Kazakhstan’s government has introduced a ban on the import of certain types of cement from countries outside the Eurasian Economic Union for a period of six months, an official with the Trade Promotion Organization of Iran said.
“The ban, that came into effect on April 28, applies to Portland cement, clinker, alumina cement and other types of hydraulic cement. The ban will impact our cement producers since Kazakhstan is a main export destination,” Behrouz Hosn-Olfat also told IRNA.
According to the official, the reason for the ban seems to be the declining cement demand in Kazakhstan due to the halt in construction projects caused by the outbreak of Covid-19, as well as the fall in the neighboring country's exports.
Iranian representatives in Kazakhstan are in talks with their counterparts to see if Iran could be exempted from the recently ratified regulation.
"We have lost one of our main cement export destinations and this will have unexpected negative impacts on our industry and producers will incur hefty losses," Mohammad Lahouti, the head of Iran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture’s Exports Confederation, was quoted as saying by ILNA.
According to the head of Cement Employers Association, more than 17.5 million tons of cement and clinker were exported from Iran during the last Iranian year (March 2019-20), showing a 32% growth compared with the previous year.
“Cement accounted for some 6,7 million tons and clinker for 10.8 million tons of the total sum. Our main export destinations over the period were Iraq, Kuwait, China, Bangladesh, India, the littoral states of Persian Gulf and Central Asian countries,” Abdolreza Sheikhan was also quoted as saying by Mizan Online.
The official noted that a total of 60.3 million tons of cement and 66 million tons of clinker were produced in Iran last year, showing a 9% and 6.9% rise compared with the year before.
Iran is the world’s sixth biggest exporter of cement chain products.
The country's cement production capacity stands at 87.5 million tons per year.
Iran was ranked the seventh biggest cement producer in the world in 2019, with a production of 60 million tons. The country was previously the world’s eighth biggest cement producer with 58 million tons, as Turkey was the seventh biggest producer with 72.5 million tons.
However, as Turkey decreased its production in 2019, Iran took the seventh place, Iranian Mines and Mining Industries Development and Renovation Organization citing United States Geological Survey reported.
According to the report, global cement production increased from 4.05 billion tons in 2018 to 4.1 billion tons in 2019.
China was the world’s biggest cement producer last year with 2.2 billion tons, posting no change compared to 2018.
