China’ cement production slows

China’s output of cement reached 756.3Mt in the first ten months of this year, rising 15.25 per cent over the same period of last year. But the growth was at the lowest level since February, according to the China Cement Association.   China’s total output of cement is expected to exceed 1 billion tons in 2005, likely to reach 1.05 billion tons, exceeding last years output of 970Mt, The output in October was 87.56Mt, rising 13.34 per cent year on year.  

The slowing down of cement production is in correspondence with the continuous slowdown of the country’ investment in fixed assets and real estate. China’s fixed asset investment reached 4355.628 billion yuan in the first ten months, up 29.5 per cent year on year.  

However the slowdown of growth of cement production did not stop the improvement of efficiency of the industry. The industry raked in 11.492 billion yuan of profits in the first ten months, an increase of 5.166 billion yuan year on year, and the percentage of loss-making enterprises was 31.10 percent in the period, about the same as in September, but down 3.79 percentage points from the same period of last year.  

The country’ top six cement producers are located in Shandong, Jiangsu, Guangdong, Hebei and Henan, with total output reaching 390Mt in January-October, accounting for 52.48 per cent of the national total. Cement output of Inner Mongolia and Jiangxi posted a more than 30 per cent increase over the same period of last year.