China cement forecast

Demand for cement in China will advance 5.4 percent annually and exceed 1bn tonnes in 2008, driven by slowing, but healthy growth in construction expenditures. Cement used in China will amount to 44 percent of global demand,and China will remain the world’s largest national consumer of cement by a large margin. These and other trends are presented in Cement in China, a new study from The Freedonia Group, Inc., a Cleveland-based industrial market research firm.

Ready-mix concrete manufacturers will be the strongest market for cement, climbing at an annual pace of 12.8 percent to reach 194 million metric tons in 2008. Growth will be driven by the government’s 2004 ban on onsite concrete production, enacted to help reduce environmental damage from onsite cement operations and improve the overall quality of concrete used in construction. The ban will force most contractors to purchase ready-mix cement for use in their projects.

Contractors will purchase more precast concrete products in order to avoid producing concrete onsite. This trend will benefit concrete product manufacturers, where cement demand is projected to grow 6.3 percent per annum through 2008.

Demand for cement used in nonbuilding construction increased nearly ten percent annually between 1993 and 2003, benefitting from growth in governmentfunded infrastructure projects such as the Three Gorges. Cement demand in nonbuilding construction is projected to rise 7.3 percent annually through 2008, as more infrastructure-related projects continue to stimulate cement consumption.