Rohan: Romania Needs Double Cement Usage To Catch Up With Western Europe

05.05.2011 By Andrei Circhelan

Romania’s cement consumption per capita will increase in the near future, reaching the European average of 423 kg by 2015, but Romania still has some ground to cover before equaling western Europe in terms of infrastructure, according to the cement industry association CIROM.

"Last year consumption reached 322 kg per capita, and we expect it to reach 423 kg by 2015, close to the European annual average in the past 20 years. They already have highways, airports, office buildings etc. We should double consumption in order to connect our infrastructure to theirs," CIROM president Mihai Rohan said Thursday during the Mediafax Talks about Constructions conference.

He added the construction market halved over the past two years, because of the economic crisis, and its contribution to the gross domestic product shrank to 8%-9% last year, from over 10% in 2007.

"Regarding cement production in Romania, we can look at the six million ton output we had in 2000, then at the 10.6 million ton output in 2008, and now production is at seven million tons," Rohan said.

The CIROM official added authorities should focus on projects that have already secured financing, since at the moment there are more than 40,000 active construction sites.

Last year, cement production dropped 11%, to 6.92 million tons, from 7.8 million tons in the year before. Local sales dropped 12% on the year, to 6.85 million tons, while export tripled, but to just 9,800 tons.

Top players on the Romanian cement market include the local units of French Lafarge, Swiss Holcim and German HeidelbergCement.