Cement deliveries in Switzerland declined 2.5 per cent to 1,108,772t in the third quarter of 2021, according to cemsuisse, the country’s cement association. In the 3Q20 deliveries reached 1,137,615t.  Adverse weather conditions and delivery bottlenecks for other building materials affected construction activity and demand in the summer.

In the first nine months of 2021 domestic deliveries slipped 0.3 per cent to 3,139,313t from 3,148,523t in the 9M20.

Deliveries of lower-carbon CEM II cements remained stable with a share of 89.6 per cent of the market while OPC (CEM I) cements accounted for 5.7 per cent of the market.

Dispatches by rail saw a 1.4 per cent improve to account for 38.4 per cent of cement transport, with the remainder sent by road.

Ready-mix concrete plants purchased 73 per cent of dispatches while in-situ concrete plants on large construction sites accounted for 20.2 per cent. Five per cent of off-take was by producers of concrete products.