August sales remain stable in Brazil

Domestic cement sales in Brazil edged up 0.1 per cent to 5.866Mt in August 2022 from 5.858Mt in August 2021, according to the country’s cement association, SNIC. The association attributes the limited growth in cement sales to an unstable economic scenario, marked by high interest rates, high indebtedness and the low income of Brazilians.

Sales in the southeastern market, the largest in the country, declined by two per cent to 2.654Mt in August 2022 when compared with August 2021, when 2.707Mt were sold. In the northeast, sales saw a 1.5 per cent YoY pick-up to 1.178Mt from 1.161Mt while in the south they remained stable at 1.001Mt. In the central-west dispatches in August 2022 increased by 0.8 per cent to 0.746Mt from 0.74Mt in August 2021. In the north, Brazil’s smallest market, deliveries were up 15.3 per cent YoY to 0.287Mt from 0.249Mt.

Exports in August declined by 2.5 per cent YoY to 39,000t in August 2022 from 40,000t in the previous year.

January-August 2022
In the first eight months of 2022 Brazil’s cement market contracted by 2.9 per cent YoY to 41.957Mt from 43.192Mt in the 8M21.

The northeast saw the largest decline at 4.9 per cent, reporting sales of 8.23Mt in the 8M22 when compared with 8.653Mt in the 8M21. Sales in the key market of southeastern Brazil were down 4.4 per cent YoY, declining to 19.408Mt from 20.302Mt. In the south, sales slipped by 0.5 per cent to 7.357Mt in the 8M22 from 7.395Mt in the 8M21. However, sales in the north improved by 1.1 per cent from 1.848Mt in the 8M21 to 1.869Mt in the 8M22 and the central-western region also saw a YoY uptick by two per cent with sales increasing to 5.093Mt from 4.994Mt.

Exports in the January-August 2022 period were down 9.2 per cent YoY to 266,000t from 293,000t in the equivalent period of the previous year.

Outlook
However, higher-than-expected GDP growth, falling unemployment and the slow but steady recovery in worker incomes indicate to a better-performing economy in 2022, according to SNIC.

“The seasonality of sales in the cement industry, which has historically performed better in the second half of the year, could lead us to a partial recovery in the losses recorded in the first half of the year,” said SNIC President, Paulo Camillo Penna.