South Africa's cement industry plans to seek universal tariff protection

On December 6, it was reported that the Cement and Concrete Association of South Africa (CCSA) was preparing an application for universal tariff protection for imported cement, taking too long to impose anti-dumping duties on specific country exporters, and failing to protect the industry from what it considered unfair competition. Although the annual cement production capacity in South Africa is about 20 million tons, the current domestic cement production is only 12 million tons, and the annual import of cement is more than 1 million tons. Brian Perry, chief executive

of CCSA, said that no decision had been made on the level of protection to be applied for and that the application was expected to be submitted to the South African International Trade Management Commission (Itac) in the first quarter of 2023. Any tariff decision that might face strong opposition from importers is entirely up to Itac, which will have to weigh the economic costs and benefits of introducing protection.