Nepal will start certifying domestic cement brands with quality grades after three months. This will help local brands to compete in the market with foreign cement brands.
Cement manufactured by Nepali companies will be certified under three quality categories – 33-grade, 43-grade and 53-grade cement. Currently, there is no legal provision to certify cement that is graded higher than 33. All Nepalese brands are certified as 33-grade cement. A few producers have been claiming that there are domestic cement brands that are above 33-grade.
In Nepal, cement is categorised as Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC) and Portland Pozzolana Cement (PPC), both of which are labelled as under 33-grade cement by producers as the government provision doesn’t allow producers to label their brands higher than grade 33.