Friday, April 19 2019 14:35

ArmInfo.After lengthy and stormy discussions, the National Assembly of Armenia, at its meeting on April 19, adopted in its first reading amendments to the laws "On  State Duty" and "On Alerting Activities".

According to the Minister of Economic Development and Investments of  the Republic of Armenia Tigran Khachatryan, the package proposes to  establish a state duty in the amount of 22 thousand drams per ton of  imported cement for a period of one year - until April 2020. Thus,  the interests of domestic producers will be protected. As for  clinker, the government will return to the second reading on the  question of imposing a duty on this product.

The term for applying the new rate for imported cement, according to  the minister, is associated with possible price changes for this  product in neighboring markets and the modernization of domestic  enterprises, which will lead to lower production costs. Having  established a new duty, the minister continued, equal conditions will  be created on the market, both for producers and importers of cheaper  cement from neighboring countries, primarily from Iran. He noted that  imports are growing much faster than local production. So, in 2018,  local production grew by 53%, and imports - by 3.5 fold, that is,  imports are growing much faster. Of the 680 thousand tons in the  Armenian market, 512 thousand were Armenian cement, 168 thousand -  imported. Tigran Khachatryan also said that according to the  Ministry's research, the average cost of cement from local  enterprises is 41-42 thousand drams per ton, or about $ 85- $ 90. At  the same time, cement in Iran is more than four times cheaper - $ 15-  $ 20. Redeployment to Armenia is estimated at $ 15 per ton.

As a result, on the Iranian border, in Meghri, Iranian cement costs  only $ 30, or about 15 thousand drams.  Iranian cement plants are  helped by two factors. First, the country has very cheap gas, which  can be up to half the cost of cement. Secondly, the Iranian  government subsidizes local producers. According to various  estimates, in 2017 the state spent $ 168 million on this, the  minister said. So that Armenian factories could withstand such  competition, it is proposed to protect them with a duty. Thus, as the  Minister noted, Armenian enterprises will be able to withstand  competition.

To note, according to the data of the Statistical Committee of the  Republic of Armenia, in September 2018 cement production in Armenia  decreased by 23.34% and amounted to 44 thousand tons. In total, 401  thousand tons of cement were produced in January-September 2018  against 251 thousand tons in January- September 2017.