February sales in Brazil increase 1%

Cement sales in Brazil edged up 1.2 per cent YoY to 4.726Mt in February 2022 from 4.672Mt in February 2021, according to the country’s cement association, SNIC. Sales were supported by more favourable prospects in the labour market, the continuity of the income transfer programme Auxílio Brasil and a considerable fall in COVID-19 cases.

Exports increased 58 per cent in February 2022 to reach 48,000t when compared with 28,000t of cement exported in the year-ago period.

January-February 2022
However, when taking into account the first two months of the year, sales decreased four per cent to 9.268Mt when compared with January-February 2021, when volumes sold reached 9.652Mt.

In terms of regional sales, the southern market reported the largest growth at seven per cent to 1.708Mt in January-February 2022 from 1.596Mt in January-February 2021, followed by the north, the country’s smallest market, which saw a 5.2 per cent YoY uptick to 406,000t from 386,000t. However, the southeast, the largest regional market, reported a 7.5 per cent drop in sales to 4.169Mt from 4.508Mt over the same period. A sizeable decrease was also posted by the northeast, which saw sales contract by 7.1 per cent from 2.112Mt in the 2M21 to 1.962Mt in the 2M22. A smaller decline was noted in the central-western region where cement sales fell 2.6 per cent YoY to 1,023Mt from 1.050Mt.

Exports in the 2M22 advanced 50 per cent YoY to 87,000t from 58,000t in the 2M21.