South African cement sales rose 6.7 per cent YoY in the first quarter of 2012 to 2.64Mt, data by the Cement and Concrete Association (C&CI) showed.

Average daily sales for the 1Q12 were 41,863t, up 6.7 per cent on the same quarter as last year.

The moving annual total (April 2011-March 2012) reached 11.4Mt, up 5.6 per cent on the same period of the previous year.

Up until April this year the C&CI reported monthly data a few days after the end of the month‚ but the Competition Commission said then that it could now only publish quarterly data more than 90 days after the end of the quarter.