Peru’s cement dispatches fell 1.7 per cent in January due to an unfavourable construction climate and the change of local and regional governments, according to the country’s cement association, Asocem.

In the first month of this year, 816,000t of cement was delivered – some 14Mt less than the year-ago period. Strong rains impacted on Peru’s building sector.

However, cement production increased three per cent YoY as did exports, which saw a 126 per cent rise when compared with January 2014.

Asocem expects cement demand to pick up over the next few months: “A large quantity of public works are expected to start at the end of the first quarter of 2015. At the moment, there is a portfolio of 3367 public works projects that have not been executed yet, which represent an expenditure of around PEN16bn.” In addition, the association said private investment played an important part. As a result, cement demand growth is expected to be sustained in 2015.