Morocco's cement market contracted 9.9 per cent YoY in February to 1.064Mt from 1.181Mt in February 2016.
The Laayoun-S Elhamra region saw the largest decrease of 39.4 per cent YoY to 6.761Mt while other significant decreases of 15-16 per cent YoY were reported in the key markets of Tanger-Tétouan and Al Houceima, Casablanca-Settat and Marrakech-Safi. However, YoY growth was noted in Guelmim-Oued Noun (+88.1 per cent), Dakhla-Oued Ed-Dahab (+27.7 per cent), Drâa-Tafilet (+74 per cent) and Fès-Meknès (+6.6 per cent).
For the first two months of 2017, sales in Morocco slipped seven per cent to 2.23Mt from 2.398Mt in the year-ago period. Casablanca-Settat, Morocco’s largest cement market, saw a YoY contraction of seven per cent to 548,208t while Marrakech-Safi, the second-largest consuming region, reported a 14.8 per cent fall to 327,213t when compared with 2M16. In Tanger-Tétouan-Al Houceima, the country’s third-largest market, sales were down by 9.8 per cent to 304,546t. However, the Laayoun-S Elhamra region was particularly affected as sales plummeted by 34.4 per cent to 64,986t with Béni Mellal-Khénifra and Marrakech-Safi seeing consumption reduced by some 15 per cent to 132,507t and 327,213t, respectively.
On a positive note, cement producers nearly doubled their sales to the Guelmim-Oued Noun area, delivering some 21,697t while in Dakhla-Oued Ed-Dahab they saw take-off increase by 27.5 per cent to 10,697t.
