건자재 산업 동향 및 전망(1) - 레미콘(ready mixed concrete) -

An Analysis of Construction Material Industry(1) - Ready-mixed concrete -

The primary purpose of this study is to analyze the market structure and consumption behavior of ready-mixed concrete as well as propose various short and long-term countermeasures concerned with technological development, cost saving and stabilization of supply. The ready-mixed concrete industry in Korea, introduced in 1965, has maintained a important role as a construction material industry. The growth of the industry has been influenced by the development of construction industry. In the 1990s, the ready-mixed concrete industry made rapid progress due to numerous construction projects, especially 2million houses project and subway constructions. Under the IMF crisis, started from 1997, the demand for ready-mixed concrete has rapidly decreased. However, after 2000, the ready-mixed concrete industry has begun a strong rebound due to the reconstructions of superannuated houses and the development of infrastructure. According to a recent survey on the ready-mixed concrete industry, the maker's annual production capacity increased to 324 million m' in 2002 from 124 million ㎥ in 1990. The domestic consumption for ready-mixed concrete has increased to 137 million ㎥ in 2002 from 58 million ㎥ in 1990. Since the latter half of the 1990s, the industry has emphasized cost saving against soaring cement price and continuous buyer's market in construction industry. In order to decrease the production cost, numerous slag and fly ash, which IS the by-products of steel mill and thermoelectric power plant, are widely used to replace a part of cement in production of ready-mixed concrete. In general, the construction frame structure IS, for the most part, steel reinforced concrete structure in Korea. Therefore, in Korea, 82 percent of cement consumption is used to produce ready-mixed concrete in 2002. However the ratios of most European countries record around 50 percent, which is caused by the development of wooden housing or prefabricated building methods. Also, the consumption of ready-mixed concrete per head reached 2.9㎥/person as well as the production of ready-mixed concrete per one factory reached 184 thousand ㎥ in 2002. The volume is approximately three times as large as that of Japan, United states and European countries. Furthermore the input of ready-mixed concrete per 1 billion won(1995 constant market price) has increased to 1,824㎥ in 2002 from 799㎥ in 1985. Due to the increase of high-rise or long span buildings, the consumption of ready-mixed concrete with high strength and high slump has increased. In aspect of raw materials, the consumption of blended or special cement, for example, slag cement, ultra high-early-strength cement, and rapid hardening cement, has increased to reduce a construction period and retrench the manufacturing cost. As aggregates for ready-mixed concrete, the consumption of sea sand and crushed sand has increased in replacement of river sand. On the other hand, long-term prospects for the ready-mixed concrete industry in Korea are expected to be bright because of continuously increasing construction demand. Ready-mixed concrete business circles forecast that domestic demand will continue 150 million ㎥ to 2010. Therefore the stable supply of ready-mixed concrete will be remained as important as ever in future. However, the shortage of aggregate is as serious as ever. In order to stabilize the supply of aggregate, a large-scale development of land aggregate, rock crushes, and sea sand In EEZ should be requited. Global sourcing of raw materials should be enlarged to reduce the manufacturing cost. However, in order to enlarge the imports, it is important to construct a stable supply chain against a sudden short supply caused by unusual change of the weather or unavoidable circumstances of exporters. The investment of technological development sectors in the ready-mixed concrete industry has concentrated on the high strength or high performance concrete, cementitious materia