Cement Sales Drop in January Due to Rainy Weather
Jakarta. Indonesia's cement sales remained under pressure in January as bad weather disrupted construction projects across the country.
Sales fell to 5.3 million metric tons, down 2.3 percent from the same period last year.
"Rain and storms are present in many regions of Indonesia, and they might last until March. Only then we can expect the construction industry to rebound," Indonesian Cement Association (ASI) chairman Widodo Santoso said on Friday (10/02).
"Almost all regions, including Sumatra, Java, Kalimantan and Nusa Tenggara saw declines," he added.
Maluku and Papua were the only regions where cement sales increased, surging to 143,000 tons last month, up 21 percent compared to the same period last year, as several power plants and smelters are under development in both areas, Widodo said.
Elsewhere, it was all about decline or stagnation. In Kalimantan, sales dropped 13 percent to 315,000 tons, followed by Sumatra, where it fell 6.3 percent to 1.03 million tons.
Sales in Bali and Nusa Tenggara shrank 2.7 percent to 312,000 tons.
In Java, the biggest cement market, sales dropped 0.6 percent to 2.94 million tons, with distributors saying many of their customers put cement purchases on hold as rain and flooding disrupted construction projects.
Cement sales in Sulawesi were stagnant at 429,000 tons.
Nevertheless, ASI remains optimistic, expecting a 4-percent increase in sales this year.
"Hopefully, the infrastructure developments and strategic projects will proceed in a few weeks," Widodo said.
Cement sales in the country stagnated at 62 million tons last year, the same as in 2015, ASI data showed, a worrying sign for local producers who already installed 100 million tons of annual production capacity.
Three new cement plants started operations in Indonesia at the end of last year – one owned by China's Anhui Conch in West Papua, and two locally owned: Semen Tiga Roda in West Java and Semen Bosowa in South Sulawesi.
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