Cement sales grew one percent last year.

However, some cement companies have been less optimistic. PT Indocement Tunggal Prakarsa Tbk Indonesia’s second largest producer, has said it expects another year of flat growth in 2004 for the industry.

Gresik’s market share dipped in February to 45.15 per cent from 45.34 per cent the previous month. At the start of 2003, the company controlled around 43 percent of the local market.

Ste Genevieve County, Mo, residents to comment on planned cement plant

Area residents will have two chances today to comment on Holcim Inc’s plan to build the nation’s largest cement plant in Ste Genevieve County, about 40 miles south of St. Louis near the Jefferson County line.

The Missouri Department of Natural Resources will hold public hearings on the draft form of Holcim’s air pollution permit in St Louis and Ste. Genevieve, Mo. The permit would allow a cement manufacturing plant, quarry and coal preparation site on the bank of the Mississippi River.

The proposed cement plant has drawn opposition from some environmentalists, who say the plant would increase air pollution in the St Louis region. They note that the area already fails to meet federal standards for ozone and soot.

Holcim officials say the new plant will have the best pollution control equipment available. Under the permit, the plant would use a technology called selective noncatalytic reduction to control nitrogen oxide emissions. Even so, critics want Holcim to use another technology that they contend is better.