Syria’s state cement plants sold a total of 2.4 million tons in the first half of this year.

The General Organization for Cement and Building Materials (GOCBM), which oversees the six public sector companies producing cement, said that it generated some SYP 11.4 billion from its sales during the first half of the year with profits expected to top SYP 2 billion.

While the comparative figures for the same period of last year were not made public, in 2011 GOCBM produced a total of 5.1 million tons of cement, down 10 percent compared to the previous year.

Syria’s public sector cement industry benefits from state subsidies on fuel oil.

Output figures from the country’s private sector companies, Lafarge Cement Syria, Al-Badia Cement and Guris Cement have not been published.

Meanwhile, the head of the General Organization for Textile Industry (GOTI), which groups some 20 state-owned companies, said that the organisation’s sales had risen some 13 percent year-on-year in 2011 to SYP 11.7 billion from SYP 10.3 billion a year earlier.

In spite of falling consumption, GOTI seems to have benefitted from the sharp decline in competition from imports, whose prices have increased on the back of the fall in the value of the Syrian currency and the increase in customs tariffs.