Argentine cement demand notes 16.5% rise in May

Dispatches from Argentina’s cement plants rose by 16.5 per cent in May 2016 after a six consecutive months of decreases. Around 881,000t of cement were delivered to the domestic market, according to the country’s cement association AFCP.

Some 9000t of cement was exported by domestic producers during May, reflecting a 22.7 per cent drop in export sales when compared with last October’s export peak of 1.1Mta.

For the first five months, cement demand in the Latin American contract has fallen by 13.2 per cent.
For full-year 2016 the organisation expects the market to contract by 13.4 per cent YoY to 10.5Mt. Industry sources attribute the fall in sales to Argentina’s economic downturn.