Colombia's cement market expands 6% in Feb 2016

Colombia's cement consumption in February rose by 6.1 per cent YoY to 1.046Mt from 0.987Mt the previous year, according to the country's statistics office, DANE.

Building companies and contractors supported this rise in particular as they bought 15.2 per cent more cement than in February 2014. Ready-mix companies increased their off take by seven per cent while retail saw a 3.3 per cent advance in volumes.

In terms of departments, Atlantic saw the largest rises in demand by 22 per cent, followed by Córdoba (20.2 per cent) and Antioquia (13.5 per cent).

Production increased 4.1 per cent to reach 1.077Mt, up from 1.035Mt in February 2015.

In the first two months, Colombia’s cement market expanded by 3.7 per cent YoY to 1.985Mt while output increased 5.7 per cent to 2.046Mt.