Mideast hungry for building materials

Head of the African, West and South Asia Markets Department under the Industry and Trade Ministry, Ly Quoc Hung, said the industry was booming in the Middle East as governments target infrastructure development.

During the 2009-10 period, the construction projects in this market totalled US$3 trillion and it is estimated that its infrastructure development projects would grow 5.4 per cent annually over the next five years, compared to the global growth of 5.2 per cent.

“This sounds very promising for our producers since almost all of the materials used for these projects must be imported,” Hung said.

The latest figure from the Construction Ministry show-ed that despite a production capacity that far exceeds domestic demand, the industry has not yet reached $500 million a year in exports.

For example, cement production increased from 24.1 million tonnes in 2005 to 51 million tonnes this year. Glass production in 2005 was 80 million square metres but was estimated to increase to 142 million square metres this year.*

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