Briefing of the Georgian Cement Association

On April 10th, at 14:00, the Georgian Cement Association held the briefing on the actions done so far and the future plans of the association.

The Georgian Cement Association (GCA) has entered into an active phase of its existence. The registration of the GCA has been officially completed. The contracts with both stakeholders, the Georgian Technical University (GTU) laboratory and the Georgian Chamber of Commerce, have been finalized and signed.

In addition, the bank account of the GCA has been opened and funds to meet budgetary needs are being contributed. Mr. Paul Rodzianko has been formally appointed as President and Mr. Irakli Makharoblidze is now serving as General Director of the GCA.HeidelbergCement and Kavkaz/GBG are the founding members of the association.  However, the GCA welcomes any other domestic producer as a member, if they demonstrate the determinatio

n and ability to produce cement of the quality standard specified on their bags, which comply with all the criteria determined in the charter of the association. 

The initial objectives of the GCA are to protect the customers by informing all Georgian cement producers and users as to (1) how construction safety is affected by cement quality and (2) how customer protection is guaranteed by “truth in advertising” of cement products sold in bags, thus putting an end to cheating:  the sale of bagged cement with the quality that does not meet standards specified on its packaging.

Another goal of the GCA is to create a respected and well-recognized “Good Quality Seal”.  Only GCA members in good standing shall be entitled to advertise the quality of their products in this way.  In order to become a member, each producer must first have the quality of its products certified by testing for a period of time before they are accepted into membership.  Thereafter, each member of the GCA will continue to have its products tested for quality in order to maintain its standing.

A final and a very important aspect of the GCA is to help ensure the competitiveness and the economic viability of the building materials industry in Georgia, the benefits of which will be the creation and maintenance of jobs and the sector’s contribution to economic growth. This will reduce the need to import such products, as well as minimize the migration of jobs, knowledge, and experience from our country.

The Georgian Cement Association works actively on all the relevant problematic issues related to the cement and building materials industry. In this respect, close communication is maintained with the government authorities and appropriate official bodies.

The GCA has developed a special procedure that ensures maximal transparency of the entire process, as is documented in the charter of the association.

At present, around 30 samples of bagged cement have been purchased anonymously on the open market in accordance with our stated procedure and will be passed to the laboratory at GTU for blind testing.  It is already worth mentioning that during the collection process, several visual violations of branding and counterfeit were already noted. Assuming that the physical-mechanical and chemical tests will start next week, the first official GCA results are expected to be announced the week of May 15-20.