Semen Gresik Leads Domestic Cement Market

         Jakarta (ANTARA) - State cement maker  PT Semen Gresik Tbk (SMGR) claims it held a 40 percent share of the domestic cement market in the year to October 2012.         With the 40 percent market share, PT Semen Gresik maintained its  market leader status, the company's president director, Dwi Soetjipto said here on Wednesday.         "Given the plan for business expansion, we believe we will be able to maintain our market leader status and remain the largest cement maker in Indonesia and even in Southeast Asia," he said.         The company's sales rose 13.2 percent to 18.2 million tons in the year ending October 31, 2012 compared to the same period last year, he said.         Over the same period domestic cement consumption grew 14.5 percent to 44.6 million tons.         "National cement consumption grew at a promising pace this year. Though the bulk of cement demand came from Java cement consumption outside Java also grew rapidly," he said.         Citing an example, he said cement consumption grew 50.2 percent in Papua and 20.9 percent in Kalimantan. (*)