The output of the Polish cement industry amounted to 11.01Mt last year, a decline of 3.0 per cent.  This is the fourth successive year of falling cement production since the peak of 15.40Mt in 1999, but also the smallest drop.  Cement consumption, hit by cold weather delaying the start of the construction season recovered in the second half and was down by just 1.0 per cent to 11.25Mt for the full year, with domestic deliveries accounting for 10.57Mt, a reduction of 2.0 per cent and imports estimated by the Polish Cement & Lime Association to have risen by about 0.1Mt to some 0.68Mt.  The main source of imports is Belarus, which is largely seen as unfair competition, while imports from the neighbouring countries of Germany and the Ukraine are not seen as a problem, but ordinary cross border trading activity. Export of cement and clinker by the Polish cement industry continued to decline and was down by 24.2 per cent to 0.35Mt, a far cry form the 4.28Mt exported in 1994.  Clinker exports, which had been negligible in the past three years, rose twelve-fold to 75,800t but exports of cement were 39.7 per cent lower at 0.28Mt.