Moroccan cement demand falls 28% in August

Cement consumption in Morocco declined 28.2 per cent in August 2018 to 881,411Mt when compared with August 2017, when 1,227,932t was sold, according to data of the Ministry of Housing and Urbanisation.

Sales in the largest market, Casablanca fell by a third YoY to 193,737t while in Marrakech-Safi deliveries dropped by 13.1Mt to 135,824t over the same period. The Rabat-Salé area recorded the largest decline at 38.8 per cent to 109,722t. In Tanger-Tétouan demand contracted by a third to 105,222t.

In the first eight months of 2018, domestic demand decreased by 4.9 per cent YoY to 8.757Mt from 92.04Mt in 8M17.

The Drâa-Tafilet area reported the largest increase at 15.4 per cent to 217,743t while sales in Marrakech-Safi also advanced a healthy 8.8 per cent to 1.241Mt. However, other key markets such as Casablanca and Rabat-Salé reported a market contraction of 8.7 and 9.3 per cent, respectively. Deliveries in the greater Casablanca area totalled 1.885Mt and in Rabat-Salé they fell to 1.108Mt.