US cement market expands 5% in October

Total Portland and blended cement deliveries in the USA and Puerto Rico advanced by 5.2 per cent YoY to 9.9Mt in October 2018, according to data by the US Geological Survey (USGS). Texas, California, Florida, Ohio and Illinois were the leading states in terms of consumption, receiving a combined 36 per cent of these shipments. 

The country’s leading producing states were California, Missouri, Texas, Florida and Michigan, which accounted for around 39 per cent of total output. Clinker output (excluding Puerto Rico) rose 5.5 per cent YoY to 7.1Mt.

Masonry cement shipments increased by 7.7 per cent to 234,000t in October 2018 when compared with October 2017.

Cement and clinker imports during the month were up by 10.9 per cent YoY to 1.4Mt.

January-October 2018
Portland and blended cement shipments for the first 10 months of 2018 totalled 83.7Mt, representing a YoY increase of 3.4 per cent.

The masonry cement market edged up to 2.09Mt in the 10M18, with off-take particularly strong in Florida, Texas, North Carolina, California and Georgia. These five states accounted for 57 per cent of masonry cement sales.

In terms of clinker output, the first 10 months of 2018 saw a rise to 64Mt. Texas, California, Missouri, Florida and Alabama were the leading clinker-producing states.

Domestic production was supplemented by 12.9Mt of cement and clinker imports, representing a 11.8 per cent rise when compared with the 10M17. Around a third of imports, 4.431Mt were delivered from Canada with a further 1.944Mt from Turkey, 1.678Mt from China and 1.614Mt from Greece. Smaller but sizeable volumes were supplied by Mexico (0.859Mt), South Korea (0.62Mt), Spain (0.434Mt), Sweden (0.37Mt) and Taiwan (0.267Mt).