Displaying items by tag: Consumption

Russia: Cemros has proposed limiting Belarusian cement imports to 1.5Mt/yr, citing rising import volumes from Belarus, Iran and Kazakhstan, despite a stagnant market. The company said current imports are equal to the annual output of 2-3 cement plants, while underutilised Russian producers are reducing working hours and halting production.

The Cemros press service said “In the short term, a fair solution would be to fix cement import volumes at the levels seen before the introduction of preferential mortgages, namely a ceiling of 1.5Mt/yr of cement products.”

This comes after Cemros announcing on 8 August 2025 the implementation of a four-day working week from 1 October 2025, due to falling demand and increasing imports. On the same day, industry association Soyuzcement proposed introducing five-year anti-dumping measures, noting Belarus accounts for 69% of imports, Iran 20% and Kazakhstan 9%.

Cemros forecasts that 2025 cement consumption could fall by 10–15% year-on-year in 2025 to 57–60.3Mt. In January–June 2025, Russia produced 27.2Mt of cement and consumed 28.4Mt, including 1.83Mt of imports. Soyuzcement predicts that imports could reach up to 5Mt/yr in the medium term, up from 3.74Mt in 2024.

Argentina: Cement consumption reached 0.88Mt in July 2025, a 10% increase compared to June 2025, although it remained 3% lower than July 2024, according to data from the Asociación de Fabricantes de Cemento Portland (AFCP). Despatches totalled 0.89Mt, down by 3% year-on-year but up by 9% month-on-month.

Exports fell to 3502t in July 2025 from 5250t in June 2025, while imports increased to 312t from 147t the previous month. Accumulated consumption for the first seven months of 2025 stood at 5.66Mt, up by 10% from the same period in 2024. Despatches for the first seven months of 2025 reached 5.70Mt, marking a 10% increase year-on-year.

Spain: Cement consumption rose by 6.5% year-on-year to 7.8Mt in the first six months of 2025, according to the latest data from Oficemen. In June 2025, consumption grew by 14% year-on-year to 1.44Mt. Rolling year consumption between July 2024 and June 2025 reached 15.4Mt, up by 8%. Cement and clinker exports fell by 0.4% in June 2025 to 0.41Mt. Year-to-date exports declined by 5% to 2.31Mt, and rolling year exports dropped by 2% year-on-year to 4.8Mt.

Oficemen general manager Aniceto Zaragoza said “Average daily consumption in June 2025, which only includes weekdays, was somewhat more moderate, with an 8.5% increase. This ‘calendar effect’ is due to the fact that June 2024 had more holidays, with five full weekends coinciding during the month.”

Zaragoza added “Cement consumption has been the most positive trend of the last five years analysed, a trend we expect to continue in the second half of 2025. This growth is also in line with the data on tenders and construction permits for new construction, which have grown by 26% through May 2025 and 9% through April 2025, respectively.”

Russia: Sibcem’s five cement plants produced 2.2Mt of cement in the first half of 2025, down by 9% year-on-year.

Topkinsky Plant’s output dropped by 12% to 0.89Mt, Iskitimcement’s fell by 15% to 0.53Mt, Krasnoyarsk Cement’s fell by 5% to 0.3Mt and TimlyuiCement’s fell by 7% to 0.18Mt. Angarskcement grew production by 3% to 0.33Mt.

First vice president of Sibcem Gennady Rasskazov said “According to our calculations, in January – June of 2025, the volume of cement consumption in Siberia (within its previous borders – taking into account Buryatia and Transbaikalia) amounted to 2.8Mt, which is 10% lower than the level of the first six months of 2024. At the same time, the situation in different regions is different. For example, in Buryatia, demand increased by 8% in the first half of the year, while in Khakassia it decreased by 28%. A significant decline was also recorded in one of the most 'capacious' markets of the Siberian Federal District: cement consumption in the Novosibirsk Region decreased by 15%.”

He added “In the future, negative trends will intensify: so far, we do not see any prerequisites that allow us to talk about an imminent recovery in demand.”

Russia: Cemros has suspended cement production at its Belgorod cement plant due to market deterioration, reduced profitability and a rising share of imports on the domestic market. The company said that the forced downtime will be used for equipment repairs, with operations expected to resume within a few months.

