Taiheiyo Cement Corp., Asia's largest producer, expects its business in the U.S. to recover next year, one year earlier than previously anticipated, as the Obama administration's economic stimulus plan boosts sales.

"We will start seeing the impact in the second half of this year," Ryuichi Hirai, director in charge of Taiheiyo's overseas operations, said in an interview Wednesday in Tokyo. "Now the bottom of the market should come in 2009, not 2010, as originally expected."

U.S. President Barack Obama's economic advisers have designed a $787 billion stimulus plan to help revive the economy. The steps will likely slow the rate of decline in cement demand in California, where Taiheiyo's U.S. unit is based, by half to 9 percent this year.

Next year, demand will likely rise by 13 percent in the most populous U.S. state, reversing what would have been an 11 percent slide without the fiscal spending, Hirai said, citing data from the Portland Cement Association.

Taiheiyo Cement and rivals, including Cemex SAB and Lafarge SA, are counting on the global measures after the financial crisis damaged the construction market, undermining sales of building materials. The Tokyo-based company won an order for 40,000 tons of cement to be used in building a section of China's high-speed rail link between Beijing and Harbin, an early benefit from that nation's 4 trillion yuan (¥58 trillion) economic package, Hirai said.

"The effects of China's spending plan are coming faster than in other markets," Hirai said. "Once the country decides to start projects, the speed is fast."

Profit and sales for 2009 in the United States, its largest overseas market, "will not be far from" November's estimate, Hirai said.