BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 25
By Ilkin Seyfaddini - Trend:
Uzbekistan’s Cabinet of Ministers has lifted its restrictions on cement imports introduced in April 2020, Trend reports citing the Uzbek Ministry of Justice.
"In order to ensure the continuity of construction work carried out in the country, it was decided to resume import of cement products from May 23," the document said.
A temporary restriction on the import of cement was introduced on April 23 due to the decline in demand for this material, thanks to coronavirus-related halt of work on many construction sites in the country, as well as to support local producers.
Currently, six large and 19 smaller cement enterprises with a total capacity of 11.1 million tons are operating in Uzbekistan. The largest of them are: JSC Kyzylkumcement (3.1 million tons), JSC Ahangarancement (2.2 million tons) and the Sherabad Cement Plant (1.5 million tons).
Earlier, Uzbek government exempted imported building materials from customs duties.
During the period from January through April 2020, the volume of construction materials imports amounted to 5.1 percent of the total imports, reaching $328 million.
The Government of Uzbekistan set a task for Ozsanoatqurilishmateriallari Joint Stock Company (Uzbek major producer of construction materials) to bring the production to 10 trillion soum ($984.9 million) in the first half of the year, and 22 trillion soum ($2.1 billion) by the end of the year. It was entrusted to expand production to substitute import of construction materials.
Uzbekistan has 275 promising deposits of necessary raw materials, and 14 projects worth $52 million are being implemented in Gazgan settlement of Nurata district.
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