Cement sales in Brazil slipped 2.8 per cent in April 2022 to 5.138Mt from 5.288Mt in April 2021, according to the national cement association, SNIC.

The association attributed the drop in sales to geopolitical instability as well as internal factors such as record household debt, high interest rates and the highest inflation recorded in 27 years.

However, there are positive trends to be seen. Brazil’s unemployment rate is stabilising at 11 per cent, according to IBGE, Brazil’s statistics institute, and the expansion of the IPI (tax on industrial products) reduction by 35 per cent also points to lower prices for the population. In addition the construction confidence index advanced in April to the highest level since January 2014.

“The results indicate a horizon that is still uncertain, given a scenario of geopolitical instability and successive increases in inflation, interest rates and the costs of production inputs. And in this sense, the cement industry has been working hard on projects to replace fossil fuels with renewable sources, already reaching a 28 per cent energy conversion rate,” said SNIC President, Paulo Camillo Penna.

Sales in the key Southeast market declined by 4.5 per cent to 2.42Mt in April 2022 from 2.535Mt in the previous year while in the Northeast, the country’s second-largest regional market, they slipped by three per cent to 0.98Mt from 1.01Mt. In the South sales were down 4.4 per cent to 0.888Mt from 0.929Mt. The only uptick was noted in the Central-Western market, where deliveries expanded by seven per cent to 0.639Mt in April 2022 from 0.597Mt.

Exports declined by 9.1 per cent to 30,000t in April 2022 from 33,000t in April 2021.

January-April 2022
Domestic sales contracted by 2.7 per cent YoY to 19.894Mt in April 2022 from 20.451Mt in April 2021. The northern market expanded by 4.6 per cent YoY to 0.85Mt in the 4M22 from 0.813Mt while a four per cent uptick was reported in the Central-West to 2.3Mt from 2.21Mt over the same period. In the South, cement sales edged up by 1.3 per cent to 3.558Mt in the 4M22 from 3.514Mt in the 4M21. In the Northeast sales declined by 5.1 per cent to 4.04Mt in the 4M22 from 4.256Mt in the previous year’s equivalent period, while in the Southeast a contraction of 5.3 per cent was reported, resulting in a drop to 9.147Mt in the 4M22 from 9.658Mt in the year-ago period.

Exports in the first four months of 2022 increased 9.6 per cent YoY to 137,000t from 125,000t in the 4M21.