How big is the building materials market in Africa? Chinese and Indian businessmen have joined strongly. Who is stronger?
Release time:
2018-12-26 10:21
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Africa is one of the most promising markets in the world. In recent years, with the rapid economic development of many African countries, African countries began to work hard on infrastructure construction, followed by greater demand for building materials market.
If the people of Africa need a better life, they must build their own homes. At present, many African countries to improve the living conditions of residents as a national planning and development priorities. Africa is about to break through the 1.3 billion population. As the population growth of many countries in the world slows down or even regresses, half of the world's population growth will be in Africa in the future. Such a huge demographic dividend will also burn the fire for Africa's building materials market.
We filmed the documentary "I went to see the world" all over the world. When we were in Malawi, Africa, we learned about the local building materials market. Malawi has a population of nearly 20 million and ranks 61st in Africa's population rankings. Although Malawi's economy is the bottom of the world, people's demand for building materials here cannot be underestimated.
We were in the rainy season in Malawi, and every household had to build a house, and the least that needed to build a house was cement. There is no industry in Malawi. It is said that there are only three cement plants in the whole country, but people really need cement. 80% of the cement here depends on imports.
At this time of year, many trucks drive from nearby Zambia, Mozambique, and Tanzania to Malawi, transporting large amounts of cement. The cement business is mainly in the hands of Indians. When it is in short supply, there will be long queues at the gate of Indian building materials shops every morning.
Malawi's building materials, electrical appliances and hardware were basically in the hands of Indians before, and only two or three Chinese companies were competing for the market here. Because of the basic monopoly of Indians, the price of cement in Malawi is not stable, and the price can rise by about 30% within two days. For example, for 425 cement, a bag of 60 yuan RMB was bought every other day, which may cost 85 yuan RMB.
In addition, Yubu is also an Indian business. They built factories in Malawi before, but now the Chinese also have factories in Malawi.
A Chinese company has also built a large building materials market in Malawi, which should be the largest in Malawi at present, but the price is not cheap, mainly for the local middle class, so there are not many people when we go.
Because many Africans live in poverty, some of their rigid needs have not been met, and the local market is far from saturated, such as the building materials we mentioned. So doing business here is easier to open up the market.
Indians came to Malawi very early, so they bought a lot of real estate very early, and some businesses did achieve a dominant situation, and some locals even said bluntly that "Indians are locals". However, only high-quality and inexpensive goods can truly win the hearts of the African people. I hope that made in China can also make a breakthrough in the African building materials market. Search attention: I go to see the world, update the full version of the video produced by the SAO documentary team every day, and see the bigger world, so I have more choices. Edited by Min Zhang.
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