Cementos Melón with highest stake in the market

Cementos Melón, registered the highest stake in the Chilean market with a 35.4% share during the January-July period.

In the first seven months of the year, Melón sold 802,593t, a 0.4% decrease from the same period 2004. However, the company expects to increase its sales by 4% this year in relation to 2004, the paper said. 

In the meantime, Cementos Polpaico, controlled by Holcim, follows Melón closely with a 35.1% stake in the Chilean cement market.  Polpaico totaled sales of 796,462t through July this year, a 10% increase with respect to the same year-ago period. 

Cementos Bío Bío, controlled by Chile’s Briones group, came in third with 29.5% of the market.  The company totaled 670,092t in sales for the first seven months of this year, 8.3% up from the same period in 2004. 

The country’s total cement sales for the January-July period amounted to 2.27Mt, a 5.6% increase with respect to 2004, Estrategia said.