly. If produced domestically, the manufacturer of the product will be liabl...
Pakistan's cement industry likely to grow at average rate of 5%
Pakistan's cement industry is likely to grow at an average rate of five per cent in coming 4-5 years, anticipates by local research house. Analysts assumed local cement dispatches at 41.77Mt and export sales at 8.03Mt in FY20 with total cement dispatches due to grow by 3-6 per cent annually during FY22-25. Historically cement sector has performed exceptionally well by posting a five-year CAG...
GCCA launches 'Concrete Stories' campaign
The Global Cement and Concrete Association (GCCA) and its member companies have launched ‘Concrete Stories’ a major new global communications campaign that aims to increase awareness of the vital role concrete plays in everyday life. The initial campaign will run for six weeks and will be featured primarily on GCCA's social media channels. The campaign aims to engage members of the public by ...
Indian cement producers expect higher-sulphur petcoke import in 2020
India’s cement sector is expected to increase its imports of high-sulphur petcoke in 2020 as it aims to boost production, according to company executives. Indian use of petcoke as an alternative to coal for the cement industry rose marginally in 2019 after a first-time decline in nearly a decade in 2018. Sanjay Kumar, strategic sourcing director at LafargeHolcim Energy Solutions, said he sa...
Malaysia's construction sector to grow by 4% in 2020
Malaysia's construction sector will expand by 3.5 per cent, in real terms, in 2020, according to a report by Fitch Solutions. Nominal growth of the country’s construction sector hit 1.1 per cent in 2019, but in real terms, a flatline growth rate of 0.04 per cent YoY was reported. Fitch expects the sector’s growth to expand, as construction activity across both the infrastructure and buildings...
Heavy rains impact Brazil's January cement sales performance
Cement sales in Brazil during January 2020 fell by 0.9 per cent YoY to 4.5Mt as heavy rains in the north and southeast impaired performance, the National Union of the Cement Industry (SNIC) has said. When based on the number of working days, domestic sales were also down by 0.9 per cent compared to January 2018. Apparent cement consumption (ie, domestic sales plus imports) totalled 4.5Mt i...
Colacem proposed plant hearing date set
The Local Planning Appeal Tribunal (LPAT) case involving the proposed Colacem cement plant in Champlain Township, in eastern Ontario, Canada, will be heard beginning on 2 November 2020 for four weeks, local media have reported. The case involves two appeals connected to the proposed plant, according to an article published in The Review (Canada). Champlain Township council rejected the zoning...
Italcementi presents fast-setting cement mixture for 3D printing
Italcementi has presented a new concrete mixture developed specifically for construction 3D printing applications at the BAUTEC conference in Berlin, Germany. The new mixture is developed to be fast setting, to enable deposition of more complex geometries, and also more sustainable, in line with the company's targets for more sustainable construction processes. Italcementi, part of the Heid...
FDI grows in Pakistan but cement and construction sectors lag behind
Pakistan received a net total foreign direct investment (FDI) of US$1.563bn during first seven months of FY19-20 (July 2019 - January 2020) compared to US$943.6m in the comparative period of a year earlier. This represents an increase of 65.70 per cent YoY, mainly due to a high inflow of investment from China, Norway, Japan, Malta, South Korea and other countries in all sectors, according to t...
The 15th Cemtech MEA opens in Dubai
The 15th Cemtech MEA conference and exhibition has opened at the Grand Hyatt Dubai, UAE. Thomas Armstrong, managing editor of ICR, started proceedings by welcoming delegates to Dubai and also provided an update on the cement markets of the GCC. The GCC markets are currently facing the issue of large-scale oversupply, with the region hitting a peak demand level in 2015. Total capacity increa...