Colombian cement market advances 7% in March

Grey cement production in Colombia increased seven per cent YoY to 1.14Mt in March 2019, according to the latest data by the country’s statistics office, DANE. Of this total, 1.044Mt was dispatched within the domestic market, an advance of 6.6 per cent when compared with March 2018.

In regional terms, growth was particularly strong in Casanare (+38.6 per cent), Bolivar (+28 per cent) and Meta (+27.6 per cent) while Cesar, Boyacá, Huila and Risaralda all saw significant growth between 15-17 per cent YoY. The country’s largest markets, Bogotá and Antioquia, reported a YoY increase in dispatches of 15 and 12.1 per cent, respectively.

January-March 2019
Domestic dispatches in January-March 2019 were 3.3 per cent higher when compared with the 3M18. They reached 2.943Mt in the latest three-month period.

Dispatches in Bolivar saw the most robust growth at 26.1 per cent YoY while Meta reported an advance of 21.5 per cent when compared with the 3M18. Casanare, Huila and Córdoba saw their markets expand by 16.1, 12.1 and 11.5 per cent, respectively, in the same period. Growth was more muted in Antioquia (+6.3 per cent) and Bogotá (+5.1 per cent).The Nariño and Magdalena markets saw sales contract the most – by 21.1 and 17.2 per cent, respectively. The small market of Nariño noted the largest drop at 51 per cent, followed by Cauca, which saw its dispatches fall by 25.1 per cent.

Cement output from Colombian cement plants advanced 4.2 per cent YoY in the first three months of 2019 to 3.053Mt.