Brazilian cement demand up 24% in June

Cement sales in Brazil rose 24.2 per cent YoY in June 2020. Domestic offtake reached 5.2Mt in June, according to the country’s cement association, SNIC. In the first half of 2020, sales advanced by 3.6 per cent YoY to 26.9Mt.

“COVID-19 caused several changes in our lives, habits, and priorities. The crisis showed the cement industry that taking care of the house and using savings and investments for small reforms, something very popular in the 80s, are back in the household budget," SNIC President Paulo Camillo Penna. Due to the pandemic, people stopped travel and leisure bookings as well as curtailed clothing and restaurant spending, he added. This led to a rise in home improvements. Sales of construction materials rose by 28 per cent in the last week of June.

Sales per working day increased 7.7 per cent MoM and 16.1 per cent YoY to 228,000t in June 2020.

The rise in demand was reported throughout the country with a good market performance in the northeast (+44.8 per cent), followed by the north (+28.4 per cent), central-west (+28.1 per cent), southeast (+19.3 per cent) and south (+12.8 per cent). In the January-June period the northeastern market performed particularly well while the north was the only region that saw a decline in demand.