Morocco: Amib criticises special tax on cement

At a meeting organised by the Moroccan concrete industry association Amib, cement companies have criticised the special tax on cement, which accounted for MAD 154 million (€14.27 million/US$15.81 million) in tax revenue in 2014. Difficulties in the cement segment have seen consumption fall by 6.09% to 13.95 million tonnes in 2014. The tax accounts for 9% of the cost of cement, which itself accounts for 50% of the cost of concrete, with the industry noting that it necessarily has a price impact that is felt

March 6, 2015 Read time: 1 min

Difficulties in the cement segment have seen consumption fall by 6.09% to 13.95 million tonnes in 2014.

The tax accounts for 9% of the cost of cement, which itself accounts for 50% of the cost of concrete, with the industry noting that it necessarily has a price impact that is felt by consumers.

Amib has claimed that the money spent on the tax could be used to create four to five factories/year, and has also stated that it threatens the production of social housing, which has an upper limit of MAD 250,000.

Quarry Products

Threats to Moroccan concrete industry

The tax on cement in Morocco is handicapping the nation’s concrete producers and favours importation of concrete products over local production, according to the president of the Moroccan association for concrete industries (Amib), Azzeddine Abaakil.

Abaakil has also noted a decline in housing projects and the depletion of the public infrastructure order book. A decline in sales prices has also had an impact, he says, alongside an extension in payment delays and unpaid bills by building and public works

January 15, 2015

Morocco: changes to tax on cement aim to secure housing solidarity fund

In response to companies' strategies to avoid the tax on cement, the Moroccan finance law for 2015 will alter the modalities of the tax so that it is imposed on cement production rather than on cement sales.
This comes after cement groups opted to absorb their concrete subsidiaries to avoid the tax, resulting in a loss in revenue for the treasury from the tax on cement used for concrete production.
Sales of cement to subsidiaries represent approximately 16% of total cement production, proportional to the

April 15, 2015

Morocco: Addoha plans debt reduction and opens new cement plant

CEO of Moroccan property developer Addoha, Anas Sefrioui is reported as having denied rumours that he is in any way standing down from his position.

He pointed out that his company is the only one which manages to produce 25,000 homes per year.

The group wants to reduce its gearing ratio from 80% to 33%, reducing its debt which stood at MAD 9.32bn (€873.94 million/US$930.50 million) at the end of 2014.

May 15, 2015

Holcim turnover up 6.5% in Morocco

April 22, 2014

Middle East aggregates growth stimulated by infrastructure development

Compiling a report on the aggregates industry in the Middle East is not easy because defining the countries that make up the region vary. However, in many company reports and trend analyses the region is coupled with Africa because Africa and the Middle East overlap. For example, Egypt or Libya are African countries but they speak the Arabic language and share the Middle Eastern culture.

Almost everyone would agree that the following countries are part of the Middle East: Bahrain, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Isra