Ministry of Commerce: Cambodia will not ban cement imports

The spokesman for the Ministry of Commerce, Seang Thai reported that Cambodia imported 1.9Mt of cement in 2016 and the opening of the country's largest cement factory last week will still not lessen the need for cement imports.

"Cement imports are still highly important for construction, because our cement supply is not sufficient to meet construction growth," Seang Thai said. “We are part of a free market now, and we have to build up our capacity to compete in this market – we cannot ban imports."

The views of the Ministry of Commerce were backed up by Ly Hour, president of the Housing Development Association of Cambodia, who said that until now local cement production cannot meet the high demand of the country's construction boom. However, he said the addition of new local production lines should help to reduce reliance on imports. "Although the supply is less than the demand, I think investing in cement factories will help reduce our need to import cement from overseas," he said.

After the inauguration of the 1.7Mta Kampot plant of Chip Mong Insee Cement Corp and Siam City Cement on 8 February 2018, the capacity of the domestic market will shortly be further boosted by Thai Boon Rong Cement and Battambang Conch Cement (1.7Mta) plants, which are currently under construction.

Yos Monyrath, a spokesman of the Ministry of Mines and Energy, said the three active cement factories are capable of supplying nearly 5Mta to the market. "However, our country is rapidly growing, therefore, imports will still be necessary, " he added.