Building materials makers hope for rebound in Q4
Building materials makers hope for rebound in Q4
The building materials industry hopes to rebound by the end of this year as demand from homeowners rises for materials to repair or remodel homes and apartments ahead of the lunar new year holiday, but Dong Tam Long An Joint Stock Co chairman Vo Quoc Thang says any real recovery still depends on a recovery of the real estate market.
Viet Nam Cement Industrial Corporation chairman Luong Quang Khai has said that all building material producers expected seasonal demand to rise in the final quarter, and he noted that many real estate projects have resumed or begun promoting the resumption of construction, which should help increase demand.
Since July, about VND21 trillion (US$1 billion) has been disbursed from the State budget per month to support a number of public construction projects, Khai said. Next year and beyond, this should result in a boost to the building materials industry.
The market for steel and cement rose 15 per cent in the third quarter, while the market for ceramic products rose by 20 per cent, Viet Nam Building Materials Association chairman Tran Van Huynh said.
The industry has faced a number of challenges so far this year, including rising raw material and production costs, slow sales, mounting inventories and abrupt termination of production at some facilities, Huynh said.
To deal with that problems, the association had some proposals to solve current difficulties in production and business for local building material enterprises, said Huynh.
The Government needed policies to encourage domestic construction projects to use locally-produced building materials, instead of importing materials, he said.
He also suggested that the Ministry of Construction create a programme for promoting exports of Vietnamese building materials to markets in Africa, the Middle East and Latin America.
The general development plan for the building materials industry also differed from similar plans adopted at provincial levels, Huynh said, so the ministry needed to supply specific guidance to building materials makers in various provinces in following the national plan, especially regarding such major products as cement, ceramics and glass.
The ministry should also work with banks to restructure the debts of building materials enterprises and create more favourable conditions for these enterprises to access additional credit to finance production, he said.
He urged the ministry to co-ordinate more closely with his association to generate statistics on production and demand, and to include the association in revising the industry development plan.
VIETNAMNEWS