Cement consumption in Russia fell by 9% in the first half of 2025, and by 10.5% in the second quarter. Consumption in the Central Federal District, including the Belgorod region, dropped by 12% in June 2025, and by 8% in the Belgorod region itself. Cemros expects the decline to reach 13-15% by the end of 2025. The producer attributed the decline to high interest rates, the end of preferential mortgage programmes and a slowdown in construction projects. Cemros said that imports in 2025 have increased year-on-year, with the majority coming from Belarus. Imports from Iran have also increased by 25% since 2024. The producer said that the total volume of imported cement will be around 4Mt by the end of 2025.

Cemros said that all employees will remain on staff with pay and benefits, and some will be relocated to other plants.

US: The American Cement Association expects that data centres will need 1Mt of cement by 2028 as investment in artifical intelligence technology rises. 

Data centres are projected to consume 247,000t of cement in 2025 and 860,000t by 2027. There were 5426 operational AI data centres in the US at the end of March 2025, with the number reportedly expected to exceed 6000 by 2027. However, the association warned that there could be challenges in meeting this demand, such as regulatory hurdles and labour shortages.

Indonesia: Cement consumption fell by 5% year-on-year to 5.18Mt in May 2025, despite rising 32% month-on-month following Eid al-Fitr, according to Kontan.co.id news. The annual drop reflects ongoing purchasing power challenges, longer holidays and routine demand from the construction of the country’s new capital city at Nusantara.

Java remained the top sales region at 2.73Mt, down by 6% year-on-year. Sales outside Java also declined by 3% to 2.45Mt. Bagged cement consumption fell by 4% to 3.69Mt, while bulk cement demand dropped by 6% to 1.49Mt. Cumulative sales from January to May 2025 stood at 22.27Mt, down 2% year-on-year, compared to a 1% decline in the January–April period.

Equity research analyst Andreas Saragih at Mirae Aset Sekuritas said “Although there was a deeper contraction, we are of the view that the achievement is relatively in line with expectations, because it is equivalent to 35% of our 2025 cement sales estimate.”

South Korea: Domestic cement consumption fell by 22% year-on-year to 8.12Mt in the first quarter of 2025, the lowest figure for first-quarter sales in five years, according to Chosun Biz news. This marks a 32% (3.9Mt) drop from the 2023 peak of 12Mt. A domestic decline of more than 20% in the first quarter has not been seen since the 1998 financial crisis. At that time, first-quarter domestic sales decreased by 23% to 8.9Mt.

Cement companies have seen a corresponding decline in revenue. Hanil Cement’s operating profit dropped by 75% year-on-year to US$9m, Asia Cement’s fell by 70% year-on-year to US$2.4m and SAMPYO Cement’s declined by 90% to US$1.15m. Ssangyong C&E and Sungshin Cement both reported operating losses of US$19m and US$4.4m respectively.

A Cement Association representative said "For the time being, the decrease in domestic cement consumption is likely to continue, and management performance will further deteriorate. Unless a groundbreaking measure to overcome the construction market slump emerges, the forecast of 40Mt of domestic cement consumption in 2025 seems doubtful."

Spain: Cement consumption grew by 5% year-on-year to 4.88Mt in the first five months of 2025, despite a 3% fall in April 2025, attributed to the Easter period. Consumption increased by 6% to 15.1Mt from May 2024 - April 2025. Exports fell by 0.3% in April 2025 to 0.42Mt, a decrease of 1258t compared to April 2024. In the year-to-date, exports fell by 2% to 1.5Mt. However, they rose by 1% year-on-year in the last 12 months to 4.9Mt, almost 60,000t more than in the previous 12 months. Imports, meanwhile, dropped by 16% from January – April 2025, to 344,305t, but rose by 28% over the last 12 months.

Iran: Cement and steel producers will suspend production for 15 days from 15 May 2025 under a government order to conserve electricity, according to local press reports.

The Iranian Interior Ministry instructed regional power companies to cut supply to large manufacturers, limiting their electricity consumption to 10% of usual demand, according to Tejarat News. The measure aims to reduce industrial consumption amid rising electricity use in the household sector for cooling during ongoing hot weather. The Iranian Energy Ministry said that power availability will increase from mid-June 2025, following the completion of power plant repairs.