Brazil’s cement sales see slight dip in October

Cement sales in Brazil slipped 0.6 per cent to 5.356Mt in October 2022 when compared to October 2021 when sales reached 5.387Mt, according to the country’s cement association, SNIC.

While sales in the largest market, the southeast, advanced by 2.8 per cent YoY in October 2022 to 2.456Mt from 2.389Mt, the northeast saw a 6.4 per cent drop in deliveries to 1.087Mt YoY from 1.161Mt. In the south, sales were down by 1.9 per cent YoY to 0.884Mt from 0.901Mt and the north by 6.1 per cent to 0.26Mt from 0.277Mt over the same period. The central-west posted a 1.5 per cent advance to 0.669Mt in October 2022 from 0.659Mt in the previous year.  

Exports declined by 47.2 per cent YoY to 28,000t in October 2022 from 53,000t.

January-October 2022
In the January-October 2022 period domestic sales declined by 2.6 per cent YoY to 522.834Mt from 54.26Mt in the year-ago period. SNIC attributes the decrease to a combination of high interest rates and high inflation for most of the year. Retail sales of building materials have been declining since mid-2021. Real estate launches have seen a six per cent YoY drop in the 1H22.  Moreover, with office vacancies only to fall slowly, new commercial building development has been impacted.

The largest drop was reported in the northeast, where sales fell by 5.2 per cent to 10.415Mt in the 10M22 from 10.982Mt in the 10M21. Sales in the southeast were down by 3.5 per cent YoY to 24.427Mt from 25.316Mt. In addition, sales in the south saw a one per cent fall YoY to 9.148Mt from 9.244Mt, resulting in the country’s three largest markets noting significant decreases in the 10M22 period. The central-west reported a 1.6 per cent uptick in sales to 6.449Mt in the 10M22 from 6.349Mt in the 10M21 while the north saw sales up 1.1 per ent to 2.395Mt from 2.369Mt over the same period.

Exports in the 10M22 fell by 17.4 per cent YoY to 0.336Mt from 0.407Mt in the 10M21.

Outlook
While the recovery of the job market and GDP have enabled SNIC to mitigate the forecast drop in cement sales, the year-end is expected to be challenging in terms of cement sales.

“We will have a difficult year-end due to local and external economic conditions. The World Cup calendar will effectively compromise cement sales performance and, in addition, the weather forecast points to above-average rainfall. Meanwhile, the eyes and ears of the world turn to COP27 in the search for overcoming the ongoing climate emergency” said SNIC President, Paulo Camillo Penna.