The Russian cement industry is ranked in the world top 10 in terms of cement capacity. Amongst the BRIC nations, Russia is second only to China in terms of per capita cement consumption. In recent years, the industry has witnessed a real turning point with consumption continuing to climb and new capacity being installed. But what does the long-term future hold? By CMPro, Russia.
After a long period of stagnation and downturn in both the Russian cement industry and the economy as a whole, the 2008-12 period should be considered a turning point in the development of the country’s cement sector as consumption recovered and new and modernised capacity was brought on-stream.
Last year, Russian cement consumption reached an all-time high of 65.2Mt. According to CMPro estimates, this resulted in a 10 per cent increase in production to 61.5Mt – only 134,000t less than in 1992 which was the highest level recorded in post-Soviet Russia. (The highest-ever annual amount produced was in 1989, when Soviet Russia manufactured 85Mt of cement.) Meanwhile, cement imports increased sharply to 5.1Mta in 2012 but remained some way off their 2008 peak of 7.3Mt. Cement exports (excluding clinker) were only 1.4Mt.
