Cement sales in Indonesia rose 3 percent year-on-year (y/y) to 4.45 million tons in February 2016 from the same month one year earlier. Widodo Santoso, Chairman of the Indonesian Cement Association (ASI), said Indonesia's rising cement sales were caused by the ongoing development of infrastructure projects across the archipelago. Three regions showed a marked increase in cement sales last month: Sumatra (+16.5 percent y/y to 2.13 million tons), Sulawesi (+33 percent y/y to 841,000 tons) and the Moluccas & Papua (+31 percent y/y to 125,000 tons).

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The start of infrastructure projects in Indonesia - ranging from roads, bridges, power plants, smelters, and public housing - has managed to boost cement consumption in the first month of 2016. Widodo Santoso, Chairman of the Indonesian Cement Association (ASI), said domestic cement consumption in Indonesia rose 4.4 percent (y/y) to 5.14 million tons in January 2016 from the same month one year earlier. Highest growth in consumption occurred in Sumatra (+15.8 percent y/y to 1.1 million tons), Java (+5.3 percent y/y to 2.9 million tons) and Sulawesi (+19 percent y/y to 424,000 tons).

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Indonesia's cement sales totaled 61 million tons in 2015, up 1.8 percent from sales in 2014. Although the pace of growth is limited, the final result was well received by stakeholders and policymakers because in the first half of 2015 the nation's cement sales growth still stood at -1.5 percent on a year-on-year basis due to a delay in government-led infrastructure development. In the second half of the year there occurred a surge in infrastructure development projects, hence triggering higher cement sales.

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The push for government-led infrastructure development across Indonesia, which started from mid-2015, is expected to cause rising cement sales in Indonesia in 2016. The Indonesian Cement Association (ASI) expects to see a 5 percentage point growth in Indonesian cement sales to 64.5 million tons this year (from an estimated 61.5 million tons in 2015). However, ASI Chairman Widodo Santoso emphasized that a delay in government spending could jeopardize achieving the sales projection.

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Cement sales in Indonesia climbed 4.7 percent (y/y) to 6.1 million tons in November 2015 supported by rising cement sales in all regions apart from the Moluccas and Papua. Widodo Santoso, Chairman of the Indonesian Cement Association (ASI), said domestic cement demand rose sharply in November despite seeing some rainfall (which usually leads to delays in development of infrastructure and other construction projects). Santoso says this rise is due to improved government spending on infrastructure projects.

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According to the latest data from the Indonesian Cement Association (ASI), Indonesia's cement sales climbed 10.7 percent year-on-year (y/y) to 6.4 million tons in October 2015 as government-related infrastructure development has picked up in the second half of the year (cement sales only contracted on the island of Kalimantan in October). Cement sales are an interesting indicator as they provide valuable information about the country's household consumption and investment in property and infrastructure sectors.

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In the first seven months of 2015 Indonesian cement sales continued to fall, signalling decreased property and infrastructure development in Southeast Asia’s largest economy. Domestic cement sales fell 4.1 percent to 31.3 metric tons in the January-July 2015 period from the same period last year. Apart from the slowing economy (which slowed to a six-year low in the second quarter of 2015), weakening cement sales in July were also caused by Idul Fitri celebrations when business traditionally comes to a near standstill.

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Two important indicators to measure the condition of an economy are car and cement sales as both statistics provide valuable information about people’s purchasing power (and consumer confidence) as well as infrastructure and property development. In the first quarter of 2015, Indonesia’s car and cement sales declined (compared to the same period in the preceding year), triggering concern that economic growth will fall accordingly. In the first quarter of 2014, Indonesia’s GDP growth had already slowed to 5.14 percent (y/y).

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According to the latest survey of Bank Indonesia (the central bank of Indonesia), the country’s January retail sales accelerated 10.4 percent year-on-year (y/y), up from the 3.3 percentage point growth pace (y/y) in the preceding month. Retail sales in the first month of the year in Southeast Asia’s largest economy accelerated because of higher sales of information & communication equipment (+29.9 percent y/y) as well as food, beverages & tobacco products (+15.1 percent y/y).

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Indonesian cement sales in 2014 reached 59.9 million metric tons, up 3.3 percent from domestic sales in the previous year but below the target that was set by the Indonesian Cement Association (ASI). The ASI targeted a sales growth rate of between 3.5 percent and 4.0 percent year-on-year. This sales target had in fact already been revised down from 6 percent (y/y) due to weak cement sales amid uncertainties brought about by Indonesia’s ‘political year’ (legislative and presidential elections) as well as weak global commodity prices.

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Indocement Tunggal Prakarsa (INTP), Indonesia's second-largest cement producer, is planning to invest between US $260 and $320 for the establishment of three new cement factories. One of these factories - with a production capacity of 4.4 million ton per year - will be built on brownfield land (in Citeureup, West Java), while the other two will be built on greenfield land and will have a combined production capacity of about five million ton annually.

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