CDM Mexico which is currently embroiled in the Mary Nour case has stated it will eventually start up a clinker grinding operation costing some US$30m using imported clinker but in the meantime will press the authorities to release its ship and allow it to discharge the 27,000t of cement on board. However, the National Chamber of Cement (Canacem) argued that CDM doesn’t have the requisite import permits and that CDM would sell cement at dumping prices.
"CDM has not fulfilled the Mexican norms for such imports", Osmín Rendón, general director of the Canacem, (representing Cemex, Apasco, Lafarge, GCC Cemento and Corporación Moctezuma) said. Ricardo Camacho, general director of CDM, responded that the company made contracts to sell cement to several companies at US$110 per ton in bulk, and he has all the permits. But Rendón replied that the average market price of cement in bulk in Mexico is between US$105 and US$108 per ton. "It is illogical to think of a lower price, or they are not presenting all the requisite information", he noted.
Camacho said that he bought the cement in Russia at US$33/ton that the cost of the transportation per ton is US$30 and that he paid 13 per cent (import) taxes, that added to the payments for port infrastructure, floating silos and internal transportation. The operation would give him a 10 per cent positive margin, in a country with much higher prices.
CDM said that it is willing to pay a guarantee, even for the total value of the Mary Nour’s merchandise, which is US$1.65m, while the case is solved legally. It will also appeal to the Federal Commission of Competition (Cofeco).
