Against the backdrop of the outbreak of the COVID-19 which threw the society into disorder at the onset of 2020, the concrete industry lived up to its mission and has made outstanding contributions to emergency rescue, disaster reduction and relief and rapid recovery of key projects as well as helping out the ailing infrastructure economy. 

Although the price of ready-mixed concrete fell in 2020, the average price of domestic ready-mixed concrete is still at a high level in recent years in the long run. 

From a regional perspective, the northeast region is still in the low price region of the whole country while the east, central and southern region in the high price region. Since 2020, prices in East China, Central and Southern China, Southwest China and Northwest China have kept a downward trend, with East China and Central and Southern China seeing the largest price decline; The price in North China was slightly stable; Prices in the northeast started to pick up in August. 

In the first half of this year, despite the raging COVID-19 and the rainy weather in many places in the third quarter, the cement industry saw the growth of cement production resumed in the third quarter and reached the highest level in five years, making up for the losses from the pandemic in the first quarter. Imported clinker hit a record high and the market fluctuated downward in the first three quarters. However, the efficiency of the cement industry has not been greatly impacted as the total industry profit in the first three quarters is expected to decline slightly year-on-year, and may even be tied. In the fourth quarter, infrastructure projects will be the main underpinning of cement demand. The northern market is gradually weakening while cement demand in the south is still in the peak season. It is expected that the cement market of the main demand places in the south will further rise, but it will be more difficult for cement prices to hit the high level again from the national perspective.

At present, the concrete industry is quietly undergoing a series of changes under the condition of uncontrollable raw materials: from the perspective of production, the concrete batching plant is extending upstream and downstream, and is developing towards collectivization and intelligence, and has begun to pay attention to technological research and the transformation of production process; From the perspective of raw materials, many modern aggregates enterprises have sprung up and extended the industrial chain to build batching plants and began to care about cement; From the perspective of construction, construction units have also begun to care about cement and cooperate with cement plants to transform cement.

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