Cement demand in Brazil continues fall in 1H17

Cement sales in Brazil in the 1H17 fell 8.8 per cent YoY as the domestic market required 26.015Mt of cement, according to Brazil’s cement association, Sindicato Nacional de la Industria del Cemento (SNIC).

In the southeast of the country, the largest segment, sales fell from 13.12Mt in 1H16 to 12.21Mt in 1H17, representing a decrease of 6.9 per cent. However, both the northeastern and central-eastern regions reported a drop of around 11 per cent to 5.61Mt and 2.67Mt, respectively. In the south, the market contracted 10.1 per cent to 4.18Mt in the six-month period. The north, which is the smallest regional market, saw volumes decrease by 6.5 per cent to 1.35Mt.

For June alone, sales dropped 8.6 per cent to 4.5Mt when compared with June 2016. In the south the sales slump was the largest at 14 per cent as 0.688Mt were sold in June 2017 (0.8Mt in June 2016) but was followed by a 12.4 per cent drop in the northeast to 0.91Mt (June 2016:1.04Mt) and a 10.7 per cent fall in the central-eastern region to 0.49Mt (June 2016: 0.55Mt). In the north, sales decreased 8.9 per cent YoY from 0.27Mt to 0.246Mt while the southeast saw the smallest fall at 4.3 per cent to from 2.21Mt to 2.12Mt.

Brazil’s cement producers have found little consolation in exports with exports falling by 60 per cent from 10,000t in June 2016 to 4000t one year later. In the first half of 2017, exports reached 19,000t or around 67 per cent less when compared with a volume of 58,000t reported in 1H16.

SNIC expects that the domestic market will contract between five and nine per cent in 2017.