The value-added output of China's building material industry is expected to grow by more than 10 percent year-on-year for the next five years.
The industry's 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-2015), published on the website of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), said that demand for cement and flat glass will grow by 3.3 percent and 2.6 percent year-on-year to reach 2.2 billion and 37.5 million metric tons, respectively, in the next five years.
Meanwhile, demand for architectural ceramic and sanitary pottery will grow by 4 percent and 3.3 percent year-on-year, respectively, to 9.5 billion square meters and 200 million pieces in 2015, it said.
The plan also establishes strict goals for emission reduction, with building material producers required to cut their annual energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions per unit of industrial value-added output by 18 to 20 percent during the five-year period.
Producers' emissions of principal pollutants, including nitrogen oxide and sulfur dioxide, will also be required to drop by 8 to 10 percent by 2015.
China produced 1.88 billion metric tons of cement, 33 million metric tons of flat glass, 7.8 billion square meters of architectural ceramic and 170 million pieces of sanitary pottery in 2010. Sales revenues for the country's building material industry totaled 2.7 trillion yuan (425.2 billion U.S. dollars) in 2010.
