What kind of cement without state control – Newspaper Kommersant No. 33 (7478) dated 02.22.
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Referring to the experience of the consequences of the earthquake in Turkey, Russian cement workers through the RSPP are lobbying for the return of state control over the quality of cement sold on the market that existed before the pandemic. Players insist that there are more counterfeit products and demand from large manufacturers is declining. However, to minimize damage from possible natural disasters, only control over the quality of building materials will not be enough. In Russia, for example, outdated seismic hazard maps, drawn up almost 30 years ago, are still in force.
The Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (RSPP), together with the Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCI), plans to apply to the government to restore state control and supervision in the area of circulation of products used, including in the construction industry. This is stated in a letter available to Kommersant, sent to members of the RSPP Committee on Industrial Policy and Technical Regulation.
The return of state control should affect a large list of products, including the production of cement, clarified Kommersant in Soyuzcement, which unites companies that account for 80% of all manufactured products.
The RSPP and the Chamber of Commerce did not promptly answer Kommersant’s questions. The Ministry of Industry and Trade told Kommersant that, together with the Ministry of Construction and Rosstandart, they support state control and supervision over the circulation of certain building materials. However, the Ministry of Economy believes that this will lead to an increase in the administrative burden on business.
In 2017-2020, cement checks at product sales points were carried out by Rosstandart, but with the onset of the pandemic, a moratorium was imposed on this as part of the simplification of business operations during the crisis. In 2021, amendments to the law on state supervision came into force, ending the authority of the department to control the circulation of certain types of building materials, including cement. Soyuzcement explains that now the controlling body on the market has not been determined, although spot checks can be carried out by mandatory certification bodies that conduct laboratory tests of products.
Soyuzcement advocates a return to former control, citing the aftermath of a devastating earthquake in Turkey, where 42,000 facilities were damaged, mostly built without proper inspection of the building materials used.
Cemros (formerly Eurocement) also considers it necessary to strictly control.
But the problem is not only in the quality of building materials, experts say. In Russia, for example, there are still no up-to-date seismic hazard maps, emphasizes Mikhail Bogdanov, president of the coordinating council of the Engineering Surveys in Construction association. “Today, kits developed in the 1990s are being used, although in other countries they are updated every 20 to 25 years as new data becomes available,” he explains. According to Mr. Bogdanov, a new set of maps was submitted in November 2022 to the Ministry of Construction, where it is being considered. In the Russian Federation, the expert clarifies, there are areas similar in seismicity to the East Anatolian Fault, where the epicenter of the last earthquake in Turkey was: “In our country, for example, one can note the Main Sayan Fault, not far from which Krasnoyarsk is located.”
However, large producers are in favor of the return of state control over the quality of cement, to a large extent due to the growth of counterfeit products in the market, which leads to a decrease in demand for their products.
According to the data provided by the RSPP, the volume of such cement is 3.16 million tons, dry building mixtures – 4 million tons. According to SMPRO estimates, in 2022, the country produced a total of 60.8 million tons, which is only 1.2% more year-on-year.
But the executive director of SMPRO, Evgeny Vysotsky, believes that it is difficult to calculate the share of counterfeit products: “This is exactly what quality control is needed for.” The shareholder of the construction company Vira Alexander Savelyev admits that the share of counterfeit cement can reach 25% of the market. Cemros is worried that due to the growth of counterfeiting, the consumption of cement produced by large companies is decreasing, the drop in demand for their products may be 10-20%.
Vladislav Tkachenko, an expert from the Commission on the Industry of Building Materials and Technologies under the Ministry of Construction, agrees that the lack of state supervision carries high risks that can lead to the destruction of buildings, structures, accidents, floods and fires. The return to state control will slightly increase the costs of developers, but in this case this is a secondary point, the expert adds. Alexander Ruchev, President of Osnova Group of Companies, believes that in this case, in principle, the costs of developers will not increase, since we are talking about a return to the standards that were in effect until 2021.
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