Capacity utilisation in Ukraine’s cement industry stood at 57.5 per cent in 2005, while the average figure for member companies of local cement producers’ association Ukrcement ( which incorporates 12 Ukrainian cement companies) was 60.7 per cent, Ukrcement CEO Petro Lopatiev told the international Cement Industry and Market conference in the Crimean resort of Yalta. 
 
Ukrainian cement producers Ivano-Frankivsktsement and Kryvyi Rih Cement, part of the association, worked at an utilisation rate of nearly 100 pct in the period. The outputs of five other domestic cement plants stood at between 60 per cent and 90 per cent of their capacity in 2005. Six of the local cement companies registered lower capacity utilisation in the first four months of 2006 compared to the year ago period, Lopatiev added. 
 
Cement production in Ukraine increased by 5.1 per cent year-on-year to 2.969Mt in the first four months of 2006, the State Statistics Committee said. Estimates of Ukrcement showed that Ukraine’s overall cement production grew by 3.1 per cent on the year to 2.967Mt for January to April 2006.