State of the industry
World cement markets contracted in 2017-18 but picked up last year, according to The Global Cement Report™, 13th Edition. New capacity is seen pushing worldwide utilisation rates down, while cement and clinker trade continues to advance. ICR takes a look at some of the key figures in this leading statistical reference for the worldwide cement sector.
Figure 1: cement consumption by region, 2018E
There was some optimism in the global cement markets in 2019 as world cement consumption advanced by nearly three per cent to 4081.19Mt following two years of contraction, according to The Global Cement Report™, 13th Edition (GCR13).
As is often the case, China was a key actor in both the decline and subsequent growth. In 2018 the country’s domestic demand fell by six per cent to 2168.13Mt, an annual drop too large to be offset by the rest of the world, which saw a demand increase of three per cent YoY to 1800.14Mt. However, China reported a 4.9 per cent YoY expansion in 2019, significantly ahead of average rest-of-the-world consumption, which only expanded by 0.3 per cent.
The Indian sub-continent – the second-largest regional market after north Asia (see Figure 1) – led growth in 2018 with a YoY increase of 12.9 per cent with all three main markets – Bangladesh, India and Pakistan – performing well.
