South Africa’s cement sales rose to 2.87Mt in the first quarter of 2015, according to the report released by the country’s leading producer, PPC, on behalf of the country’s eight major cement manufacturers on Wednesday.

The increase is attributed to demand from smaller players making up for the slump in the building sector led by bigger companies, analysts said. With the order books of the major firms not looking healthy, the jump in cement sales could be the result of smaller companies such as Afrimat attracting more business or individual builders seeing an uptick, Reuters cited Imara SP Reid analyst Sibonginkosi Nyanga as saying.

Newcomer Sephaku has said that it had a very good first quarter this year, and could also be a substantial contributor to the 15 percent rise in sales, Nyanga added.

Last year, sales fell by 5.4 per cent YoY to 2.48Mt from around 2.62Mt in 2013. In its results for the half-year ending March 2015,  PPC reported its total South Africa  cement sales volumes were up four per cent, and that the economic growth outlook for remained muted. Lafarge Africa in its full-year 2014 results disclosed that its South Africa cement sales were 10 per cent down compared to 2013. By contrast, NPC – Cimpor, reported a 15 per cent growth in sales in 2014 compared to 2013, growing to 1.8Mt (possibly including increased sales into Mozambique rather than to South Africa).