China's cement, flat glass output speeds in 2011 despite housing tightening

BEIJING, Jan. 22 -- China's building materials continued to post robust growth last year even though the government's tightening of the property market dampened demand to some extent, according to the latest statistics from the country's top economic planner.

Cement output growth in 2011 accelerated by 0.6 percentage points from previous year to 2.06 billion tonnes, up 16.1 percent year-on-year, according to a report by the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) on its website.

The output of flat glass, a sector fraught with overcapacity and duplicated construction problems, rose 15.8 percent year-on-year to 7.38billion weight boxes last year, quickening by 4.9 percentage points from 2010, according to NDRC data.

A major consumer of cement and flat glass, the redhot property sector is rapidly cooling in China due to the government's tightening measures such as prohibition from buying third-homes and higher down payment requirement over the past two years.

Prices of cement and flat glass, however, headed toward different directions in December 2011. Factory price of cement rose 11.3 percent year-on-year to an average of 407.5 yuan (64.54 U.S. dollars) per tonne at major building material manufacturers. Flat glass factory price fell 27 percent year-on-year to 61.3 yuan per weight boxes.

At the end of 2011, cement inventories of major enterprises amounted to 10.42 million tonnes, up 20.3 percent year-on-year, while stocks of flat glass moved up 26.6 percent year-on-year to 29.37 weight boxes, according to NDRC data.

Profits of China's building materials industry surged more than half to 279.6 billion yuan in the first 11 months of 2011, boosted mainly by a 92.6-percent surge in profits of cement makers.

Flat glass manufacturers saw their profits plunge 80.3 percent year-on-year to 1.47 billion yuan in the first 11 months of 2011.

To curb the overcapacity and repeated construction in the flat glass sector, the NDRC said in a statement in October 2011 that it would take move nationwide to clear up projects for construction of flat glass production facilities.