Asia driving increase in demand for cement

Asia driving increase in demand for cement    Rapidly growing demand for cement in Asia will increase worldwide about 56 percent from 2.28 billion tons in 2005 to about 3.56 billion tons by 2020, according to a report by United Kingdom-based Ocean Shipping Consultants Ltd.
   Ocean Shipping said that 2005 results represented a 5.75 percent increase over the previous year. The last five years have seen a global expansion of 633 million tons, with almost 70 percent, or an extra 440 million tons, coming from East Asia alone. Other regional expansion in that timeframe include an additional 76 million tons from other Asian countries; 48 million tons for Europe; 44 million tons for Africa and the Middle East; 20 million tons for North America; and 7 million tons for Central and South America.
   Of the predicted 1.28 billion tons increase in world cement consumption by 2020, more than 72 percent is set to occur in Asia, with volume increases of 710 million tons for East Asia, 109 million tons for South West Asia and 111 million tons for South East Asia.
   “The development of future cement trade volumes will continue to be dominated by essentially short-term import requirements, set against an underlying background of clinker import dependency and other long-term supply patterns. Trade volumes will remain highly susceptible to cost and availability factors, with any major shift in shipping costs being of potential primary significance in this regard, as witnessed in the past two-three years,” Ocean Shipping said.
   “The continuing consolidation of the cement industry at the global level, in terms of capacity ownership by the cement majors, will continue to act as a restraint on imports in some markets and will encourage trade in others. The very nature of the cement trade suggests continued significant year-on-year volatility for individual markets and potentially at the aggregate trade level throughout the study period. This will continue to be exacerbated by any major movement in shipping costs through bulk carrier freight rates.”