China's Building Material Prices up in April on Stimulus Package

Prices of primary building materials in China rose in April after several months of decline due to the government's stimulus package.

The industrial output value of building material enterprises rose 14.4% to CNY 163.3 billion in the first four months of 2009, and in April alone output value increased 15.4% to CNY 50.3 billion.

Industry factory prices showed a month-to-month increase of 0.28%YoY growth of 2.61% in April, the first increase since last October. The factory price of cement rose CNY 0.6 to CNY 283 per tonne while price of flat glass increased CNY 1.3 to CNY 58.8 per box in April.

Cement output amounted to 429 million tonnes in the first four months representing a growth of 10.2%YoY and production in April alone rose 10.8% to 147 million tonnes the sharpest growth since last August. Output of clinker increased 8.8% to 302 million tonnes during the period from January to April.

Although the building material industry showed some recovery in April, the overall situation is still at a low ebb. The sales ratio of building materials stood at 96.75% in the first four months down by 0.3%YoY compared with the same period last year.