ICR: Indian cement demand to grow by 10 percent

International Cement Review, a world-renowned cement magazine, recently published a report. In 2010, the global cement market still needs to rely on emerging markets such as Asia and Latin America to alleviate the weakness of mature markets in Europe and the United States.

The North American market may pick up from the third quarter of this year, but to a lesser extent than previously forecast. South America's largest economy, Brazil, is generally doing well, and cement consumption will grow steadily. Cement sales are expected to rise in Iran and Saudi Arabia, the largest consumers of cement in the Middle East. Following a 25% surge in cement sales to 58 million tons in 2009, the cement market in Egypt is still in good shape this year.

In Europe, Italy has surpassed Spain as the largest cement sales market, but this year's cement demand is not optimistic. Italian cement sales in 2010 may be less than 35 million tons, a considerable decline from the peak period in 2006. It is expected that the sales volume of cement in Germany will remain stable this year and will rise steadily after 2010, and will be close to 29 million tons. In 2009, the Spanish cement market shrank by 32% to 29 million tons from its peak in 2007 (56 million tons), and is expected to shrink further to 26 million tons this year.

In 2010, Russian cement demand will partially recover and is expected to reach 47 million tons, compared with 61 million tons in 2008 and 43.8 million tons last year. Poland's cement consumption is expected to rise by 4% in 2010, making it the only region in the EU to achieve growth in cement consumption.

The cement market in India grew by 8% in the 2008-09 financial year and demand is expected to remain strong at around 10% in the 2009-10 financial year. However, India's cement industry is also facing a sharp increase in production capacity: in 2009, India's total cement production capacity reached 240 million tons, which is expected to surge to 270 million tons in fiscal year 2011.

Mr. Thomas Armstrong, analyst of International Cement Review, will attend the "Global Cement Merger and Acquisition Summit Forum" held by China Cement Network in Shanghai on March 22. He also made a brilliant speech on the current situation and prospects of the global cement market and the merger and acquisition integration of the international cement industry. For more information, stay tuned to the < A href = "http://icw.ccement.com/" target = _ blank > International Cement Week 2010 feature.

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