South Africa: Sephaku Holdings has said that bagged cement market continues to perform better than that of bulk cement as large construction projects dwindle. The market continues to be characterised by price competition but appears to be stabilising following the implementation of price increases by all producers in the third quarter. Sephaku Holdings, which owns a minority stake in Sephaku Cement, made the comments in its half-year financial results that covered events until 30 September 2016. Investments of up to US$1.2m have been earmarked to improve raw material handling efficiency.
The company also said that imports of cement have ‘significantly’ declined on a year-on-year basis, particularly from Pakistan. By the end of June 2016 approximately 0.16Mt had been imported compared to 0.5Mt in the previous period, with 75% of the volume from China.