Nepal: new government certification for cement

The Nepali government will start the certification of domestic cement brands according to quality in three months’ time, enabling them to compete in the market with foreign cement brands.

Certification will be carried out with cement falling under one of three categories: 33, 43 and 53.

At present the government does not have any legal provision to certify cement that is graded higher than 33 and therefore, all cement brands in Nepal are certified as 33-grade although producers have been claiming that some brands are of higher quality.

"We are in the last stage of finalising the draft of quality certification for domestic cement brands," Bishwo Babu Pudasaini, director general of Nepal Bureau of Standards and Metrology (NBSM) told The Himalayan Times, adding that NBSM will begin certifying cement within three months.
Once NBSM finalises quality certification draft, it will be sent to Nepal Standard Council (NSC) for final approval. NSC is headed by the industry minister.

As of now, NBSM is developing quality parameters for cement under all three grades.
"We will send the draft to NSC within a month and NSC, after studying the draft in detail, will approve it paving the way for us to certify domestic cement brands based on their quality,” he added.