Cement sales in Brazil increased 5.3 per cent to 4.7Mt in September 2019 when compared with the same month in the previous year, according to SNIC, the country’s cement association. Apparent consumption, which includes imports, totalled 4.8Mt in September, representing a YoY advance of 5.2 per cent.

Domestic sales per business day in September, which takes into account the number of days worked and has a strong influence on cement consumption, increased by 2.7 per cent compared to August and by 0.7 per cent YoY.

In the first nine months of 2019, sales reached 40.5Mt, up three per cent YoY.  In the last 12 months (October 2018-September 2019) sales edged up by 2.8 per cent YoY to 53.8Mt.

However, SNIC President, Paulo Camillo Penna, highlighted that the results were impacted by last year’s trucker strike. “Due to the strike, we stopped selling 900,000t, without recovery throughout the year. The sharp economic slowdown from May 2018 also led to poor performance last year. This has projected the 2019 results upwards, which overestimate the industry's sales growth,” he said.

“The construction industry sector is showing slow and continuous improvement, with confidence indices continuing to show some optimism. The survey of the construction industry, released by the National Confederation of Industry (CNI), indicates an expectation of growth for the next six months. Already the same indicator of the Getúlio Vargas Foundation (FGV), despite being accommodated in September, did not influence the result of the quarter, marked by the reduction of pessimism, ” Mr Penna added.

In terms of exports, cement producers saw export sales rise by 75 per cent from 8000t in September 2018 to 14,000t in September 2019. For the first nine months of 2019, exports reached 90,000t, a 21.6 per cent advance when compared with 74,000t in the 9M18.