In the first five months of the year, domestic sales of cement have been reduced by 17 per cent compared with the same period last year, and equate to 9.3Mt. Total consumption in the same period has fallen slightly less, 16.7 per cent and amounts to 9.6Mt. Integrated cement plants have produced 1910t in May, this figure represents a decrease of 13.3 per cent compared to that produced in the same period of 2009.

The downturn has been offset by a higher rate of exports. So, until last month the Spanish industry has exported 1.5Mt of cement, representing an increase of 28 per cent over the first five months of 2009. For their part, imports decreased by 23.6 per cent, reaching 720,000t.

2009-10 Spanish cement and clinker production/consumption and trade percentage change

                                                                  2010                          2009                         % change
Production
Clinker                                                   1.942.284                   1.966.094                    -1.21
Cement                                                   2.561.183                   2.760.806                    -7.23
National Consumption
Cement                                                   2.219.637                   2.504.012                   -13,36
Exports
(cement and clinker)                                  350.448                  228.656                        53.26
Imports
(cement and clinker)                                  137.922                   122.350                       12.73