Cement consumption in Catalonia in the month of June has registered a drop of 1%. With this figure, the accumulated consumption for the year decreases by 2.9%, reaching 1.1 million tons, which leads to the moving year rate being -7.8% and a volume of 2.10 million of tons. For its part, cement production has increased in the accumulated year by 0.2% to place the rate in the moving year at -3.9% and a volume of 3.21 million tons. Exports of cement and clinker are reduced by 25% throughout the year, resulting in their volume in the last twelve months standing at 1.50 million tons (-26.5%).
In view of these statistics, Ciment Català joins the claim expressed by the Foment del Treball employers’ association to reverse the infrastructure under-provision accumulated in Catalonia in the last 15 years. According to the report Infrastructure investment deficit in Catalonia 2009-2023 that Foment has prepared together with the Chamber of Contractors of Catalonia, during the last decade there has been a lack of a decisive commitment to investment, and the tender figures in relation to the GDP They are far below European standards. In this sense, since 2009, the accumulated investment deficit stands at 42.5 billion euros in 2023 for all Public Administrations, in comparative terms with what would be reasonably desirable, which is 2.2% of GDP.
The president of Ciment Català, Salvador Fernández Capo, considers that “the continued deficit in infrastructure slows down the economic growth of Catalonia, the well-being and quality of life of its citizens, and hampers the competitiveness of the country’s economy”. And he recalls that the main shortcomings in public works are concentrated in “mobility by rail, the improvement of road safety and the interconnection between territories, rail freight transport and water self-sufficiency”.