China's building materials sector picks up in 2016

A worker installs aluminum alloy building materials on a high-rise building in Shaoxing city, East China's Zhejiang province, Jan 14, 2017. [Photo/VCG]

BEIJING - China's building materials sector warmed up last year as the country's housing market gained momentum, official data showed Monday.

Cement output rose 2.5 percent year on year to 2.4 billion tons in 2016, compared with the 4.9 percent drop in 2015, according to the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC).

Output of flat glass increased 5.8 percent in 2016, compared with a 8.6 percent decrease in 2015.

The data came as the property sector, a major consumer of cement and flat glass, gained momentum last year boosted by interest rate cuts and lower deposits.

Investment in real estate development grew 6.9 percent year on year in 2016, 1.1 percentage points faster than in the first three quarters, and 5.9 percentage points faster than 2015, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

The real estate sector's recovery, however, has been uneven from city to city, with economically strong areas reporting drastic price rises, and less developed areas still reporting huge inventories of unsold houses.