Domestic cement market expands

Gelephu, April 09, 2009: The export of Bhutanese cement to India began to dwindle as demand in internal market grows. The Penden Cement Authority plans to reduce the export by more than 15 percent. 

The domestic demand has swelled up only due to the construction of hydropower plants, which are likely to go unprecedented in the next few years when Bhutan begins to build 10 mega power plants.

There is also real estate growing, which consumes big amount of cement. 

Bhutanese cement is mostly consumed in Sikkim, Assam and West Bengal with quarterly demand of about 60,000 to 70,000 MT each. 60 percent of the production in Bhutan is supplied to these states. 

In January, the demand was only 8,354 MT. Last year, of the total production of about 108,000 MT, 26,000 MT was sold from January to March. Bhutan produces three kinds of cement – Portland slag cement, Pozzolana Portland slag cement and ordinary Portland cement.