Thumbs up for designation of SA-produced cement
The designation of locally produced cement, which will make it mandatory for it to be used by contractors on any government projects and prohibit the use of imported cement on these projects, has reportedly been approved in principle by National Treasury.
Bryan Perrie, chief executive of Cement & Concrete SA (CCSA), a newly established consolidated concrete and cement industry body, said on Monday that his understanding from the department of trade and industry and competition is that the industry’s application for designation is with National Treasury.
“According to the dpartment, it has been approved but still has to go through the chief procurement officer to be formally gazetted.
“In principle, designation has been approved but that is the best I have. I don’t have anything in writing,” he said.
National Treasury has not yet responded to a request from Moneyweb for comment on the status of the application.
The matter has become more important in light of the government’s planned massive infrastructure investment plan.
The government in July last year, unveiled 50 Strategic Infrastructure Projects and 12 special projects, involving a total investment of R340 billion, as the first tranche of a massive infrastructure expenditure programme to drive the post Covid-19 economic recovery effort.
The 2021 Budget Review released last week revealed that government has a programme to spend R791.2 billion on infrastructural investment over the next three years.
The CCSA has been established through the consolidation of The Concrete Institute (TCI), the Concrete Society of Southern Africa and the Association of Cementitious Material Producers (ACMP), and was launched on Monday. Perrie said all that designation means is that locally produced cement must be used for any government-funded project, whether it is a local, municipal, provincial, national or state-owned enterprise project.
He said the designation will have to be enforced to ensure that contractors do not use imported cement.
He said the CCSA will in future take the lead on all matters related to cement and concrete in SA, including tariff protection against imported cement and the designation of cement.
The International Trade Administration Commission (Itac) in December 2020, accepted an application from the cement industry for a sunset review of the import tariffs imposed on cement from Pakistan five years ago.
Perrie said all the information has been provided to Itac for this review, “so the ball is in their court”.
The cement industry is also still waiting for Itac to finalise an application first submitted to the commission in August 2019, by TCI, on behalf of the industry, for “safeguard action” against cheap cement imports, particularly from countries such as China and Vietnam.
Commenting on the rationale for the establishment of CCSA, Perrie said there was always a huge amount of confusion about what the three organisations were doing. –
In principle, designation has been approved