Last week, the average price of P.O42.5 cement nationwide was 442.55 yuan/ton, up 0.71% month-on-month. The price of cement in Fujian rose nearly 7% month-on-month, followed by a certain increase in Jiangsu and Henan. The cement storage ratio increased slightly month-on-month to more than 58%. As some cement companies completed maintenance and resumed production, the operating rate of cement clinker companies increased to 95.3% month-on-month.
In addition, many places have recently deployed Cuofeng production in the fall and winter season: 1) all cement clinker enterprises in Hebei Province stopped kilns for a total of 10 days from September 26 to October 5, including many subsidiaries of cement companies such as Jinyu Jidong and Zhonglian Cement; 2) Shandong Province issued a notice requiring enterprises that have not implemented Cuofeng production to strictly implement the kiln repair plan by November 14, 2020. The list includes subsidiaries of cement companies such as Shanshui (00691), Zhonglian, and Conch (00941), which need to be completed in about 6-70 days; 3) Notice from Hunan Province in 2020- During the 2021 special protection period for air pollution prevention and control (October 16, 2020 to March 15, 2021), the base number of days of peak production days for cement clinker production lines was 70-75 days, and the peak production time in the fourth quarter of this year was no less than 25 days
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In the fourth quarter, local cement clinker companies misspiked production or restricted the supply side. The exact peak exemptions and some regional plans are still unclear. However, due to the characteristics of a short cement sales radius, Cuofeng production has some support for regional cement prices. It is expected that there will still be rainfall in South China and East China in the short term, especially in the coastal areas of South China. At the same time, with the National Day Mid-Autumn Festival holiday approaching, cement demand may be under pressure, but this will not change the overall upward trend in cement prices.