After 3 consecutive years of rising, the Catalan cement industry has once again entered into a crisis situation. According to the estimated data of the Cement Barometer, consumption has been reduced by 1.2% in 2018 compared to the previous year. The figure contrasts with the evolution of the Spanish market, which has grown by 8.1% during the same period, a differential that would be even greater if Catalonia were excluded from the calculation.
Salvador Fernández Capo, president of Ciment Català, attributes the cause of the fall of the market in Catalonia to “the paralysis of investment in infrastructure by all public administrations”. The short-term outlook, in addition, “remains pessimistic, because the evolution of the market during 2018 shows a clear, constant and progressive negative trend”.
The interannual variation of consumption in Catalonia has gone from a growth of almost 17% in January to the negative rate in December. In this last month, the use of cement in the domestic market was 118 thousand tons, 9.7% lower than December 2017. In the total of the year, consumption added 1.83 million tons, compared to 1.85 million of 2017.
The activity of the Catalan factories 2018 has also been reduced both in terms of Production (10.4% less than in 2017) and Exports, with a negative year-on-year variation of 21.9%.