Puerto Rican cement market expands 24% in July

Cement demand in Puerto Rico advanced 23.8 per cent YoY to 60,546t (1.42m bags of 42.6kg) when compared with 49,033t (1.15m bags) in July 2019, according to data by the country’s statistics institute.

Cement sales fell in 2019 and the first few months of 2020 before plummeting in March and April due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which stalled economic activity. In May demand started to recover with sales up 2.1 per cent YoY, a trend that continued the following month as sales rebounded by 42 per cent YoY.

In 2019, 575,609t of cement were sold, representing a 5.6 per cent decline when compared with 2018, when sales expanded by 38.9 per cent, the first increase since 2012, according to Sin Comillas.

In terms of cement production, volumes advanced 31.1 per cent YoY to 56,282t (1.32m bags) in July. In 2019 output from Puerto Rican cement plants fell 6.7 per cent to 524,444t when compared with 2018. In 2018 cement production had increased 44.6 per cent YoY, the first advance since 2012.