GCC market developments
Global Investment House (GIH) is a leading finance and investment company that has excellent first-hand information on the Middle East cement and construction markets. Focussing on the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region, GIH provides an up-to-date report on cement business developments ahead of the Cemtech Middle East and Africa Conference and Exhibition in February.
Cement producers in the United Arab Emirates, such as Fujairah Cement (pictured)
saw a rise in margins in 1Q12 and hope for more of the same in 2013
The year 2012 was a mixed bag for the global cement sector, but in 2013 we expect things to change and move in favour of the industry. With Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries benefitting from sound economic fundamentals and huge budgeted programmes we expect cement demand in GCC to cross 86Mt in 2013 compared to an expected demand of 82.2Mt in 2012 (see Table 1). This translates into a growth of 6.2 per cent, which is mainly driven by Saudi Arabia. Several countries have announced large infrastructure projects, most notably Qatar and Saudi Arabia. Kuwait is also expected to do well as its new parliament has initiated a series of development programmes, which would benefit the local cement industry. UAE and Oman are also predicted to touch higher ground as both the countries have doubled their allocation for the development.
