Indonesia: 2014 cement sales fall short of expectations

Indonesian cement sales fell short of expectations last year, increasing by 3.6 per cent YoY to 59.9Mt, according to the latest data from the Indonesia Cement Association (ASI).

Including exports, total sales increased by three per cent to 60.174Mt. Cement exports were upby 30.5 per cent to 220,284t while clinker exports fell 88.7 per cent to 44,878t.

Java remained the largest cement consumption market, accounting for 33.7Mt of sales (+4.1 per cent), followed by Sumatra with 12.4Mt (+2.2 per cent) and Kalimantan and Sulawesi which stood at 4.5Mt each (+4.2 and +6.0 per cent, respectively).

A local industry source told CemNet News that both the country-wide and total sales figures for 2014 - as predicted some months ago - fell far below forecasts and "are much too low for a country such as Indonesia."  As such, the source expects that 2015 will present many challenges to the local cement industry.