In accordance with the Presidential Decree “On measures for further liberalization of trade and development of competition in commodity markets” dated October 30, 2018, Uzbekistan extends customs privileges to importers of four types of building materials until January 1, 2020. This list comprises cement, including cement clinker, asbestos, building glass, timber and lumber. The decree envisages customs privileges to coal importers as well.

As indicated in the document, starting from November 1, 2018, new regulation is set in the country, according to which highly liquid types of products, raw materials and imported goods, can be sold without restrictions on the domestic market, including exchange trades, at the discretion of owners.

As previously reported, citing the data of State Statistics Committee, in 2018 country reduced the production of cement, a key commodity item in the production of building materials.

Official statistics recorded that for nine months of 2017, country produced 6484 thousand tons of cement, in January-September of 2018 - 6132 thousand tons (94.6%).

In parallel, statistics committee material shows that during this period the republic increased cement imports by 7.6 times. For nine months, binding building material worth $122.9 million was imported.

As for timber and sawn timber, during January-September, wood and wooden products were imported worth $461 million with a growth of 35.1% compared to the same period of 2017. The volume of imported glass during this period amounted to $49.9 million with a growth of 23.8% than for the same period of the previous year.

Analysts note that the main factor in the decline of cement production was the significant increase of natural gas and electric energy prices for manufacturers of individual industries in 2018.

For enterprises of the construction industry, including for cement producers, in 2018 tariffs for gas and electricity consumption increased by at least 60%.

Nuz.uz