In April, the publication of monthly cement sales up until February 2012 was suspended on instruction by the Competition Commission. Now, only cement sales on a quarterly domestic basis will be published 3 months in arrears, which will exclude figures for Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, Swaziland and other exports.

The y-o-y growth in cement sales for the 1st qtr of 2012 declined marginally, to 6.7%, from 7.1% in the 4th qtr of 2011. This was well above the growth rate for the whole of 2011 of 3.3%.

However, if one adjusts for differences in the number of sales days, the decline in y-o-y growth in the 1st qtr of 2012 compared with the 4th qtr of 2011 is greater. Y-o-y growth in cement sales per day declined to 6.7% in the 1st qtr of 2012, from a more elevated 10.6% in the 4th qtr of 2011. Nonetheless, this was still greater than the corresponding growth rate for 2011 as a whole, of 4.2%.

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