The cement and allied industries in the East African Sub-Region

Abstract

A recent study undertaken by the secretariat has thrown light on the broad characteristics of the building materials industry in Africa. With few individual exceptions these could be summarized as follows: a general inadequacy of local production with a rapidly expanding total demand; an imbalance in the sub-regional pattern of production and consumption of key building materials such as cement and wood products; an almost total absence of industries producing electrical and sanitary equipment, sheet glass, and in general iron and steel products; a comparatively high cost of local production due to limitations imposed by factors such as the uneconomic scale of operations, the lack of technical and managerial skills and the use of inefficient or outdated production plants.