In the first seven months of 2019, Uzbekistan has recorded a 32.3 per cent YoY increase in cement imports at a total value of US$105.6m, according to the State Statistics Committee of Uzbekistan. In the overall structure of building material imports, the share of cement has increased to 14.1 per cent.

However, domestic cement production also rose 17.6 per cent to 5.399Mt in January-July 2019, compared with 4.69Mt in the year-ago period.

Next month Uzbekistan is set to abolish the customs exemption duty for cement imports, which was introduced in October 2018.