On February 18, Yufeng Group 2025 Business Conference and 2024 Annual Award Ceremony was held in Liuzhou. Jiang Xun, General Manager of China Cement Network, was invited to attend and give a keynote speech.
Jiang Xun said that in 2024, due to the simultaneous decline in the growth rate of real estate investment and investment in highway and municipal infrastructure, the decline in domestic demand for ready-mixed concrete has basically expanded month by month, and the national output of ready-mixed concrete is expected to decrease by 12.2% year on year, an increase of 6.7 percentage points compared with the same period last year.
By the end of December 2024, the price index of ready-mixed concrete in China was 111.39 points, with a year-on-year decline of nearly 11%. From the perspective of regions, the price decline in Southwest China was the highest, with an average annual price index of 16.26% lower than that in 2023; The overall price of Northeast China has risen, with the average annual price index rising by 1.86% compared with 2023.
Jiang Xun said that the price of concrete deviated from the price of cement, and the cost pressure of the concrete industry increased significantly.
Data show that in 2023, the price of ready-mixed concrete continued to fall with cement, and the trend of upstream and downstream remained basically the same during the year. In 2024, the upstream enterprises continued to raise the price of cement by increasing the off-peak production. The competition in the ready-mixed concrete industry was fierce, and it was difficult to follow up the rise. The price trend deviated, the profit margin was significantly squeezed, and the profit margin of the industry dropped to about 2.5%.
Jiang Xun also said that according to the current forecast situation of various institutions, the forecast center of real estate development investment in 2025 is about-9%, and the forecast center of new construction area is about-17%. According to the model forecast of China Concrete Network, the output of ready-mixed concrete in 2025 is in the range of -5% ~ -10%, and the forecast center is biased to the lower edge of the range.
