KHRUSHCHEV APPLAUDS OVERTAKING THE US IN PRODUCTION OF CEMENT "THE BREAD OF CON

Created: 5/8/1963

OCR scan of the original document, errors are possible

Current Support Brief

KHRUSHCHEV APPLAUDS OVERTAKING THE US IN PRODUCTION OP CEMENT "THE BREAD OF CONSTRUCTION"

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CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY Office of Researcheports

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KHRUSHCHEV APPLAUDS OVERTAKING THE US IN PRODUCTION OF CEMENT "THE DREAD OF CONSTRUCTION"

Soviet officials are fond of describing cement as "the bread of the Soviet construction industry. " The following interchange duringspeech at the RSFSR conference of industrial and construction workers thusigh point for the USSR in the competitive struggle for economic development on Soviet

Khrushchev: Today,'forave read the arguments of an American economist vho writes that apparently in two or three years' time the Russians will catch up with America in theof steel and cement.

Voice [out of the past, apparently]: We have already caught up in cement production.

Khrushchev: Yes, in cement production we have already caught up and surpassed

* Inclusion or exclusion of masonry cement is arbitrary. The US for many years hasigh-quality masonry cement, whereas the USSR Still uses on-site cementoncement masonry binder to mix mortar.

If the definition of US production is changed to meet Soviet terms by excluding masonry cement, then US production2illion metric tons comparedillion tons produced in the USSR. If masonry cement is included, however. Soviet production2 was stillillion tons below that of the US. * With3 Soviet plan setillion tonsoal likely to be fulfilledhere is little doubt that the USSR will unequivocally surpass the US in cement production this year. With all the present problems in Soviet construction,overtaking the US in cement production is small compensation.

Surpassing the US in gross production of cement is only one aspect of the Soviet-US competition in this field, and one that obscures certain shortcomings of the Soviet cement industry. The average quality of US cement, for example, is considerably higher than that of Soviet cement. The quantity of cement required to make concreteiven strength varies with the quality of cement used, and these differences are quantifi able. Thus the volume of cement produced in the US2 was approxi mately equivalentillion tons of Soviet cement, which is more than the Soviet production plan Several Soviet cementologists and construction economists have in fact been so bold as to point out that if the Soviet cement industry would meet the quality plans, thewould be the same as having several additional million tons of cement available for construction.

* Present indications are that use of the Soviet-weighted ruble-dollar ratios in construction would lower the ruble value of US construction and would thereby result in some increase in the ratio of Soviet to US construction.

Soviet officials also frequently appear to beoose and easy connection between "the bread of the construction industries" in the US and USSR and the size of the Soviet construction program. in addition to differences in quality and essential differences in the inputs mixture and structure of construction in the two countries, there is the simple fact that the surpassing of the US by the USSR in gross tonnage of cement produced has not been accompanied by aachievement in the volume of construction. Using US weights, it is estimated that the total volume of construction put in place in the USSR0 was aboutercent of that in the US, although it should also be noted that the Soviet volume had risen from onlyercent of the US volume as6esult of the rapid growth in Sovietachieved Although differences in the quality of construction are less important in considering the rapid growth in the volume of construction in the USSR, such differences are quite important in international comparisons. There is no denying the markedly higher average quality of US construction and appointments, but these differences are not quantifiable except to note that if they were taken account of, the ratio of Soviet construction to USwould be lowered.

Original document.

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