The beginning of 2021 has not changed the negative trend that the Catalan cement industry is experiencing. The provisional data for the month of January show a new market drop (-4.7%) with a total of only 146 thousand tons used, the lowest monthly figure in the last 2 years if March and April of last year are discounted, when the activity stoppage was decreed. This places the interannual index with a reduction of 9.6%, and a volume that does not reach 2 million tons. To finish darkening this panorama, exports have fallen by 20.9%.
In order to reverse this situation, the Ciment Català employers’ association considers it essential to relaunch the tenders for the construction and maintenance of infrastructures. It should be remembered that, in 2020, the bidding in Catalonia fell by more than 20%. The sectorial president, Salvador Fernández Capo, claims that “the new government of the Generalitat bets decisively on the promotion of public works. New infrastructures are essential for the country to recover the economy, and the citizenship requires it for their mobility needs and of housing”. In this sense, he also recalls that Construction is the sector that most rapidly generates employment.