Questiaux, Lafarge: Cement in Romania is still sold by the sack

Phillipe Questiaux, chairman of Lafarge Ciment, the biggest producer of cement on the infrastructure market, says the main measure that builders expected from the government - the start of infrastructure works in full gear was not felt this year, either, considering most sales of cement have been made by the sack.

In the first half, when the cement market fell by 30%, the biggest sales were made to small housing projects, especially in villages, where people usually buy cement by the sack.

"Although we did see a slight rebound in the volume of sales by the sack in June, July and August, this only served to confirm that mostly small, domestic projects are being carried out in the constructions sector rather than extensive works such as infrastructure or major residential or retail projects," explains Questiaux, who runs a business that was among the most profitable in Romania last year, posting 164 million-euro net income, which means a 44% margin.

Sales of cement by the sack account for 60% of a market that reached about 900 million euros, according to the latest available data, which is the opposite of what happened in the European Union. The Boc Cabinet announced at the beginning of the year that it would allocate 10 billion euros for infrastructure, but only 4 billion had actually been invested until August, which all cement producers felt, as their business went down by 30-35% compared with the previous year on the average.