Spain’s cement market contracted by 3.4 per cent YoY in September to 1,245,816t, according to Oficemen, the Spanish cement association. Moreover, the fifth-consecutive monthly decline has pushed the volume on a year basis into the red, with domestic cement sales contracting by 0.2 per cent YoY in the January-September 2022 period.

External trade also lacks lustre as exports were down 5.4 per cent YoY to 4,251,175t in September. "Furthermore, the accumulated figure for the last 12 months (moving year) places our exports below 6Mt, a figure that takes on even more value if we take into account that in the toughest years of the previous construction crisis we came close to exporting 10Mt”, explains Oficemen’s General Director, Aniceto Zaragoza.

Meanwhile, imports increased by 42 per cent YoY, causing concern among domestic producers. “We attend with concern to the evolution of this parameter because it indicates that the loss of competitiveness is not only affecting our foreign activity, but also the domestic market. We are talking about almost 1.6Mt imported in the last 12 months, of which 1Mt correspond to clinker, a product that is the basis of cement and whose production has a strong impact on energy costs. We cannot ignore the fact that we compete in a two-way market in which other producers in the Mediterranean arch, such as Algeria or Egypt, pay much less for their energy inputs, and this, sooner or later, had to also affect domestic consumption and, obviously, the demand of our local factories”, concludes Aniceto Zaragoza.