The president of the Ciment Català employer association, Salvador Fernández Capo, expresses the sector’s concern about the large increase in the price of electricity, which is the variable cost component with the greatest weight in the manufacture of cement. This increase in the cost of KW/h has caused some factories to stop production in recent weeks, since the cost of manufacturing the cement exceeded its sale price.
To this effect is added the threat of the introduction of a tax on CO2 emissions by the Generalitat of Catalonia to a sector that is already affected by the regulations of the European ETS and that, therefore, would suffer double taxation for emissions. All this “generates a risk of relocation of all or part of the production of the factories in Catalonia” says Fernández Capo. “Currently we are suffering from a situation of non-competitiveness to export cement and clinker, which has been the escape valve in these years where the domestic market has been and continues to be depressed, with cement consumption well below the European average and for a modern country like ours”, affirms the president.
On the other hand, the consumption of cement in Catalonia has increased by 15.6% in the month of February, which has led to a growth of 11, 4% and a total of 2.21 million tons. This figure practically equals the accumulated consumption in 2019, the last year before the pandemic.
The increase in production costs has had an impact on sales to foreign markets, which have fallen by 46.4% in February and have accumulated a 20.5% decrease in the last 12 months.