French cement market advances 6.6% in 1Q14

Cement consumption in France increased 6.6 per cent to 4.386Mt in 1Q14 compared to 4.115Mt in the same period of last year, according provisional data released by French cement association SFIC. Domestic producers delivered 4.04Mt with the balance supplied by imports.

During the quarter, exports rose by 21.8 per cent YoY to 313,000t comprising 269,000t of cement and 44,000t of clinker – a YoY rise of 24.5 and 7.3 per cent, respectively.

Last year, French cement consumption fell by 3.8 per cent YoY to 19.217Mt in 2013 with local producers seeing deliveries decline 3.7 per cent to 17.346Mt. Imports were down by 4.7 per cent to 1.871Mt. However, exports jumped 14.1 per cent YoY in 2013 to 1.451Mt with a 16 per cent increase in cement exports to 1.252Mt and a 3.1 per cent rise to 199,000t in overseas clinker shipments.