China produced a total of 280.49m tons of cement in the first quarter of 2009, an increase of 12.95 per cent compared with the same period last year, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

Cement output in southwest China, which was hit by a major earthquake last May, surged 36 per cent from a year ago to 16.8m tons in March. However, output in eastern China decreased 3 per cent to 44.6m tons during the month.


Crude steel output decreased 0.3 per cent from the previous year to 45.1m tons in March, although this was 12 per cent higher than in the previous month. In the first quarter, crude steel output reached 127.4m tons, representing a year-on-year growth of 1.4 per cent.

Luo Bingsheng, vice chairman of the China Iron and Steel Association, said China’s 71 large- and medium-sized steel enterprises suffered a combined loss of Rmb1.51bn billion in the first two months of this year due to the waning demand.