Overall cement consumption has dropped for the first time in three years as the building and construction sector reels from a harsh interest rate regime.

Provisional data for 2012 from the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics for 11 months shows it is unlikely to clock the three million metric tonnes surpassed in the previous two years.

Cement consumption stood at 2.6 million MT for the first 11 months of 2012, compared to full year figures of 3.4 million MT in 2011 and 3.1 million MT in 2010.

Consumption however rose by six per cent in November to 337,096 MT from October's 318,106 MT, signalling the sector's return to activity. Cement production nonetheless decreased by 0.9 per cent in the period to 370,562 MT in November from 373,916 in October.

Production of galvanised sheets (mabati) went up by 9.3 per cent to 21,481 MT in November from October's 19,651 MT.

KNBS' Leading Economic Indicators for December also shows that the value of building plans -residential and non-residential - approved by the City Council of Nairobi increased to Sh18.3 billion from Sh14.6 billion in November.