At the recommendation of the Antimonopoly Committee of the Republic of Uzbekistan, the country simplified the procedure for importing cement and reduced the time for releasing imported cement into free circulation, the Committee said in a press release on July 23.
According to the statement, the Cabinet of Ministers of Uzbekistan adopted a Resolution "On measures to simplify the procedure for importing cement and providing the domestic market with high-quality cement". In accordance with the document, when importing cement products into Uzbekistan, it will be possible to release it into free circulation within two days, and not 28, as it was before.
The Antimonopoly Committee expect that the Resolution will saturate the domestic market with quality cement products and reduce the current cost of cement.
Today, there are 28 cement plants in the country, 16 of which sell their products through exchange trading, according to the statement. The volume of cement put up and sold at exchange auctions in comparison with the same period last year increased by 102%.
Despite this, since May there has been an increase in the average selling price of cement on the exchange. For example, on June 1-6, the average price of 1 ton of cement was 634 thousand soms ($62.05), and on July 6-12 it rose to 814 thousand soms ($79.66). The average starting price was 462,000 soms ($45.21), and the growth rate was 76%. Today's market price of cement averages 854 soms per ton ($83.58), which is almost twice as much as the starting price.
At the same time, the volume of imported cement in Uzbekistan decreased significantly compared to 2019. In particular, in January-June last year, 1,838.3 thousand tons of products were imported against 813 thousand tons in the corresponding period of this year (56% less).
