China cement prices see second consecutive weekly decline

The average price of cement price in China continued to decline in the last week in November, showing a drop of 0.72 per cent on the previous week and marking the second consecutive week drop after three months of increases.

A China Securities Journal report on Tuesday quoted data from the Digital Cement as saying that the cement price in Heilongjiang, Jiangsu, Shandong and Hebei provinces registered clear declines in the week.

In Hebei, Jiangsu and Shandong, cement price dropped by CNY10 to CNY30/t (US$4.8)  due to falling demand from the downstream industries, while the cement price decline in Heilongjiang was due to the province's introduction of a winter reserve purchase policy.

According to the report, some cement factories have begun to suspend operations due to the onset of the winter-season.

Cement factories in northeastern China have implemented a three-month suspension from 1 December. Over 50 per cent of production lines in southern Shandong and northern Jiangsu will also suspend operations soon.

In terms of pricing, the report noted that cement companies in eastern China regions will continue to see pressure with rising inventories and prices in some areas are likely to keep falling due to wet weather conditions. However, the price decline would be restrained as some companies in southern Jiangsu and northern Zhejiang have already halted operations.