The past year was an outstanding year for the South African cement industry with several sales records being broken, John Sheath, marketing manager of the Cement & Concrete Institute, has reported.

Writing in the latest issue of Concrete Trends, the official journal of the Cement & Concrete Institute, Sheath says for the first time total demand – including exports – exceeded 12 million tons. Regional and domestic demand also soared to new heights, reaching 11 million and 10 million tons, respectively.

"The regional volume of about 11,7 million tons represented a year-on-year growth of 15,5% and the domestic growth was 17,4% compared with 2003," Sheath states.

Domestically, demand in all South African provinces was higher than in 2003 with the most significant growth coming from Gauteng (up 19%), Eastern Cape (up 28%), Western Cape (up 25%) and Mpumalanga (up 19%).

Buying sectors reflecting the strongest growth last year were cement blenders (up 29%), re-sellers (up 16%), readymixed concrete producers (up 21%), and concrete product manufacturers (up 18%).

The outlook for the short-medium term remains very positive as relatively low interest rates prevail and business and consumer confidence reach new heights. "The awarding of the 2010 Soccer World Cup to South Africa should fast-track infrastructural expenditure programmes and the delivery of low-income housing should accelerate during 2005. Couple this with an emerging market that is growing rapidly, and a non-residential building market also set for future growth, and demand for cementitious products will continue to be very strong," he adds.

Sheath recently issued warnings to the public that, with the rising demand for cement, fraudsters were increasingly fleecing unsuspecting consumers. These fraudsters solicited pre-payment for cement orders and then vanished once such payments had been made.

There had even been an instance of fraudsters claiming to have imported 1,6 million bags of cement from Egypt – which they claimed complied with SA National Standards quality criteria - for which pre-payment was sought from consumers.

Dr Graham Grieve, MD of the Cement &Concrete Institute, also writing in the latest issue of the C&CI journal, says plans are being made to increase cement manufacturing capacity with announcements to this effect already having been made by PPC and NPC.