A singularly bad month of December in terms of market magnitudes has led the Catalan cement industry to a notable contraction throughout 2023. In the last month of the year, consumption fell by 22.6% and stood at 141 thousand tons, a figure so low that it was only worse in the month of April 2020, when the government decreed the stoppage of business activities and the confinement of the population due to the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic. Exports were even worse, with a decline of almost 50%. Finally, the 32.5% reduction in production culminated a historically negative December.
The chain of 9 consecutive months (from April to December) of falls in cement consumption has meant that the year ended with a decrease of 9% and a total of 2.13 million tons. Exports (-8.5% and 1.7 million tons) and production (-5.1% and 3.19 million tons) confirm the significant drop-in activity in the sector after 2 years of recovery post-pandemic and place it in a complex situation.
The president of the Ciment Català employers’ association, Salvador Fernández Capo, explains that the contraction of the sector in the last year must be attributed, above all, to “the lack of investments in infrastructure by public administrations, which are essential for the maintenance of the quality of life, the sustainability of society and the natural environment”. The sector manager considers that “citizens are paying a very high price for this lack of construction and maintenance of public facilities, which has been evident for some years now” and cites as examples the problems experienced “in mobility, with road congestion and railway incidents, in the supply of social housing or in the setbacks in water supply due to the drought, which could have been avoided, at least partially, with infrastructure planned a long time ago and not built”.
The industry’s forecasts for 2024 are not too optimistic, and unfortunately point to market stagnation due to the negative social and environmental effect of the lack of many infrastructures. On the one hand, government policies – currently more oriented towards taking social measures – do not suggest an increase in investments in infrastructure. On the other hand, the price of mortgages will not help stimulate housing construction. Cement consumption will therefore continue at low levels.