As the US market picks up, the country’s cement producers can look forward to consumption growth rates of 6-7 per cent annually over the next two years. This should enable them to continue raising capacity utilisation of their production facilities. However, cement and clinker imports are resuming their upward path too. By Rob Roy, ROI Economic Consulting, USA.

The USA will be electing a new President in November, along with all 438 members of the House of Representatives and a third of the 100 Senators. Most Republican and many Democratic candidates tell voters that the US economy is in terrible shape and the outlook is poor. While there is much room for further improvement, the data tend to show that the economy is not doing poorly by any means. Its recovery from the Great Recession has been substantial if far from complete.