Exports help Saudi cement sales rise 7% in December

Cement and clinker sales in Saudi Arabia rose 7.2 per cent YoY to 4.37Mt (including exports) in December 2018 compared to 4.08Mt in the previous year, reports Aljazira Capital.
 
Clinker inventory increased 18.8 per cent YoY and 0.8 per cent MoM to 42.34Mt last month, but cement dispatches were down 10 per cent YoY.
 
The plant utilisation rate in the Saudi cement sector fell to 54.1 per cent in December, compared to 62.4 per cent in the same period last year. Hail and Southern Cement recorded the highest YoY increase in sales of 32.3 and 24.7 per cent, respectively. However, Northern Cement showed the highest decline of 51.4 per cent YoY, followed by City Cement dropping 26.8 per cent YoY.
 
Tabuk Cement is in talks with Bangladesh's government to export clinker to the Asian country. The company's clinker inventory stands at 1.2Mt having recently exported 6950t of clinker to Yemen.