Argentine cement market contracts 25% in February

Cement demand in Argentina fell 25.4 per cent YoY ad 7.9 per cent MoM to 686,671t in February 2020, according to AFCP, the domestic cement association. There were no imports as domestic cement producers were able to meet the entire volume required by the market.

Cement producers manufactured 695,045t of cement with 8374t shipped for export in February 2020. The production volume fell 25.2 per cent YoY and 8.3 per cent MoM.

In the first two months of 2020 total cement consumption in the country reached 1.432Mt – a 20.2 per cent decline from 1.795Mt in the 2M19.

Output fell to 1.453Mt, down 19.9 per cent when compared with 1.814Mt in 2M19. Of this total 20,788t was exported, representing a 10.7 per cent increase when compared with the 2M19 when 18,783t was delivered to export markets.