The Moscow China-made Building Materials Market is expected to provide a bridge for Chinese businesses to exploit Russian and Eastern European markets.

Scheduled to be opened this March, the market is located in central Moscow, Russia's capital. Its indoor business area is 19,400 square meters with 520 booths. An additional open market will be built to facilitate wholesale business.

"The establishment of the market is helping create a platform for Chinese building materials manufacturers and agencies to showcase their products and grasp business opportunities in a market with huge demand," said Deng Xiyan, the Chinese representative of the market.

Official statistics from the Russian Government show that 80 per cent of the nation's building materials have come from imports in recent years.

Market demand is ever-increasing because of economic development and infrastructure and housing upgrading.

China's building materials are well-known around the world for their high-quality and affordable prices, said Xiao Xianmin, the international department director of the China Building Material Industrial Association.

China has become one of the world's largest building materials manufacturers, and its cement, plate glass and building ceramics output is ranked No 1 globally.

"The industry is to keep boosting momentum in the next decade, and its average growth rate is predicted to be 3-4 percentage points higher than the nation's gross domestic product increase," said Xiao.

In line with the analysis of Xiao's association, the output value of China's building materials industry will exceed 1 trillion yuan (US$120 billion) by 2010, an increase of 127 per cent from 446 billion yuan (US$53.73 billion) in 2000.

"Furthermore, the market may act as a springboard for Chinese manufacturers to tap the Eastern Europe market, as Moscow is the center of the region and market demand in Eastern Europe is also robust," Xiao said.

Source: China Daily