Portland and blended cement shipments in the US and Puerto Rico in 2014 reached 88.4Mt, up by about eight per cent YoY, latest data from the US Geological Survey (USGS) confirms.

In December 2014 alone, shipments reached 6.2Mt, a rise of 22 per cent from the level in December 2013. The leading Portland cement-producing states in December were Texas, California, Missouri, Florida and Alabama, in descending order. The leading consuming states (Texas, California, Florida, Ohio and Illinois, in descending order) received about 41 per cent of the December shipments.

Clinker production totalled 6.5Mt in December 2014, up by about 25 per cent the output in December 2013. The leading clinker-producing states in December 2014 were Texas, California, Missouri, Florida and Alabama, in descending order.  Production for the whole year totalled 74.9Mt, up by about seven per cent.

December imports of cement and clinker of 569,000t were about the same as those in December 2013. Imports for the whole year totalled 8.39Mt, an increase of around 16 per cent from 2013.