Moroccan cement deliveries fall 14% in March

Cement deliveries in Morocco dropped 14 per cent YoY to 1,028,481t in March 2024, according to the country's cement association, APC. Sales by its members – Asment Témara, Ciments de l’Atlas, Ciments du Maroc, LafargeHolcim Maroc and Novacim – were down from 1,195,305t in March 2023.

Deliveries to the retail sector fell 20.7 per cent to 575,731t in March 2024 from 725,926t in March 2023. The ready-mix concrete segment reduced its off-take by three per cent YoY to 238,646t from 245,988t in March 2023. The prefabricated market saw a 7.4 per cent contraction to 103,305t from 111,549t while sales to infrastructure projects increased by 10.7 per cent YoY to 70,933t from 64,065t in March 2023. Deliveries to the building segment dropped 29.6 per cent. In addition, 6215t were delivered to the mortars segment.

January-March 2024
Cement deliveries in the January-March 2024 period slipped 0.4 per cent to 3.235Mt from 3.248Mt in the equivalent period of the previous year.

Sales to the retail sector in the 3M24 reached 1.849Mt, down from 1.982Mt in the 3M23, while the ready-mix concrete sales were up 10.3 per cent YoY to 721,053t from 653,784t. The prefab market absorbed 316,131t in the 3M24 (+1.1 per cent YoY from 312,683t) but deliveries to buildings dropped 23.5 per cent to 105,933t from 138,387t in the 3M23. Sales to the infrastructure segment surged 41 per cent to 226,443t in the January-March 2024 period from 160,654t in the year-ago period.

Outlook
Cement sales to the infrastructure segment are expected to continue to rise as the government invests in improving the country's transport and energy infrastructure to boost its trade prospects. For example, in July 2023 the government allocated MAD55bn (US$5.4bn) over the next four years to enable its economy to draw upon cost-effective, clean energy until 2027, according to the Energy Transition and Sustainable Development Ministry.

In addition, the country's efforts to rebuild infrastructure and housing as part of its MAD120bn post-earthquake reconstruction plan over the next five years (2024-29) is expected to result in additional cement demand.

Morocco's GDP growth is forecast to accelerate from 2.4 per cent in 2023 to 3.6 per cent in 2024 before slipping to 3.2 per cent in 2025-26, according to the IMF. Meanwhile, inflation is coming down from 6.3 per cent in 2023 to 3.5 per cent in 2024, with expectations to further fall to 2.9 per cent in 2025.