Cement prices in China continue to soar

Cement prices in China continue to soar
02 January 2008


Rises in production costs coupled with strong market demand have caused the price of cement to continue rising in the fourth quarter of this year, according to monitoring by China’s ministry of commerce.  
 
But industry experts say that the cement price is likely to go down from the high level growth in late December because of the increase of production and slowdown of construction facilities.  
 
According to the monitoring, the average price of cement in China went up four per cent in the middle of December as compared with the price in early October, and rose 16.2 per cent over the same period of last year. Experts attributed the price rise to seasonal tight supply of cement as new production facilities have not been put into full operation.  
 
Thanks to restructuring and the elimination of outdated production capacity, China’s cement production concentration has increased. The country’s 12 large cement enterprise groups have taken up one fourth of the total cement output. At the same time, the busy construction of infrastructure facilities and real estate development has boosted the demand for cement.  
 
China’s urban fixed-asset investment rose 26.8 per cent year-on-year in the first 11 months of 2007, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). Fixed-asset investment was up 26.9 per cent in the first 10 months of the year. Urban fixed-asset investment stood at 10.06 trillion yuan (US$1.36 trillion) for the 11 months, said the NBS. Figures for November alone, however, were not broken out separately.  
Published under Cement News