South Africa cement sales ease to 3.1%

South Africa cement sales ease to 3.1%
10 July 2007


South African cement sales growth eased to a 3.1% YoY increase in June to 1.229Mt after rising by 10.6% YoY in May to a record 1.337Mt, data supplied by the Cement and Concrete Institute showed.

This brought the increase in the first half of 2007 to 12.7% YoY after last year’s 11.0% rise to a record 13.252Mt. The 12-month total to the end of June 2007 stands at 14.032 million tons.

This followed a 11.6% gain in 2005, a 17.4% surge in 2004 and a 7.0% climb in 2003.

The 2010 Soccer World Cup stadia, some new dams and the Gautrain project should add to cement demand in the current year.

An interesting observation is that the two largely rural areas of the Border/Transkei and Northern Cape are above the industrial and urban heartland province of Gauteng in the growth table.

For the first six months of 2007 compared with the same period in 2006, the percentage changes for the country and 11 regions were as follows:

Border/Transkei 26.7%

Northern Cape 24.2%

Gauteng 18.1%

Mpumalanga 17.8%

Limpopo 10.4%

Southern KwaZulu-Natal 10.3%

Northern KwaZulu-Natal 9.2%

Free State 5.8%

North West 8.8%

Eastern Cape 4.4%

Western Cape 0.7%

National 12.7%
Published under Cement News