The value of cement imports to Algeria in the first eight months of 2014 soared 31 per cent with a bill of US$373.5m against US$285.3m in the same period of last year, the Customs' National Centre for Data Processing and Statistics told the Algerie Presse Service (Algiers).

Cement import volumes increased by nearly 28 per cent from 3.2Mt to 4Mt, CNIS provisional data revealed.

The overall bill for the import of building materials increased by seven per cent hitting US$2.25bn during the Jan-August 2014 period, versus nearly US$2.11bn in the same period of last year.