4-month cement slump may end

India’s ambitious plans for housing and infrastructure construction may end a slump in cement prices.

Prices are expected to rise as much as 5 per cent in the second half of the year ending March 2018, according to Reliance Securities Ltd. 

They have dropped 9.4 per cent since a May high after four back-to-back months of declines, Mangesh Bhadang, a research analyst at Nirmal Bang Equities Pvt., wrote in a research report this month.

India’s cement capacity has more than doubled in the past decade though demand has been subdued recently with an existing slump in housing exacerbated by a