The President of the World Cement Association (WCA), Song Zhiping, addressed an international audience of senior cement industry leaders with his keynote speech at the WCA 4th General Assembly Meeting, held virtually on 10 December.
Reflecting on what has been a very difficult year for the global economy, Mr Song spoke about how the cement industry has tackled many challenges in recent months, ultimately finding new balance and seeking different directions to adapt to the reality of COVID 19.
Song Zhiping also looked ahead, to 2021 and beyond, highlighting two main areas of focus for the world’s cement industry post-COVID.
Firstly, improving the harmonious co-existence of production and environment will be a key priority. This pandemic served to remind us of the importance of aligning industrial activities towards sustainability and WCA will continue to provide guidance to members on contributing to the long-term development of a sustainable cement industry.
President Song praised the work that WCA has been doing this area, in particular the recently-launched PEGASUS benchmarking project, which gives members the opportunity to measure their performance on a range of environmental metrics against best practice and explore ways of closing the gap.
The second priority is for individual companies to co-exist effectively with the wider market, supporting rational and fair competition. One impact of this year’s pandemic has been significant disruption to cement demand, bringing about a need to reshape market competition patterns, balance supply and demand, and square production with sales.
“Since its very foundation, WCA has prioritised coexistence between cement production and the environment, and the intertwined development of economy and nature,” said Song Zhiping. “The cement industry needs to think about how to break through traditional development patterns and reshape the new ones.”
He lastly emphasised China’s success in designing effective measures to support fiscal and monetary policies for economic recovery, also benefitting the cement industry which has been under intense pressure during this period.