Growth on cement market continues to slow, Hungary

Hungary’s cement market continued to slow in 2005, for the second year in a row, according to Hungarian press.
 
Hungarian businesses used 4.1Mt of cement in 2005, according to preliminary estimates by the industry’s biggest companies, compared to 4Mt in 2004 and 3.9m in 2003. 
 
Cement imports were around 1Mt last year, level with imports in 2004, but imports from Ukraine fell from 760,000t to between 600,000 and 630,000t. Cement imports from the Ukraine jumped in 2002 when they jumped to 760,000t, almost double the expected amount. The slowdown reflects increasing domestic needs, industry experts said.
 
Hungary’s two biggest cement companies are Duna Drava Cement, whose domestic sales totalled 1.82Mt in 2004, and Holcim, which sold 1.22Mt.