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The sustainability of South Africa’s cement and concrete industry is being threatened by multiple challenges.
These include economic decline, cheap imports, rising input costs and the crisis in the construction industry caused by the activities of the construction mafia and lack of major projects.
The latter has been exacerbated by the planned massive expenditure by government on infrastructure to kick-start the economy post the Covid-19 pandemic largely failing to materialise, placing about 35 000 local jobs and billions of investments in the cement industry’s value chain jeopardy.
Cement and Concrete SA CEO Bryan Perrie said the industry has been under huge pressure due to a toxic cocktail of factors.
For starters, local cement production capacity is about 20 million tons, but the industry is currently producing only 12 million tons, while more than a million tons of cement imports — the equivalent of an entire cement plant — enters the South African market each year.
“More is required to secure the sustainability of a sector impacted by both the global pandemic and a decade-long slowdown in South Africa’s planned infrastructure build,” he said.
Imports
Elsie Snyman, CEO of construction market intelligence firm Industry Insight, said cement imports decreased by 30 percent year-on-year to 712 161 tons in the 11 months to November 2022. They had increased by 9 percent year-on-year to almost 1.1 million tons in 2021. Snyman said more than 90 percent of the cement imports in 2022 were from Vietnam, via Durban. — Moneyweb
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