In order to fully meet the cement demand, Armenia needs two more integrated cement plants, the government of the republic says. The Ministry of Economy of Armenia estimated the required investments at 200 million dollars.
Two new plants lead the country’s cement industry to an annual capacity of 1.8 million tons, and fully cover the local cement demand, said Deputy Minister of Economy Avag Avanesyan. The deadline for reaching the specified capacity is 2030.
On March 24, the Parliament of the country prolonged cement imports duty until December 31. The original due date was April 1 and the authorities were planning to extend it until July 1 in order to assess the market situation in the coming three months.
The duty was introduced to aid local producers, decreasing the Iranian cement imports from 19,200 to 16,800 tons per month. In 2019, Armenian factories produced 590,000 tons of cement, +8% YoY. The cement was mostly produced from Iranian clinker.
Import of cement to Armenia over the past year reached 310,000 tons. This is 70% more than in 2018. Import costs increased by 3.6%, to $ 27.4 million. Over 96% of imported cement products came from Iran.
