Spain’s cement market expands 17% in May

Spanish cement consumption increased 16.9 per cent to 1,333,508t in May 2021, according to Oficemen. However, the cement association points out that the rise is from a low base when compared with May 2020, due to the country’s lockdown due to COVID-19.

Likewise, the market expanded by 21.3 per cent YoY to 5,921,135t in the first five months of 2021.

“The sector has not yet recovered its pre-pandemic levels, since if we compare the monthly and accumulated figures for the year with the equivalent in 2019 – the last year not affected by the COVID-19 restrictions, we observe a drop of 4.3 per cent and 4.2 per cent, respectively, which in the annual calculation still represents a differential close to 260,000t," explains the president of Oficemen, Víctor García Brosa. He does not expect to have “a reliable image of the real evolution of the sector for this year until after the summer.”

Exports edge up
Export volumes advanced slightly in May by 1.5 per cent to 575,000t. In the January-May period, they surpassed the 3Mt mark.

“The foreign trade data seem encouraging, but we prefer to remain cautious, since many international competitive markets are still experiencing a context of uncertainty due to the pandemic and, once that situation disappears, the context of high CO2 emission costs, which in the months of May and June reached record figures of €52/t, could weigh against us as a member country of the EU, if adjustment measures are not taken at the border,” the Oficemen president added.