Cement Sales Grow in Kalimantan

Banjarmasin, South Kalimantan (Antara) - Cement sales of PT Semen Indonesia in Kalimantan rose 11.4 percent in the period of January to April reaching 1.47 million tons. The growth is the third biggest nationally, company spokesman Muhammad Helmi said to newsmen here on Tuesday. "The highest sales growth is recorded in Nusa Tenggara regions by around 23.1 percent followed by Papua-Maluku regions by 14 percent," he said. He said cement market in Kalimantan is still very potential and continued to grow in line with increasing infrastructure development in the region. In South Kalimantan sales of PT Semen Indonesia Group (Semen Gresik and Semen Tonasa) in the January-April period also rose significantly from 108,470 tons to 112,770 tons. "We keep actively seeking new potential markets including in Kalimantan. Reaching out to construction workers is one of our marketing strategies to strengthen our market," he said on the sidelines of a training program for construction workers across Kalimantan. Nationally PT Semen Indonesia's sales in the January-April 2-13 period reached 7.91 million tons up 19 percent from 6.65 million tons in the same period last year. PT Semen Indonesia sales are far higher than the average sales of other cement industries which grew only 8.6 percent from 16.68 million tons in the January-April 2012 period to 18.2 million tons in the same period this year. Regarding the training program Helmi said that it has been carried out since 2007 in 65 districts/cities in Java, Bali and Kalimantan involving 10,352 construction workers. In terms of marketing he said construction workers play an important role because they communicate directly with cement users and therefore could affect their choice. "Construction workers play a role with their cement purchase recommendations and so cooperating with them could strengthen PT Semen Indonesia's market. The cooperation is vital to create an effective word of mouth marketing model," he said. (*)