Ghana: recovery anticipated after cement sales fall 3.1% in 2015

The Business & Financial Times reports that domestic cement sales in Ghana fell to 4.13Mt in 2015, down by 3.1 per cent on the previous year. Cement imports reached 2.62Mt, up 6.2 per cent on 2014.

The decline was not due to falling demand but instead reflects the ongoing issues with electricity supply, that has disrupted production.

The newspaper quotes sources at two of the domestic producers who noted that production recovered as politicians moved to improve electricity supplies ahead of this year’s elections.

The sources also expressed confidence that demand would recover in 2016 as the government increased spending on infrastructure ahead of the vote. However, the B&FT noted that in the first five months of 2016 the government had spent GHS1.88bn (US$476m), 32 per cent less than budgeted.