The ban does not apply to the countries of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU).
The import ban should apply to the following types of products:
- Portland cement (EAEU foreign trade economic product nomenclature code 2523100000),
- cement clinkers,
- other Portland cements (2523290000),
- alumina cement (2523300000),
- other hydraulic cements (2523900000).
The proposal should be approved on April 2, 2020. Once it takes effect, the Kazakh side will have to inform the Eurasian Economic Commission of the introduction of the ban. It is also expected that Kazakhstan will propose a ban on the import of cement to the entire customs territory of the EAEU.
In Kazakhstan itself, cement imports have remained at approximately the same level over the past three years. In 2019, the volume of imported products amounted to 890,000 tons.
Most of the cement in the republic is imported from Russia — 485,000 tons as of last year. Iranian cement, which takes the second place with 396,000 tons, and the third one is Belarus with only 3,300 tons.
The main export partners of Kazakhstan cement enterprises are Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Russia.
