The Cement Manufacturers Association (CMA) today said the industry posted a 9.4 per cent rise in production to 46.01 million tonne during the first five months of the financial year compared with a decline of half a per cent in the previous fiscal. Exports, meanwhile, grew by 7.5 per cent to 1.28 million tonne.
Speaking at the associations 41st annual session, T M M Nambiar, president of the association, emphasised the problems, such as high freight costs and coal imports, that the industry is facing currently.
He said the prime movers of cement consumption would be acceleration in housing construction and more concrete roads.
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Nambiar recommended that the industry and the government should work co-operate each other in sustaining the growth rate.
Speaking at the occasion, Shanta Kumar, minister for rural development, said the construction sector has a potential to create large-scale job opportunities in the rural areas.
"We must ensure that the construction work is completed in time to save on added costs. There is a huge scope for the sector to boom as the requirement for roads, and related goods, is increasing in the hilly areas," Kumar said.
He pointed out that about 80 per cent of the existing roads are not made of concrete and must be immediately converted to puccaroads.
Nambiar said that there will be large scale consolidation in the sector over the next three-four years.
"There would be stiff competition with more foreign companies entering the market."
The association has projected a double-digit growth of the sector during the current financial year, though the half-yearly growth rate stood at 9.4 per cent.
"We are expecting a double-digit growth rate in the next few months. The demand pattern has been healthy in the last few months and we hope that the growth in demand will increase in the coming months due to the large scale construction activities," Nambiar, said.
He said that issues such as multiple tax burdens and high import duty needs to be sorted out at the earliest.
"The government must take appropriate steps to remove all constraints and provide healthy environment for the growth of the cement industry," he said.
Also present on the occasion were B.C. Khanduri, minister of state for transport, road development and highways, S. Jagadeesan, joint secretary, ministry of commerce and industry among others.