August cement shipments in the US up 3%

Total shipments of Portland and blended cement in the US and Puerto Rico in August 2017 reached 9.7Mt, an increase of 3.1 per cent when compared with August 2016, according to the latest data from the US Geological Survey (USGS).

The leading cement-consuming states – Texas, California, Florida, Ohio and Illinois (in descending order) – accounted for a 37 per cent of August 2017 shipments. The leading producing states during this period were Missouri, Texas, California, Florida and Michigan (in descending order), which accounted for 41 per cent of total monthly sales.

For the first eight months of 2017 deliveries increased 2.2 per cent YoY to 62.9Mt.

Domestic cement producers also shipped 225,000t of masonry cement, an increase of 4.2 per cent when compared with August 2016. Some 54 per cent of this volume was delivered to the country’s leading masonry cement-consuming states – Florida, Texas, California, North Caroline and Tennessee (in descending order).

For the year to date, masonry cement deliveries increased modestly to 1.64Mt.

Clinker production in US cement plants remained unchanged at 7.1Mt in August 2017 when compared with the year-ago period. California, Texas, Missouri, Florida and Alabama were the leading clinker-producing states (in descending order). Clinker output in the first eight months of 2017 also remained stable at 50.1Mt when compared with August 2016.