Japan domestic cement shipments up

Cement shipments in Japan totalled 5.44Mt in November 2004, up 6.7 per cent year-on-year, the Japan Cement Association said on December 28, 2004. Cement shipments in Hokkaido, northern Japan, Kanto region, eastern Japan and Kyushu region, southwestern Japan marked double-digit year-on-year increases in November 2004.

Japan cement exports went up by 32.4 per cent to 943,418t in November 2004. Japan’s cement exports to China and Hong Kong decreased while exports to Taiwan, Singapore and Australia marked an increase for the period. The combined shipments of exported and domestically sold Japan-produced cement went up by 9.9 per cent to 6.39Mt in November 2004, marking a year-on-year increase for the first time in five months.