Cement production in Russia has retreated to pandemic-era levels, underscoring a weakening construction sector and falling demand for new housing.
According to Russia’s statistics agency Rosstat, cement output between January and October 2025 totalled 50.41Mt, broadly on a par with 2020 volumes, when production had slumped because of the COVID-19 crisis.
Monthly production fell sharply in the autumn. October 2025 output stood at 5.24Mt, down by 658,000t from September, representing an 11 per cent month-on-month decline. By the end of November 2025, cumulative cement production had reached 55.4Mt.
Soyuzcement estimates full-year 2025 production at 58.3Mt. This would represent a YoY decline of approximately 10.4 per cent, compared with total cement production of 65.1Mt in 2024, highlighting the scale of the contraction in Russia’s cement market.
Worse is yet to come
Industry representatives at the XXVII International Construction Forum "Cement, Concrete, Dry Mixtures” warned that the situation in the Russian cement sector will only continue to deteriorate in 2026-27. Cement consumption in September totalled 6.2Mt but slipped to 5.6Mt in October and 4.1Mt in November 2025, reports Soyuzcement. Between January and November 2025, cement consumption totalled 57.4Mt.
Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnullin said that housing construction in Russia could decline by 30 per cent by 2027. Speaking at the forum, Yevgeny Vysotsky, CM Pro Executive Director, forecast that cement production would drop 21 per cent in the next three years, from 66.5Mt in 2024 to 52.8Mt in 2027.
Surplus cement capacity exacerbated by imports
Meanwhile, surplus cement capacity in Russia continues to widen and now stands at 32.5Mta, while imports reached 3.6Mt by November 2025. Based on expected full-year production of 58.3Mt, imports already account for around 6 per cent of domestic cement output, a share that is continuing to rise. Overcapacity is reported in all but one federal district. Consumption currently exceeds available capacity only in the North Caucasus Federal District, while all other districts and regions face a pronounced structural surplus.
According to Daria Martynkina, executive director of Soyuzcement, the total design production capacity of Russian cement plants is estimated at approximately 104Mta. As a result, the industry is operating at close to 50 per cent utilisation, implying idle capacity of more than 50Mta. This marks a further deterioration from the ten-year average utilisation rate of around 60 per cent and places sustained pressure on producers’ margins.
The decline in utilisation reflects not only weakening domestic demand, but also the accelerating inflow of imported cement from neighbouring countries. Import pressure has intensified steadily throughout 2025. By November, imports had reached 3.6Mt, and Soyuzcement expects full-year imports to rise to at least 3.7Mt. “The market is declining, and this year we expect to import at least 3.7Mt of cement into Russia. Consequently, the share of imports will increase,” Martynkina said.
Russia’s main cement suppliers include Iran, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Vietnam and China. Belarus dominates imports, accounting for approximately 69 per cent of the total, while Iran represents around 20 per cent.
Exports, by contrast, have remained broadly flat in 2025 at around 1.1Mta, offsetting less than one-third of imported volumes.
With limited export growth potential and domestic demand under pressure, industry participants warn that prolonged underutilisation could lead to temporary kiln stoppages and mothballing of older production lines.
Russian cement companies start to suffer
With limited export growth potential and domestic demand under pressure, industry participants warn that prolonged underutilisation could lead to temporary kiln stoppages and mothballing of older production lines. Market leader, Cemros, has halted output at its Belgorod and Ulyanovsk plants and reduced activity at Lipetsk, blaming cheaper Belarusian imports. The company placed 13,000 employees across 18 cement plants on a four-day working week in October 2025, in an effort to avoid full plant shutdowns.
Meanwhile, Novrocement is facing nationalisation amid legal claims of price manipulation and offshore transfers.
