China: Taiwan Cement plans price increase

Taiwan Cement announced that it will be increasing its prices of cement products in China by as much as seven per cent by the end of the year as a response to recovering demand in the country.

Edward Huang, Taiwan Cement's senior vice president, said, "We are planning to increase cement prices in southern China by [US$2.97] per tonne."

Mr Huang went on to say that infrastructure spending in China is expected to experience a double-digit percentage growth on the previous year, with demand for residential construction also improving. This year China is expected to product more than 2400Mt of cement, a four per cent increase on last years' 2300Mt, according to the cement manufacturer.

"With the optimistic outlook for the industry, we predict Taiwan Cement’s whole-year shipments [to China] will increase 10 per cent annually to 54Mt this year, compared with last year’s 49Mt," Mr Huang commented.

For 9M16 Taiwan Cement shipped 39Mt of cement to China, a 10 per cent increased compared with the same period last year. For the present quarter shipments to China are forecast to rise seven per cent YoY to 15Mt.

Taiwan Cement operates 22 plants in southern China with a total capacity of 65.3Mta. The company has plans to increase its capacity to 100Mta through mergers of local companies, but the timing of this programme remains undisclosed at present.