he Polish cement association has called upon the government to support protective measures such as the border protection mechanism (CBAM) to enable the cement industry to meet the challenges presented by new climate regulations and the market environment.

In a letter to the Polish prime minister, the organisation says: “However, we are concerned that the lack of protective measures - such as the Border Protection Mechanism (CBAM) currently being processed by the European Commission - may result not only in the collapse of the entire Polish construction industry for many years, but also in increasing, rather than reducing, the level of CO2 emissions. This will happen mainly because the unprotected cement sector, which is bearing the enormous costs of the EU climate policy, will lose to the flood of cement from outside the EU.”

According to the cement association, imports from Belarus, Turkey and Ukraine have rapidly increased.  In 2020 Belarus imported 440,000t, up 80 per cent YoY and compared with 2016 the volume has tripled. The Polish association highlighted that production in these countries does not meet EU climate regulations, resulting in carbon leakage as cement imports from the three countries are said to increase the carbon footprint by up to 15 per cent when compared to Polish cement.

If protective support measures are not put in place, the manufacturers’ organisation fears that cement production in up to 70 per cent of Poland may be phased out with thousands of job losses. The cement and construction sectors currently employ nearly 2m jobs and generate eight per cent of GDP.