Cemtech Asia 2011 opens in Bali, Indonesia
Opening on Monday 20th June 2011 at the Grand Hyatt Hotel, Bali, before an international audience of some 150 cement specialists, this year’s Cemtech Asia meeting has taken the opportunity to study regional cement and construction markets, along with advances in cement production technology and latest methods for improving environmental performance in an industry now producing over 3.2bnt of cement annually worldwide.
Given the Asian focus for the meeting, keynote speaker Anton Gunawan, Chief Economist at Bank Danamon, Indonesia was keen to focus on regional and Indonesian economic developments and how such changes would impact cement demand.
In his view: “Southeast Asian economies will continue to perform well, except for Vietnam, which is still vulnerable owing to high inflation, a large current account and fiscal deficit”.
For Indonesia, Mr Gunawan was cautiously optimistic that: “Faster economic growth, but with a still big informal sector and rising optimism – towards investment grade – in 2012” would prevail. He also welcomed: “more pro-poor social policies (education, health, etc)’ to combat “high poverty levels and under-employment rates”.
“Indonesia’s young population generates strong demand for new housing with government estimates indicative that 710,000 are needed annually,” he said.
“Not surprisingly strong domestic cement consumption growth will continue in 2011 throughout most of Indonesia," Mr Gunawan concluded.
Representing the Indonesian Cement Association, Urip Timuryono said that: “ domestic cement consumption rose steadily to 40.78 million tonnes in 2010 with the nine domestic producers achieving sales of 39.18Mt.
“Semen Gresik, 51 per cent owned by government, remains the country’s leading producer with 19.7Mt of cement capacity followed closely by Indocement, owned by the German HeidelbergCement Group, with its 18.6Mt of capacity.
“Java also retains its position as the leading consumption region with a demand of 21.9 million tonnes followed by Sumatera at 9.7 million tonnes of consumption” – Urip Timuryono noted.
Looking ahead, Urip Timuryono was confident that: “cement demand nationwide would rise from 40 million tonnes in 2010 to almost 55 million tonnes by 2015. New cement capacity would add a further 25 million tonnes of production output over that same time-frame, keeping the industry totally self-reliant.”
Speaking on behalf of the Cemtech Asia conference organizers, David Hargreaves was also delighted to report from Indonesia at a time when it is clearly developing quickly as a major cement consuming country.
“It has huge potential for growth given its population of close to 250 million, a low per capita consumption of just 160kg and a present cement production base running close to its limits."
“It’s also not surprising,” David Hargreaves noted, “that a number of existing domestic players as well various industry newcomers look set to invest heavily in this dynamic cement market.”
Published under Cement News
