"True, we have revised upward our target to 10 percent," Chairman of the Indonesian Cement Producers Association (ASI) Urip Timuryono said here on Tuesday.
Data from the association show domestic cement sales rose 6 percent to 40 million tons last year. The association predicts the figure will increase to 44 million tons this year.
Domestic cement sales in the seven months through July climbed 15 percent to 26.8 million tons. However, cement exports plummeted 54 percent to 677 thousand tons from a year earlier. In total, cement sales rose 11 percent to 27.5 million tons.
Most populated Java island remained the biggest cement market in the January-July 2011 period with consumption estimated at 14.7 million tons, up 18.2 percent from the year before. Sumatra trailed behind in second place with 6.3 million tons.
He attributed the surge in cement consumption to the growing property and infrastructure sectors as a result of stable benchmark interest rate coupled with government spending on infrastructure projects.
"As the interest rate is stable property developers are building property projects which require cement in large quantities," he said.
He expressed his belief that infrastructure and property projects would continue to grow in the fourth quarter of 2011 and therefore, demand for cement would remain high.
Cement factories were spurring their production to cater to the growing demand. Even state-owned cement maker PT Semen Gresik was now operating at 100 percent capacity, he said.
"However, the vast majority of cement plants are still operating at 80 percent capacity so they still have a chance of fulfilling the surging demand," he said. (*)
Editor: Kunto Wibisono
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