No relaxation of cement quality standards

No relaxation of cement quality standards
24 November 2006


The Cement & Concrete Institute (C&CI) said on Thursday that there will be no relaxation of cement quality standards in the future.

In an electronically-disseminated statement the C&CI MD Dr Graham Grieve, said that some cement consumers had become concerned, following recent press reports citing the regulatory division of the South African Bureau of Standards (SABS) as stating that it would not be a legal requirement to have the SABS mark for cement sales in the future.

“However, this does not mean that there will be a relaxation of quality standards. In fact, the cement conformance criteria in the current product quality standards are to be reemphasised by being regulated in a compulsory standard in future. This will happen once the necessary administrative arrangements are completed by the Department of Trade and Industry,” Grieve stated.

“The new regulations will still require authoritative independent quality verification. But, where current practice is that the SABS mark scheme is the only possible means of proving compliance, under the new regulations other certification bodies satisfying SABS Regulatory’s criteria may also compete for this business,” he said, adding that the cement certification market would be opened to competition.

Grieve reiterated that there would not be any relaxation in cement quality standards.
Published under Cement News