Chile cement sales increasing

Chilean cement sales increased to 85.9 million bags for the period from January to November 2005, up by 6.0 per cent year-on-year, local media reported on January 18, 2006.  A total of 8.5 million bags of cement were sold in November 2005, up 5.2 per cent year-on-year. 
 
This positive performance of the sector encouraged local analysts to announce projections of a 5.0 per cent year-on-year increase for full 2005, compared to the originally projected 4.0 per cent. This growth rate is expected to be maintained in 2006. 

Titan Cement gets approval to raise Florida plant production  CORP
Greece’s Titan Cement said it has received approval from US environmental authorities in Florida to increase its cement production capacity in its new Pensuco plant to 2.4Mt from the current 1.8Mt.   HSBC Pantelakis Securities said that this was effectively an option and the company had not made a final decision on whether they will make use of this additional allowance.  
 
 The broker added that trading conditions regarding pricing and consumption in the Florida region are very favourable and bode well for capacity expansion, and it estimates that a further 0.6Mt of capacity would require capex of about Euro 75m but would add Euro 48m to annual sales.