Tajikistan has significantly increased production of cement this year despite the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the associated economic recession in the country, according to the Tajik Ministry of Economic Development and Trade and local media reports. In the first two months of 2020, domestic cement output amounted to 564,300t, an increase of 20.3 per cent YoY.
Local analysts expect cement production to continue to grow as in previous years. In 2018 total production amounted to 3.8Mt, 23.3 per cent higher than 2017. In 2019 production climbed a further 10.5 per cent YoY to reach 4.2Mt. The Ministry of Economic Development and Trade expects output to rise by 15-20 per cent YoY mainly due to the large volume of construction work in the country.
According to sources, 13 enterprises are currently engaged in cement production with a combined capacity of 4.7Mta.
In terms of exports, in 2019 the country exported 1.5Mt worth US$68.1m, slightly up on the 1.43Mt exported in 2018. Major destinations for Tajik cement last year were Uzbekistan (980,000t), Afghanistan (576,000t) and Kyrgyzstan (80,600t).
According to the Tajik Customs Service, cement imports are insignificant and consist primarily of white cement as it is a product that is not produced domestically. The annual volume of imports varies between 35,000-45,000t.
