South Africa’s long walk to recovery
While 2021 saw some pick-up in South Africa’s cement market, analysts do not expect a full recovery before mid-2024. By Industry Insight, South Africa.
As the COVID-19 mutation Omicron sweeps through the country, South African cement producers
see market recovery postponed (Photo credit: AfriSam)
The South African economy remains in crisis. Although there was a recovery in local production and consumption in 2021, record lows due to the COVID-19 pandemic and a lockdown-ravaged 2020 mean that economic activity is nowhere near pre-pandemic levels. The economy contracted by 6.4 per cent in 2020 and is only expected to recover by between 4-5 per cent in 2021. Many economists would agree that the country is only expected to return to pre-COVID levels by mid-2024, with serious social consequences in the short-term. The direst structural constraint remains unemployment at more than 46 per cent.
