US shipments offer mixed signals

US shipments offer mixed signals
11 February 2011


US Geological Survey preliminary cement shipment data for December 2010 indicate stronger than expected volumes, being 8% up on December 2009 –  shipments increasing in Michigan, South Carolina and Texas but declining in California and Florida – and said to be partly due to weather effects – for example, the South Eastern part of the US was unusually cold in December 2010, and the South Western part was unusually wet.

US Geological Survey preliminary estimates indicate that US cement shipments in December 2010 were 8.1% higher than in December 2009. After 45 months of continual decline between May 2006 and February 2010, shipments have been volatile, but have now increased in nine of the last ten months – report research analysts at Jeffries global building materials.

Amongst the larger states, shipments increased in December in Southern Texas (+36%), Northern Texas (+31%), Michigan (+27%) and South Carolina (+20%). Conversely, they declined in Arizona (-12%), Florida (-10%), Georgia (-9%), Southern California (-7%), and Northern California (-2%).

Cement shipments for the whole of 2010 were however some 0.3% lower than in 2009. Amongst the larger states shipments declined in Arizona (-15%), Georgia (-9%), Northern California (-8%), Florida (-8%) and Southern California (-5%), but they increased in South Carolina (+13%), Michigan (12%), Northern Texas (+11%) and Southern Texas (+1%).
Published under Cement News