South African cement sales for May exceeded one million tons for the first time since November 2004, the Cement and Concrete Institute (CNCI) has reported.
The increase on a year-on-year (y/y) basis was 8.1% to 1,016,043 tons after April's large 28% rise to 9,716,04 tons. Year to date sales of cement increased by 11.1% y/y to 11,134,033 tons.
In November 2004, South African cement sales surged by 26.1% y/y to a record 1,103,317 tons, but this slowed to a 7.8% y/y increase to 724,051 tons in December 2004 with a further easing to a 7.1% y/y increase to 605,290 tons in January 2005 before a recovery to a 12.1% y/y increase in February.
Cement sales in South Africa rose by 17.4% in 2004 to a record 10.69 million tons compared with a 7.0% rise in 2003.
Exports however declined by 14.1% to 1.32 million tons after a 10% drop in 2003.
Total cement sales rose by 12.8% to 12 million tons, less than 15% short of nominal capacity of 13.5 million tons. Some cement producers have started expansions, but these are only expected to come into production in 2007.
The largest increase in the value of recorded building plans passed was reported for residential buildings (up 39.6% to 19.292 billion constant 2000 rand), followed by additions and alterations (up 27.6% to 8.178 billion constant 2000 rand) and non-residential buildings (up 17.0% to 4.478 billion constant 2000 rand).
The y/y rise in December slowed to 29.9% from 37.3% in November and the 2004 peak increase of 51.9% y/y set in August.
August's increase was the third month that the y/y increase exceeded 40%, beating March's 47.7% y/y and February's 40.7% y/y.
South Africa is currently experiencing a housing boom with South African house prices increasing by 32.6% y/y in December.
This brought the annual average increase to 32.1% for 2004 compared with 21.5% in 2003 according to South African commercial bank Absa's (ASA) monthly
House Price Index (HPI).
November 2004 was the third consecutive month that South African cement volumes have exceeded one million tons in a month after this milestone was breached for the first time in June 2004. In June 2004, cement sales surged by 31.5% y/y to a then-record 1,002,377 tons.
In 2003 domestic cement sales grew by 7.0% to 9,105,466 tons after increasing by 5.9% to 8,511,851 tons in 2002 following only 1.8% growth in 2001.
For the first five months of 2005 compared with the same period in 2004, the percentage changes for the country and 11 regions were as follows: Free State 23.9%; Western Cape 20.8%; Mpumalanga 16.7%; Southern Kwa-Zulu-Natal 14.0%; Limpopo Province 12.5%; Gauteng 12.3%; North West Province 12.2%; National 11.1%; Northern KwaZulu-Natal 6.7%; Border/Transkei 4.8%; Northern Cape -18.8% and Eastern Cape -26.8%.
For 2004 compared with 2003, the percentage changes for the country and 11 regions were as follows: Eastern Cape 30.9%; Border/Transkei 25.8%; Western Cape 24.8%; Mpumalanga 19.5%; Gauteng 18.7%; National 17.4%; Northern KwaZulu- Natal 17.8%; Free State 15.1%; Limpopo Province 11.3%; Southern KwaZulu-Natal 10.2%; North West 7.6%; and Northern Cape 6.2%.
