Cement market data for 2025

Following a medium-term lull since the Covid-19 outbreak at the start of the decade, 2025 brought increased cement shipments across multiple regions. Local associations have been publishing their data for the year, or the latest complete period, over the past three weeks. Here is a selected summary of markets that have released data from around the world. Note that this does not include the largest cement markets such as China, India or the US. Table 1 (below) lists them in order of recorded shipments.

Table 1: Cement shipment volumes for select countries in 2025 (Türkiye estimate based on nine month figures). Source: Global Cement News and local associations.

The most pronounced growth was in Asia, and no reporting country despatched more cement than Vietnam. The industry maintains a tight grip on its 75Mt domestic market, which rebounded in 2025, up by 13% year-on-year amidst new, increased infrastructure spending, following multiple years at 57-63Mt/yr. Exports underwent a similar surge, up by 28% to 37Mt, after years of 29-31Mt/yr. The government helped the industry to carve out a space in its target markets by halving the export tax on clinker down to 5% from May 2025 to December 2026. A major challenge for producers in 2026 is their own high energy costs. These are prompting increased investments in efficiency, as well as price rises.

Exports were the faster-growing portion of Türkiye’s cement shipments in 2025, contributing growth of 13%, to 11.5Mt. Production increased in line with shipments – up by 7%, to 68.2Mt. In Kazakhstan, meanwhile, an ongoing residential construction boom increased domestic cement consumption by 22%, to 14.5Mt. Imports filled the supply gap, increasing by 43% to 1Mt, while exports dropped by 22%, to 700,000t.

Kyrgyzstan lifted a temporary cement import ban in May 2025 and received 28,700t of cement from China throughout 2025, more than five times its Chinese cement imports in 2024. The construction of a new China-Uzbekistan railway through Kyrgyzstan continued throughout 2025, for scheduled commissioning in 2029. Tunnelling for the line, which is expected to ‘supercharge’ Kyrgyz industry, commenced in April 2025. Neighbouring Uzbekistan’s National Statistics Committee previously reported that Kyrgyzstan imported 489,000t of Uzbek cement in the first nine months of 2025.

Growth in cement shipments was single-figure across reporting South American countries, with the sharpest increase recorded in Peru. Argentinian national cement shipments signalled ‘recovery,’ according to its Association of Portland Cement Manufacturers: following declines of 3% and 24% in 2023 and 2024, shipments increased by 6%. Monthly despatches throughout 2025 ‘generally’ exceeded those in 2024, including during a ‘usual seasonal slowdown’ in late 2025. Despatches eventually dropped ‘slightly’ year-on-year in December 2024. Argentinian national cement consumption also grew by 6% year-on-year in 2025, to 10Mt.

Brazil’s 4% increase in shipments in 2025 was in line with the previous year’s growth, though 8% below historical peak shipments of 73Mt in 2014. In 2025, regional despatches grew by 7% from Northeast Brazil, by 4% from North Brazil, by 3% from both South Brazil and Southeast Brazil and by 2% from Midwest Brazil. National Cement Industry Union (SNIC) president Paulo Camillo Penna noted that historically low unemployment and historically high average incomes helped to offset the effects of slowing GDP growth and ‘tight’ monetary conditions, with interest rates also at a two-decade high. Household indebtedness affected 49% of disposable income, and an historic 80.6m Brazilians had defaulted on debts in December 2025.

The Swiss cement association Cemsuisse welcomed a return to growth in 2025, following a decline in cement shipments in 2024. Growth was most pronounced in the fourth quarter of 2025 – up by 6% year-on-year. A favourable interest rate reportedly buoyed residential construction, offsetting a ‘challenging’ environment in the infrastructure segment, characterised by ‘downsizing and delays’ to projects.

Serbia’s cement sector reportedly failed to capture its intended share of the domestic market in 2025. The government responded with temporary quotas on imported cement, above which imports will be subject to a 50% tariff. The quotas allow for a total 250,350t of regular cement imports, apportioned to export partners based on their volumes over the past five years, with the largest quotas going to the EU, Türkiye, Bosnia & Herzegovina and Albania. The government hopes that the move will help to ‘stabilise’ domestic production.

In Russia, market leader Cemros suspended operations at its Belgorod and Ulyanovsk cement plants and reduced production at its Lipetsk cement plant on 20 January 2026 in response to a local market contraction. The producer reported that cement imports from neighbouring Belarus and across the Caspian Sea from Iran rose in 2025.

Morocco’s cement shipments grew by 8% in 2025, with data from the Ministry of National Territorial Development showing that 8.02Mt (54%) of cement went into retail distribution, 3.78Mt (26%) into ready-mix concrete production and 1.53Mt (10%) into precast concrete production. December 2025 reversed the growth trend of the year, with a decline of 15% from December 2024 levels.

As to what the foregoing retrospective means for cement in 2026, Switzerland’s Cemsuisse director Stefan Vannoni predicted a ‘positive year ahead,’ based on the ‘favourable trend right up to the end of 2025.’ Other markets from Argentina to Morocco, however, failed to end on a high, or even went into reverse gear. As noted in Paulo Camillo Penna’s comments on the Brazilian market, there are also currency considerations. This is especially pertinent with regard to the weakening US Dollar, which threatens the cement trade’s supply of hard currency. Should a financial crisis ensue, the public infrastructure and private residential expenditure driving 2025’s boom markets may rapidly evaporate in 2026.