For August, the Bank of Thailand (BoT) reported domestic cement sales volume rose to 2.1Mt, up 1.7% YoY and 7.4% MoM. This was the third consecutive month that domestic demand growth YoY was positive.

On the export side, the BoT announced that export cement sales volume dropped to 1.1Mt, down 22.2% YoY and 27.1% MoM. Nevertheless, this was better than the contractions of around 30.0% YoY in late 2008 to the beginning of 2009. For 8M09, domestic and export cement sales volumes contracted 7.0% YoY and 6.5% YoY.

This year (2009) forecasts were maintained for domestic and export cement sales volume to contract 4.0% and 6.0% YoY, as cement sales volume is poised to improve late this year, thanks to the low base in 4Q08 and the revival of real cement demand along with economic recovery.