Recently, Asia Cement (China) reported a loss of 130 million yuan in the first quarter of 2024, and sales of cement + clinker fell by 14% compared with last year. It also said that the demand for cement will continue to decline slightly throughout the year, and the market is expected to show a low and high throughout the year.
In this market, the company said that it would give full play to the advantages of the group's comprehensive storage and transportation, actively undertake key projects around it, fully participate in market competition and maintain its core market share.
It is understood that the cement clinker production base of Asia Cement (China) is mainly located in Jiangxi, Hubei and Sichuan along the Yangtze River, with a clinker production capacity of 26.63 million tons, and its cement clinker sales range can radiate the whole river basin. Asia Cement (China) has favorable conditions to fully participate in the market competition along the Yangtze River.
According to the incomplete statistics of China Cement Network, the clinker production capacity along the Yangtze River adds up to about 600 million tons, accounting for one third of the country's total, and can produce nearly 900 million tons of cement. However, the consumption of cement along the Yangtze River is declining. According to statistics, the cement output in the above-mentioned areas will reach 976 million tons in 2021, 900 million tons in 2022 and 848 million tons in 2023. According to this decline rate, the cement output in 2024 may be less than 800 million tons, and the contradiction between supply and demand will become more prominent.
Market feedback shows that since the beginning of this year, the demand for cement in the Yangtze River Basin has been weak, the market competition has intensified, and the price of cement has been declining. The quotations of some enterprises in Chongqing, Hubei and Anhui even dropped to 180-200 yuan/ton.
According to the data of cement production in the first quarter, Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Anhui, Jiangxi, Hunan, Hubei, Chongqing, Sichuan and other provinces and cities along the Yangtze River are all declining. Among them, Hubei fell 26.11% year-on-year, Jiangxi and Anhui fell more than 15%, Chongqing, Sichuan and Shanghai all fell about 10%.
In the second quarter, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shanghai, Chongqing, Hubei, Anhui and other places tried to push up the price of cement, but due to the serious overcapacity and high openness of the whole market, it is very difficult to implement the price. Asian Cement said that the market demand in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River is significantly lower than last year, and the second quarter rain season is approaching, holidays are intensive, and follow-up cement prices are expected to be under pressure.
As an open region, under the situation of intensified contradiction between supply and demand, if more and more enterprises insist on full competition and compete for market share, it is expected that the price of the whole market will be difficult to rise in the short term, or even continue to decline. Long-term competition will speed up the withdrawal of some enterprises with weak competitiveness from the market. At a time when the
industry is facing severe challenges, it is of immeasurable strategic significance and practical utility to actively promote the upgrading of large-scale production equipment and actively promote the energy-saving technological innovation and environmental protection upgrading and transformation of the cement industry, so as to enhance the core competitiveness of cement enterprises and realize the grand blueprint of sustainable development of the industry.
To this end, China Cement Network will hold the 11th China Cement Energy Conservation and Environmental Protection Technology Exchange Conference-Equipment Renewal Forum in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province on June 13-14 . This forum will gather government leaders, industry technical specialist, scientific research institutions, universities, cement enterprises and equipment suppliers to discuss and analyze the practical path of equipment renewal and green upgrading in the cement industry, so as to promote the industry to move towards a more energy-efficient, greener and environmentally friendly future.
