Spanish cement demand reaches 15Mt in 2021

Cement consumption in Spain increased 11 per cent YoY to 15Mt in 2021, according to the country’s cement association, Oficemen. Moreover, sales exceeded those reported in 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic made its appearance, but remain firmly under the 20Mt mark that would signal market stabilisation.

Exports sales saw a 10.2 per cent uptick to 6.7Mt in 2021 when compared with 2020.

Imports expanded by 27.4 per cent YoY to 1.1Mt with the arrival of clinker accounting for 0.551Mt, up 107.3 per cent YoY. Most clinker imports originate in Turkey, Egypt and Algeria.

Challenges ahead
However, a drop in profitability is put the deployment of the decarbonisation road map at risk, due to the expected fall in capital investment. Oficemen expects that each of the 33 cement plants in the country will have to carry out projects worth EUR50-80m to achieve carbon neutrality.

Further factors conspiring against the profitability of the industry are the high price of electricity, the increase in CO2 emission rights and the arrival of imported cement without environmental costs.

Since the start of the escalation of electricity prices, our total production costs have increased by 25 per cent,” said Oficemen President José Manuel Cascajero, who added that "the final price for the Spanish electro-intensive industry is 109 euros more expensive than in France and 41 euros more expensive than in Germany. So it is very difficult to compete". Oficemen urges a structural change in the Spanish electricity market: "We must sequester more energy from the daily market and make it available to industrial consumers and traders through auctions, so that reasonable and, above all, predictable prices are obtained,” said Mr Cascajero.