Cement is mainly used to make concrete, and is sort of the "activeingredient" in concrete - it is combined with sand and gravel inroughly fixed proportions. So cement production can be considered arough proxy for the total amount of construction going on in a country.This post updates Stuart`s post about this two years ago{and yes, it`s still a graph that will blow you away!} with two moreyears of USGS cement data, 2006 and 2007. The growth in China, from 1GT to 1.3 GT in two years is mindboggling, even India and Russia areinteresting...and there`s more to think about under the fold.edited to add: As a couple of folks pointed out-I have interchanged "production" and "usage" in this post incorrectly-however, China`s 2007 cement exports were only 33 million tonsout of 1.3 billion tons produced. So, at least for China, production isa good proxy for demand/consumption. My apologies for the mistake.
www.theoildrum.com/node/4162