Highway and waterway fixed investment fell 9.1% in the first half of the year, cement demand continued to bear pressure.

Recently, the Ministry of Transport released the completion of fixed assets investment in highway and waterway transportation from January to June. From January to June, the fixed assets of national highway and waterway transportation amounted to RMB1,341.8 billion, representing a year-on-year decrease of 9.1%, of which the investment in highway construction was RMB12,393.0 billion, representing a year-on-year decrease of 10.4%, and the investment in waterway construction was RMB102.5 billion, representing a year-on-year increase of 9.5%.

Traditional investment in infrastructure construction is difficult to support strong demand for cement. According to the statistics of China Cement Network Cement Big Data Research Institute, the demand for cement recovered slowly in the first half of the year. By the end of June, the national cement shipment rate was only 37.74%, which was 8.51 percentage points lower than that of the same period. The

cement industry is at the key point of transformation and upgrading. The industry must rationally face the current situation of insufficient demand, innovate and develop, and find new opportunities in the crisis.