US shipments ahead by 9% in 2012

Total shipments of Portland and blended cements in the US and Puerto Rico in 2012 reached 79Mta, up by about nine per cent YoY, according to the latest data from the US Geological Survey. Imports for the year to December 2012, meanwhile, were up by about eight per cent YoY.

In December 2012 shipments were about 4.8Mt, slightly less than the same month of the year before.  The leading producing states in December were Texas, California, Missouri, Florida and Pennsylvania in descending order and these shipped about 46 per cent of the US total. The leading consuming states (Texas, California, Florida, Pennsylvania and Louisiana in descending order) received about 41 per cent of the December total shipments.

Clinker production totalled 5.4Mt in December, about 20 per cent more than the output in December 2011.  Clinker production for the full year was 67.7Mt, up by nine per cent.

December 2012 imports of cement and clinker of about 485,000t were almost 10 per cent more than December 2011.