Cementos Melón reactivates investments of US$30-40m, Chile

With the new investments the firm expects to increase its production capacity to supply the domestic market in light of increasing demand in the real estate sector.

Zursiedel said that although figure are better than in previous years in general terms, demand dropped one per cent in the first half of 2004 compared to the same period of 2003, due to the end of the works on the Ralco dam, which required around 170,000t of cement.

The executive said that in 2004 the company is betting on growth in the real estate sector and he added that demand for premixed concrete, basic material for housing construction, has increased 10%.

Cementos Melón has a 37 per cent  market share of the sector and produced around 4Mt of cement in 2003.