The Dominican Republic’s cement market is expected to contract by eight per cent in 2020, according to Julissa Báez, president of the Dominican cement association, ADOCEM.

The drop comes on the back of a forecast 16 per cent fall in construction activity, caused by the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.
Up to March 2020 the cement sector had shown very dynamic activity levels until the COVID-19 pandemic affected demand. However, the industry could have been affected significantly worse, said the ADOCEM president.

"When the State decided to open the first phase, which were a few national productive sectors, so that they could restart their work process, we began to improve and see construction grow a little," Ms Báez explained. “Yes, we reached the end of the year with negative figures also with around eight per cent in the case of cement, but the industry as of September had already, when I say industry I mean construction, a drop of 16 per cent, but when you go to June we had a 40 per cent drop.”

Furthermore, the cement industry did not completely shutdown when the government introduced restrictive measures at the start of the pandemic. This meant that all jobs were maintained.