Displaying items by tag: Consumption

Qatar: Switzerland-based Sika has expanded concrete admixture production capacity at it Doha admixture plant. The company has also announced the start of epoxy resin production in the country. It says that its present investments target growth to serve the expanding regional construction market. Numerous major projects and the expansion of energy and utilities infrastructure have driven a growing demand. Qatar’s state sourcing policy further increases consumption of building materials produced in the country.

Europe, Middle East and Africa regional manager Ivo Schädler said "Our latest investment in Qatar positions us for continued growth and strengthens our competitiveness in the country. In expanding our production, we are anticipating a substantial increase in demand and volumes for our high-value adhesives and flooring solutions. Our building sector customers will benefit from an expanded and locally produced portfolio of Sika solutions which, in addition, eliminates long-distance transportation."

Spain: Domestic cement consumption was 3.38Mt in the first quarter of 2021, up by 8% year-on-year from 3.12Mt in 2020. The Spanish Cement Industry Association (Oficemen) partly attributed the increase to export growth, to 665,000t in March 2021, up by 18% from March 2020 levels.

President Víctor Brosa said, ‘A stable year is expected in 2021 compared to 2020 despite the uncertainty surrounding the arrival of funds to reactivate the economy and the evolution of the pandemic."

US: The Portland Cement Association (PCA) has published a March 2021 Economic Update. The update calls attention to the danger that insufficient aid to state and local governments presents to construction. The American Rescue Plan Act 2021 affords US$350bn to these bodies, which consume roughly half of the cement produced in the US.

Senior regional economist Brian Schmidt said that state and local government coffers are running low due to reduced tax revenues because of the Covid-19 outbreak, especially in areas reliant on oil and tourism. Schmidt concluded that the total US$1.9tn stimulus package is likely sufficiently replenish state funds to maintain cement demand. He added that this will depend on significantly reduced Covid-19 case counts by the third quarter of 2021 in line with the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation’s baseline forecast.

Spain: Oficemen, the Spanish cement association, reports that domestic cement consumption fell by 10% year-on-year to 13.3Mt in 2020 from 14.7Mt in 2019. Consumption at this level was last reported in 1967. The 12-month accumulated consumption figure began to fall in April 2020 due to Covid-19 restrictions and the association does not expect growth in 2021 despite an improvement in December 2020. Cement and clinker exports fell by 3.4% to 5.99Mt from 6.20Mt. It has forecast anything between a 3% rise and a 3% fall in consumption in 2021, due to coronavirus-related uncertainty.

The figures suggest that capacity utilisation in the cement industry is at roughly 60% nationally, according to the El Economista newspaper. Oficemen president Víctor García Brosa said that this level ‘cannot be indefinitely maintained.’ The association called for a recovery plan committed to infrastructure development, residential construction and rehabilitation and energy efficient transport.

Italy: Federbeton, the Italian cement and concrete association, has called for a coordinated infrastructure investment plan to restart the national economy once the coronavirus crisis recedes. It has noted a halt to production not seen since the 1940s during the current crisis and a general reduction in cement consumption to 17Mt/yr from 47Mt/yr over the last decade, according to the Agenzia Nazionale Stampa Associata (ANSA). It is calling on a strategic plan for the sector to make any post-pandemic economic recovery as efficient as possible.

Spain: The Spanish cement association Oficemen has targeted a 43% emissions drop by 2030 across its entire value chain compared to 1990 levels. The objective has been published as part of the association’s sustainability roadmap to 2050. It is a tightening of the previous target of 27% by 2030. Oficemen intends to meet the tougher reduction by using the so-called 5C approach - clinker, cement, concrete, construction and built environment, and (re)carbonation – as detailed by Cembureau, the European Cement Association. Oficemen also revealed that it is working with the Spanish Technological Platform for CO₂ (PTECO₂) on identifying potential locations for storing captured CO₂. Hugo Morán, Secretary of State for the Environment, participated remotely with the launch event.

Oficemen also reports that Spanish cement consumption fell by 12% year-on-year to 12.2Mt in the first 11 months of 2020. Exports declined by 5%.

Argentina: Cement producers in Argentina shipped 1.13Mt of cement in November 2020, up by 28% year-on-year from 0.88Mt in November 2019 and by 4% month-on-month from 1.09Mt in October 2020. The Economista newspaper has reported that the figure is a high-water mark for monthly production since September 2017. Consumption also rose to 1.09Mt, up by 25% year-on-year from 0.87Mt and 2% month-on-month from 1.07Mt.

Indonesia: Semen Indonesia has said that it expects a 14% year-on-year decline in domestic cement demand to 50Mt in 2020 from 58Mt in 2019. The Jakarta Post newspaper has reported that the coronavirus outbreak was the primary cause of a 7.7% first-half decline in cement consumption to 27Mt from 29Mt.

Marketing and supply chain director Adi Munandir said, “Our projection is based on the delay in private construction projects and the government’s infrastructure development as a result of the Covid-19 crisis. This has caused demand to slump by 8.8% in July 2020, and we expect this slump to continue to the end of the year.” He noted the retail housing market as a potential sales boost, saying, “We saw an uptick in cement bag sales during the first half of 2020, as home renovations rose due to the pandemic.”

Argentina: The Portland Cement Producers Association says that domestic cement consumption was 1.1Mt in August 2020, up by 6.4% month-on-month from 1.0Mt in July 2020. Eight-month consumption remains below 2019 levels, by 26% at 7.5Mt from 9.4Mt over the corresponding period of 2019. August production fell by 12% year-on-year to 1.1Mt from 1.2Mt.

Dominican Republic: Domestic cement production declined by 24% year-on-year to 2.1Mt in the first half of 2020 from 2.8Mt in the first half of 2019, corresponding to 62% capacity utilisation. Domestic consumption over the period also fell, by 20% year-on-year.