Indonesia’s cement consumption, an indicator of economic activity, rose 6.7 per cent by volume in June from a year earlier, the country’s largest cement maker said on Thursday. State-controlled PT Semen Gresik said Southeast Asia’s largest economy used 2.76Mt of the building material last month, up from 2.59Mt a year before.
Domestic sales of Semen Gresik alone rose 7.4 per cent to 1.23Mt. Including exports, total Gresik sales rose 6.9 per cent to 1.47Mt, the firm said. Last year, Indonesia consumed 30.04Mt of cement, up from 27.54Mt in 2003. Analysts and industry executives expect demand for cement in the country to increase by 5-10 percent this year.
