Baku, Azerbaijan, June 25
By Matanat Nasibova - Trend:
The level of cement demand in Azerbaijan has dropped significantly, and the volume of cement produced by the three plants operating in the country more than covers it, Kamran Abbasov, an expert on the construction sector of Azerbaijan, told Trend.
He said that this is related to certain factors, including slowdown in economic growth and the lack of implementation of major projects in Azerbaijan.
“Concrete plants that work in Azerbaijan also operate not at full capacity, that is, in my opinion, three concrete plants operate at lower capacity,” he noted. “For example, a plant is able to produce 1,000 cubic meters of concrete, but only produces 300. The reason is that there should be major public and private projects, and there are practically very few of them, and this namely concerns the construction sector.”
“For example, the number of major projects that were implemented in construction before the devaluation of the Azerbaijani manat against the US dollar in 2015 decreased,” the expert explained.
He noted that the volume of construction didn’t return to the level that was observed until 2015.
“Growth is observed in the segment of housing construction, but the overall level of the construction sector hasn’t yet returned to previous indicators,” he added. “Meanwhile, the revival in construction always entails growth in related industries, starting from transport and ending with the production of building materials.”
In accordance with his estimates, the building materials market in Azerbaijan is the most competitive one compared to other segments of the construction sector.
“There are real opportunities to export local building materials, as they are quite competitive and meet modern standards of the building product line,” he said. “As for the quality of construction, it is at a high level, because due attention is paid to requirements, norms and standards.”