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Holcim Indonesia, a cement producer, has forecast a 3 percent sales increase next year on domestic demand from the infrastructure and property industries.

The Jakarta-based company is aiming for sales to rise to 7.5 million tons in 2012 from an estimated 7.3 million tons this year.

Rusli Setiawan, Holcim’s relationship manager, said on Tuesday that the company’s focus was to maintain its market share amid a rise in demand that was outstripping the industry’s capacity.

“We want to maintain our share at 15 percent, which means we need to sell 7.5 million tons,” he said.

Rusli said that with total demand growing by around five million tons annually, next year’s projected demand was 50 million tons. That is just about equal to the production capacity for the entire industry.

“Each year there’s demand for 800,000 new houses,” Rusli said. “On top of that, infrastructure is growing rapidly, while expansion for the cement industry is limited. Usually, demand for cement grows twice as fast as economic growth.”

Rusli said the company had forecast this year’s sales at Rp 7 trillion ($777 million), with net income at Rp 1 trillion.

“Next year we’re anticipating a hike in production costs due to the planned increase in electricity rates and coal prices,” he said. “So it’s a bit hard to give out profit projections.”

The company posted net sales of Rp 5.4 trillion in the first nine months this year, up from Rp 4.28 trillion in the same period a year earlier, according to data from its Web site.

Shares of Holcim gained 1.53 percent to Rp 1,990 on the Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX) on Tuesday.