In February, cement production rose by 143,000t compared to 458,000t an increase of 45.4 per cent on the previous year and was up 94,000t on January 2004 total. In 2003, cement production rose to 8,916,000t up by 24.7 per cent compared with 2002,   More than 15 companies produce cement in Ukraine, and their total annual capacity is more than 20Mt.