Global Panorama: Central Asia

Central Asia

Across the region, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) has predicted that the depreciation of the national currencies will trigger inflation. Low oil prices will negatively affect the budget in several countries that rely on windfalls from hydrocarbon exports. Falling oil prices will be a curse for the region.

Kazakhstan intends to meet domestic demand for cement when its new plants at Rudny, Kokshe-Cement Enterprise, BI Cement and the modernisation of the facilities at Shymkent have been completed. Cement imports are currently 1.5 million tpy. In Turkmenistan, a new 1 million tpy cement plant is being planned this year for Lebap province, while in Uzbekistan, which has six cement plants with a total installed capacity of over 7 million t, Almalyk Mining-Metallurgical Complex JSC intends to increase capacity of the Jezzakh plant to 1 million tpy this year. All three countries will suffer as a result of the drop in oil revenues.

Written by Paul Maxwell-Cook. This is an excerpt from World Cement's July 2015 issue. Subscribers can read the full issue by signing in, and can also catch up on-the-go via our new app for Apple and Android. Non-subscribers can access a preview of the July 2015 issue here.

Read the article online at: https://www.worldcement.com/asia-pacific-rim/10072015/global-panorama-central-asia-110/