Photo by: Duane Daws
Data released by major South African cement producer PPC on Tuesday showed domestic cement sales bouncing back into positive territory, rising 4.6% to 3.38-million tons in the third quarter of 2014.
This had followed two consecutive quarterly contractions, with first- and second-quarter cement sales having declined by 5.4% and 5.1% respectively.
Sales volumes for the first three quarters of 2014 amounted to 8.9-million tons.
In the quarter under review, selling days, at 65, had ticked up 1.6%, after experiencing a 4.8% decrease to 59 days during the second quarter.
The reported sales a day recorded a 3% increase to 52 132 t during the three months ended September, with the year-to-date sales a day averaging 47 884 t.
The volumes reported included sales figures from PPC, Lafarge, AfriSam, NPC, Ash Resources, Sephaku Ash, Sephaku Cement and Ulula Ash, and excluded exports and sales to neighbouring countries.
Imports and sales by companies other than those listed were also not included.