Cement Consumption May Grow by 12% in 2013

JAKARTA: The domestic cement consumption in 2013 is predicted to reach 61 million tons, up 10% – 12% from last year’s achievement as spurred by real estate sector and Masterplan of Indonesian Economic Development Acceleration and Expansion (MP3EI).

Indonesian Cement Association (ASI) Chairman Widodo Santoso is optimistic that the domestic cement demand increases after rose by 14.5% to 55 million ton in 2012.

“The domestic cement consumption is still high, particularly for housing and infrastructure construction through MP3EI program,” he said, Wednesday (1/2).

According to ASI data, the cement consumption during January – November 2012 reached 49.85 million tons, up 14.8% from the same period in 2011 which reached 43.4 million tons.

The Eastern Indonesia contributed the largest cement consumption growth although the volume is still low. During 11 months of 2012, the consumption in the region soared 54.1% from 713,876 tons to 1.1 million tons.

In the meantime, Sumatera posted the lowest growth in cement consumption by only 9% to 10.86 million ton in 11 months-period of 2012, compared to 9.96 million tons in 2011.

The largest cement consumption volumes is still centered on Java, During January – November 2012, the cement consumption increased 15% to 27.62 million tons from 24.01 million tons in the same period of last year. (t07/msw)