South African cement sales dropped for a third consecutive year in 2010, as growth in the construction industry slowed and the housing market remained weak.
Sales fell 7.8% to 10.87 million tons last year compared with 2009, when they declined 13%, the Johannesburg-based Cement and Concrete Institute said yesterday.
The recovery in South Africa’s economy has been slow, with house prices expected to increase 5% in 2011, down from an estimated 7% last year, Absa Group, the country’s biggest mortgage lender, said in December last year.
The central bank cut its benchmark interest rate to a 30-year low of 5.5% last year to help spur consumer spending and support the recovery.
Pretoria Portland Cement, Africa’s biggest maker of the building material, said in November that the outlook for South African cement demand “remains subdued.”
Low interest rates and the government’s infrastructure spending plans “bode well for medium and long-term cement and aggregate demand in South Africa,” the Johannesburg-based company said.
Construction growth slowed to an annualised 0.8% in the third quarter compared with 1% in the previous three months, Statistics SA reported in November.
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