Ukraine’s cement industry pins hopes on new road construction programme

Ukraine’s Big Construction programme and plans to increase the share of concrete roads in the country provide hope for the domestic cement industry to expand, says Roman Skilsky, executive director of UkrCement, the country’s cement association. “The main reason for optimism is the Big Construction program… This will mean a noticeable increase in demand for cement, which will allow domestic companies to increase the number of idle reserve capacities,” he said. In early August, the Shulgin State Road Research Institute, together with Ukrainian Automobile Roads Agency of Ukraine (Ukravtodor), presented a concept and programme for the construction of concrete roads in Ukraine, increasing the share of such roads from one to five per cent in the next five years.  According to him, the process of approval of these documents by the relevant central executive authorities is underway.

The production of Portland cement in January-July 2020 increased 3.7 per cent YoY to 5.04Mt while clinker output expanded 1.5 per cent to 3.9Mt, according to the State Statistics Service. In July 2020, cement and clinker production increased by 5.9 and 12.2 per cent, respectively.