Imported cement must meet the national standard

On April 28, this year, the Ministry of Trade held an online industry meeting with representatives of the Association of cement and concrete producers "QazSem" to discuss topical issues of the industry.

The focus was on the measures taken by the authorized body to counteract the illegal trafficking of counterfeit cement products in the construction materials market.

"Today, Kazakhstan's cement is of high quality and competitive, both in the domestic and foreign markets. We have plants of the 2nd generation. But, unfortunately, in the market there is counterfeit, cheap cement "consumer goods", - said the Minister of Trade and Integration of the Republic of Kazakhstan B. Sultanov.

In practice, for 4 years of joint work of the KTRM MTI RK, together with industry experts, a whole range of tools and mechanisms for standardization and technical regulation has been developed.

So, within the framework of the developed master plan, meetings were held with the industry association "Qazem" to discuss and develop schemes for eliminating existing problems.

As a result, the technical regulations of the Republic of Kazakhstan "On the safety of buildings and structures, building materials and products"were changed. It includes a standard for mandatory conformity assessment based on the national standard ST RK 3361-2019 " Conformity assessment. The procedure for confirming the conformity of cements".

"This decision will further oblige all market participants in the cement industry, including foreign manufacturers (importers), to undergo mandatory confirmation of compliance in accordance with this national standard," said Arman Abenov, head of KTRM.

Abenov also said that the Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan "On Technical Regulation" will come into force on July 1, 2021»:

- Now the Committee of Technical Regulation and Metrology will carry out state supervision over compliance with the requirements of the technical regulations in the form of preventive control without visiting and with a visit to the subject (object) itself, an unscheduled inspection, following which, if there is a violation, samples of products will be taken for testing in laboratories.

But, as Arman Abenov noted, without the possibility of checking products, that is, the availability of appropriate laboratories, state supervision will not be so effective in identifying counterfeit products and further protecting the domestic market from low-quality cement supplied from Iran and China.

In this regard, the priority task of KTRM is the development of the laboratory base. So, on April 27, 2021, the Sapa Inter System testing laboratory for cement quality control received an electronic certificate of accreditation, which will 100% provide a test base under ST RK 3361-2019.