JAKARTA (Thomson Financial) - Indonesia's consumption of cement in the first half was 7.5 percent higher than a year before at 15.6 million tons, the size of the increase being due in part to the low base of comparison a year earlier, Indonesian Cement Association chairman Urip Timuryono said Thursday.
In June, domestic cement consumption reached 2.77 million tons, down from 2.91 million tons in May, he said.
He said cement consumption had been weaker in the first half of 2006 because the economy had been hit by the government's decision in the fourth quarter of 2005 to increase fuel prices by an average of 126 percent.
"That's why, for full year 2007, we do not expect cement consumption to grow as fast as in the first half. Our estimate for whole-year growth is only around 5.0 percent," Timuryono told Thomson Financial.
He said this estimate took into account that in the second half of last year cement consumption had begun to recover gradually.
In 2006, domestic cement consumption grew by 1.8 percent to 32.06 million tons.
aloysius.bhui@thomson.com
ab/jm
