Paraguay’s INC announces record sales in November

Industria Nacional del Cemento (INC) announced record sales of 1.2m bags in November 2017.

Jorge Méndez, president of the Paraguayan cement producer, said the company sold 1,249,065 bags of Cemento Vallemi, a sign that the market is returning to growth.

He added that the company successfully switched from fuel oil to petcoke to fire its kiln, which has enabled the company to generate significant cost savings. While the fuel oil has an average cost of US$750/t, petcoke is considerably cheaper at around US$250/t. This is expected to lead to a drop in prices and an increase in demand and company profits.

"We have already verified that more cement is being consumed, public works have increased and also the private works are being carried out, which generates cement consumption above the level of national production. If we add up everything that is consumed at the country level, we still have something to grow, " Mr Méndez said.

By the start of 2018, construction work of the new mill at the Villeta plant is expected to be completed, which will allow the company to operate two mills in parallel and produce around 18m bags of cement.