Cement prices to decline as manufacturers discover substitute for imported clinker
Cement prices are expected to drop soon as local manufacturers push to replace clinker, a vital ingredient in the product’s manufacture, with a locally made substitute.
Manufacturers have submitted proposals to the Ghana Standards Authority (GSA) to use local materials for cement production, especially clinker.
The Director-General of the GSA, Prof. Alex Dodoo, revealed this, notifying the public that two cement companies in Ghana want to stop using imported clinker.
According to Prof. Dodoo, Ghana spends over half a billion dollars annually importing clinker into the country.
He said the move would reduce Ghana’s dependence on clinker, boosting economic growth.
“No longer will clinker be seen as the only ingredient that will be used for cement, but there will be other locally-available substitutes so that the price of cement will fall, creating jobs, thereby reducing our dependence on clinker,” he said.
He was speaking at a public workshop in Kumasi on April 25 under the theme: “Facilitating the implementation of science-based sustainable construction technologies.”
Present at the meeting were cement manufacturers, a delegation from the Building and Road Research Institute of Ghana (CSIR-BRRI) and technical universities in Ghana.
The workshop was organised by the Technology Consultancy Centre UNESCO Centre of Excellence in collaboration with the Ministry of Trade and Industry, Ghana Standards Authority, Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Action and Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing (BAM) Germany.
A senior researcher at the Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing (BAM) Germany, Dr. Wolfram Schmidt, emphasised Africa’s role in testing out local materials for the manufacture of cement.
However, he believes standardising these materials will ensure their usage in concrete technology.
“The future of concrete technology will be invented in Africa. The continent is very rich in resources, but we’ve never considered it in the past for concrete technology.
“We need to find ways to bring these resources to standards because they’re the same materials which are already standardized,” he said optimistically. “We’re trying to develop researches that can create businesses”.
The Director-General of the Technology Consultancy Centre (TCC) UNESCO Centre of Excellence, Prof. Francis Davis, asked industry players to reach out to academia with their needs.
He believes it will help in the proper uptake of the outputs.
“Industry would have to reach out to academia with their needs. Once academia is equipped with the needs of the industry, they go into research in trying to find solutions to their needs. Once those solutions are found, and they’re interested in the research, they’ll take the solutions and continue from there,” he said.
“Once we find interest and need in the research academia has done, government and industry should fund the development,” he added.