Ha Noi (VNA) -- The Viet Nam Cement Corporation announced an increase in cement prices of 20,000 VND (0.63 USD) a tonne, up 3 percent over the previous level, due to higher input costs for electricity, imported clinker, and transportation, said the deputy director of the corporation's marketing department, Nguyen Anh Thi.
The same factors have caused cement prices to creep up about 50,000 VND (3.13 USD) a tonne over the past two years, Thi specified.
The corporation would increase prices gradually to avoid causing negative effects on the market, he said, and would continue to cut production costs to enhance efficiency.
"The corporation will consider reasonable prices based on the purchasing power of different markets while still assuring healthy competition among cement enterprises," said corporation chairman Le Van Chung. "Prices will continue to be adjusted in the coming months." A reasonable price would be 55-60 USD a tonne, Chung said, but now it stands at only about 50 USD a tonne, he said.
According to the Viet Nam Cement Association, its member enterprises had also decided to raise cement prices by 20,000 VND in early March.
Demand for cement nationwide was expected to increase 10.5 - 11.5 percent annually over the next five years and might reach 50 million tonnes per year by 2010, said a representative of the association at a seminar on Viet Nam Cement Industry Development for 2006-10 held in Ha Noi in January.-Enditem
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