US Portland and blended cement market expands 11% in January

Total shipments of Portland and blended cement in the USA and Puerto Rico advanced 11 per cent YoY to 6.4Mt, according to the US Geological Survey (USGS). A combined 49 per cent of these were accounted for by the five leading cement-consuming states – Texas, California, Florida, Georgia and Arizona. The leading producing states were Texas, California, Florida, Missouri and Alabama.

Masonry cement shipments in January 2019 totalled 192,000t, representing an increase of 14 per cent when compared with January 2018. The leading consuming states were Florida, Texas, California, North Carolina and Georgia – they accounted for 63 per cent of the total shipments in January.

Clinker output in the USA rose 11 per cent YoY to 5.3Mt. California, Texas, Florida, Missouri and Alabama were the leading clinker-producing states.

Imports and exports
In terms of imports, the US imported 890,988t of cement and clinker in January 2019. This represents a 12 per cent increase when compared with the same month a year ago. Sizeable volumes were imported from Canada (224,122t), Turkey (193,978t) and Greece (157,450t) with additional, significant shipments from Mexico, Sweden, China and Taiwan. Portland and blended cement imports reached 826,196t while 1227t of masonry cement entered the country from foreign sellers.

In addition, the USA exported 31,000t of Portland and blended cement.