US and Puerto Rico cement shipments stable

Total shipments of Portland and blended cement in the USA and Puerto Rico remained stable at around 9.3Mt in June 2018, according to the US Geological Survey (USGS).

The leading cement-consuming states (Texas, California, Florida, Ohio, and Georgia) received about 38 per cent of domestic deliveries in June. The leading producing states for Portland and blended cement in June were Texas, Missouri, California, Florida, and Michigan, which accounted for about 41 per cent of the domestic total.

Around 215,000t of masonry cement was supplied to US customers, slightly less than the volumes supplied in June 2017. Some 55 per cent of shipments were delivered to the five leading consuming states – Florida, Texas, California, North Carolina and Tennessee.

Clinker production increased by three per cent to 6.9Mt. The leading clinker-producing states were California, Texas, Missouri, Florida and Alabama.

Imports of cement and clinker totalled around1.5Mt, representing a 9.7 per cent increase when compared with June 2017. By far the largest importer was Canada, importing 585,411t of cement and clinker. Greece came second with 169,665, followed by China with 159,549t and Italy (38,510t). Other significant but smaller volumes came from Colombia, Denmark and France.

January-June 2018
Portland and blended cement shipments for the first six months of 2018 were up 2.8 per cent YoY to 45.9Mt. Meanwhile, masonry cement deliveries totalled 1.19Mt, down 2.1 per cent when compared with the equivalent period in 2017.

Clinker production edged up to 35.8Mt when compared with 1H17.

Cement and clinker imports were lifted by 9.7 per cent YoY to 6.9Mt.