Colombia cement consumption slips 1% YoY in 2017

In full-year 2017 the Colombian cement market contracted by 1 per cent to 11.983Mt. The trend has been attributed to a 4.9 per cent fall in offtake from concrete companies. 

Dispatches of grey cement in Colombia decreased by 5.8 per cent to 948,300t in December 2017 when compared with the previous year, according to DANE, the country’s statistics office.

Grey cement production in December 2017 fell 7.1 per cent YoY to 1.020Mt.

In terms of departments, Casanare was most affected by the drop in sales as it saw sales fall by 29.5 per cent YoY. Córdoba followed with a 15.9 per cent market contraction while Santander’s offtake was 7.4 per cent lower YoY. In Bogotá sales decreased 2.4 per cent. Valle del Cauca sales dropped 1.9 per cent while in Cundinamarca deliveries remained largely stable. Atlántico saw a 4.2 per cent decrease and Bolivar was down 2.4 per cent. However, the key market of Antioquia saw market growth at 5.7 per cent. In Nariño and Caldas sales jumped 17.1 and 16 per cent, respectively.

Output from domestic cement plants slipped 1.5 per cent in 2017 to 12.302Mt when compared with 2016. Some 69.1 per cent of their production was sold in bags (2017: 69.4 per cent) while 30.9 per cent was delivered in bulk.