Indonesia domestic cement sales grow 17 pct in 2011
Reuters, 11/01/2012
Indonesia's domestic cement sales, an indicator for Southeast Asia's top economy, grew 17 percent in 2011, supported by property construction, Indonesia's cement association (ASI) said on Wednesday.
Total domestic cement sales in 2011 reached 47.9 million tonnes, with more than half the sales in the main Java island, data from the association showed.
"Indonesia had large physical development during 2011 and the result followed strong economic growth figures. We also saw a huge decline in exports... which means domestic suppliers prioritized the domestic market," said the association's chairman Urip Trimuryono.
Total cement exports fell 59.1 percent to 1.2 million tonnes from 2.9 million tonnes in 2010.
The country's cement sales fluctuate month-to-month depending on factors such as holidays and the government's end-of-year project completion deadlines.
Sales volumes in December rose 16.6 percent from a year earlier to 4.6 million tonnes. The association has forecast cement sales growth at 6 percent this year.
"We believe the 2012 outlook for cement remains promising, supported by the land-clearing law and continued strong property demand on the back of a continued low interest rate environment," said Teguh Hartanto, analyst at Jakarta-based Bahana Securities.
Indonesia's parliament stamped a long-awaited land acquisition bill in December, an attempt to break the bottleneck in infrastructure development that has long been seen as holding back growth in the country.