Indonesian market contracts 7% in March

Cement demand in Indonesia declined 6.8 per cent to 4.817Mt in March 2020 when compared with 5.166Mt in March 2019, according to the Indonesian Cement Association (ASI).

The reduction in consumption was the largest in Kalimantan where sales were 15.6 per cent lower YoY, reaching 299,715t. On Java, the largest market in Indonesia, demand was down 10 per cent to 2,558,239t while in Nusa Tenggara the drop was 8.8 per cent as 295,415t were delivered. Sulawesi saw market offtake down 3.6 per cent to 448,418t. However, Sumatra, the country’s second-largest market, reported an uptick of 1.2 per cent YoY to 1,504,701t. East Indonesia, the smallest market, noted a 16.5 per cent rise in deliveries to 160,785t.

January-March 2020
In the first quarter of 2020 cement consumption in Indonesia fell by 4.9 per cent YoY to 14.904Mt when compared with 15.674Mt in the year-ago period.

Nusa Tenggara saw the largest decrease at eight per cent YoY to 843,693t, followed by Java, where demand declined by 7.8 per cent YoY to 8.002Mt in the first three months of 2020. Kalimantan posted a 6.3 per cent YoY drop to 1.006Mt while in Sumatra the market contracted by 2.4 per cent to 3.166Mt.  Consumption in Sulawesi remained stable at 1.337Mt and East Indonesia saw a 28.1 per cent advance to 549,415t in the 1Q20.