The opening days of June 2026 have thrown up multiple news stories about the global cement trade and its intertwined supply chains – formal or otherwise. High demand is one common thread across markets, along with predictably high prices.
In South America, authorities are looking into reasons for rising cement prices. The public prosecutor's office of Bolivia’s Oruro department launched an investigation in response to complaints from the public on 8 June 2026. In Venezuela, meanwhile, the matter will go all the way to the top, when National Assembly President Jorge Rodríguez reports to acting President of Venezuela Delcy Rodríguez on his on-going talks with the Türkiye-based operators of unspecified cement assets in the country. Jorge Rodríguez is trying to find out why prices are as high as they are in cement-producing Trujillo state. When told the figure, Rodríguez reportedly remarked “It can’t be!”
Turkish investment in Venezuela’s cement industry commenced under ousted President Nicolás Maduro, before his eventual abduction in January 2026. Local news sources have described the sector and Türkiye as ‘one of the main allies’ of Maduro. Whatever the actual political dimensions, Türkiye’s transatlantic enterprises can be expected to continue to press their advantages under the watchful eye of the US government.
To the north west, Cemex subsidiary Caribbean Cement Company (CCCL) responded to a cement shortage in Jamaica by increasing its production by 50% and sales volumes by 23% month-on-month in May 2026. Sales reached a record 111,000t, 2% above the previous record month of March 2021. The group bolstered CCCL’s domestic supply with an additional 23,900t-worth of imports.
A volume of new capacity never before seen outside of China, meanwhile, is under construction across an area encompassing the entire Middle East & Africa region, east to India and north into the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) countries – read about it in the ‘Contracts’ feature of the forthcoming Global Cement July-August issue. Just yesterday, the state-owned Iraq Cement State Company invited bidders for three further cement plant projects in Iraq. The past decade of Iraqi reconstruction has relied primarily on cement from neighbouring Iran. With intermittent attacks on Iran by Israel and the US escalating on 10 June 2026, one might view the new round of capacity-building in Iraq as an investment in more than just the immediate needs of the domestic market.
Sneakiness is rarely to be encouraged, but desperate times make for desperate measures – and sometimes substantial returns. Off Bangladesh, 20 people were piloting two fishing boats loaded with 1700 bags of cement on a course for Myanmar’s war-torn Rakhine state on 2 June 2026, when the Bangladesh Navy intercepted the operation. The Myanmar government has been blockading Rakhine state since mid-2023.
The Philippines government announced safeguard measures of its own against Chinese and Indonesian cement imports on 2 June 2026, after they each exceeded the current thresholds as a share of total import volumes for exemption from import duties. China was the source of 23% of the Philippines’ first-quarter imports of cement in 2026 and 8% came from Indonesia. Both were behind Vietnam, with a 63% share.
Growth attracts regulation. In an effort to rationalise taxation of minerals, the provincial government of Pakistan’s Punjab province is attempting to implement raw materials royalties on cement ex-factory at a rate of 6%. The matter came to court on 5 June 2026, with judges warning that cement prices can be expected to rise proportionally.
Five-month 2026 data from Argentina and Brazil, published this week, strike a dissonant chord. Though ‘confidence remains high,’ the construction sector faces labour shortages, high interest rates, inflation and cost pressures connected to the Iran War. Five-month consumption was 27Mt in Brazil, up by 1% year-on-year, and 3.87Mt in Argentina, down by 3%.
Through good times and bad, producers and distributors will find ways of extracting maximum value for their product. Whatever barriers are set in the way, cement will continue to find a way through the cracks.
