GHACEM tells World Bank no cement monopoly/duopoly in Ghana
Ghacem Limited says the company is not enjoying any monopoly or duopoly with any cement company.
Reacting to a publication in the Graphic Business edition of June 19, 2012, headlined, “Break Cement Duopoly – World Bank,” Dr George Dawson-Ahmoah, the Strategy and Corporate Affairs Director of the company recounted that the monopoly of Ghacem was broken 12 years ago by Wacem, producers of Diamond Cement.
“Since then, other players have entered the cement market – Greenview International Limited, which operates in Tema Community 2; Savanna Cement at Buipe in the Northern Region and Fortress International, which imports bagged cement,” he said.
Dr Dawson-Ahmoah re-emphasised that Ghana had a trade liberalisation policy which allowed business entities interested to import any product or establish manufacturing units to do so, provided the rules and regulations are obeyed. He further indicated that Ghacem, the leading manufacturer and supplier of cement in Ghana, would not and cannot prevent cement competition in Ghana, but would rather not hesitate to fight any competition which is on unfair grounds, stressing that competition must be fair and on equal terms.
He referred to an example of an unfair competition which warranted a joint petition by Ghacem and Diamond Cement in 2010 against a concessionary rate of five per cent import duty which Greenview International Limited, a Nigeria-based cement importer of finished bulk cement, was benefitting from.
The basis for the concessionary rate, he stated, was that the imported finished bulk cement was classified as raw material for the manufacturing/of cement which was incorrect and contrary to the provisions in the Customs Harmonised Code which they in the industry found not only as an unfair practice to the cement industry but also detrimental to the revenue due the state.
“This petition was investigated by the government that saw the merit in it and ruled on a concessionary rate of 10 per cent for Greenview International Limited instead of the five per cent concessionary rate,” he added.
Dr George Dawson-Ahmoah indicated that Ghacem’s main preoccupation was to ensure adequate cement distribution in the market since it recognised the importance of cement in Ghana’s economic growth. .
He said the Tema factory would by the end of 2012 have an additional capacity of one million tonnes earmarked to meet the growing demand of cement in the country.
The present capacity of the Tema factory is 1.2 million tonnes per annum. Beyond November 2012, Ghacem will be increasing its capacity in Tema to 2.2 million tonnes per annum. This is intended to be replicated in Ghacem Takoradi factory, soon after the commissioning in Tema.
On corporate social responsibility, Dr Dawson-Ahmoah reaffirmed that Ghacem was still committed to assisting schools and hospitals by improving their infrastructure under its Cement Foundation programme through which about 300,000 bags of cement, equivalent to over $2 million, had been donated to over 2,000 communities across the length and breadth of the country.
Dr Dawson-Ahmoah, therefore, reiterated that the allegation of monopoly/duopoly of cement in Ghana is unfortunate and misleading, and does not represent the real fact on the ground.
Source: Daily Graphic