Balance Changing in Favor of Cement Manufacturers

During the first three quarters of 2014 the market was proposed about 3 million tons of cement, of which about 70% was contributed by local producers. The trends portend rate increase, and in 2015 it is expected to meet the demand by local production.

According to the State Statistics Committee, in January-September this year was produced 2,156,200 tons of cement, which is 38.4% more than in the same period of 2013. During this period, was imported from abroad 796,500 tons of cement totaling $ 51.8 million. Ready-to-use cement was delivered from Russia - 102 000 tons, Georgia - 218 000 tons, Iran - 488,000 tons, etc. In this case, almost all of the hydraulic cement is of Iranian origin (340 000 tons).

The dependence of some local producers on imported clinker is still high - since the beginning of the year were imported 911,400 tons of semi-finished clinker fidgeted mainly from Iran - 763,500 tons.

According to experts, the consumption of cement in Azerbaijan is growing and this year could reach 4.2 million tons. In this case, the design capacity of the four cement plants in the country (Holcim (Azerbaijan), Norm, Gazakh Cement Plant and the cement plant of Gemigaya Holding) is 5 million tons. Two of these companies (Norm and Gazakh Cement Plant) announced their plans for the next 3-5 years to increase the production capacity by 4 million and 2 million tons respectively. In addition, there are still about 10 medium and small cement plants, which supply to sell at least 500 000 tons of the product. --08B-