China’s demand growth rate to slow
China’s cement demand will keep a slow growth rate in the next few years, according to Lei Qianzhi, chairman of China Cement Association (CCA).
The nominal growth rate of China’s fixed assets investment was 27.3 per cent in July, up 0.7 per cent year on year.
However, excluding price increases, it posted a lower real growth rate.
The total output of cement in China increased by 8.3 per cent to 767Mt in July, down 9.4 per cent from the previous month.
According to CCA, Southeast China, East China and central China will incur a lower growth rate of cement demands, but West China, the Bohai rim areas and Northeast China’s Heilongjiang Provinces will post a big demand for cement.
Investment in cement production capacity in China increased by 67 per cent to 68 per cent in the first seven months of 2008.
Lei still warned that China’s cement industry would incur a slump in 2009 as the demand continues to decline while production keeps expanding.
He said that cement enterprises have to control their capacity utilization ratio to maintain profit.
CCA predicted that the decline of cement demand would occur from 2018 to 2020.
Published under Cement News
