Indonesia’s cement consumption, a good indicator of economic activity, rose 3.2 per cent in November from a year earlier, the country’s largest cement maker said on Thursday. Cement consumption has been rising in Southeast Asia’s largest economy this year because of growing investment in infrastructure projects.
For example, state-controlled PT Semen Gresik Tbk said Indonesia used 2.06Mt of the building material last month, up from two million tonnes in 2004.
Gresik’s domestic sales alone rose 18 per cent to 981,760t last month. Including exports, total Gresik sales rose 12.3 per cent to 1.18Mt from 1.05Mt, the firm reported.
Indonesia consumed 30.04Mt of cement in 2004, up from 27.54Mt in 2003. Analysts and industry executives expect demand for cement in the country to increase 8-10 per cent this year.
