Displaying items by tag: Import

Argentina: Cement despatches in August 2025 totalled 0.89Mt, down by 0.4% year-on-year from August 2024, according to the AFCP. Volumes fell by 0.2% month-on-month.

However, cumulative despatches from January to August 2025 reached 6.59Mt, an 8% increase from 6.08Mt in the same period of 2024. Cement imports in August 2025 stood at 298t, taking the year-to-date total to 1597t.

UK: Cement production dropped to 7.3Mt in 2024, the lowest level since 1950 and around 50% of 1990 volumes, according to the Mineral Products Association (MPA). Imports have nearly tripled over the past 20 years, rising from 12% of sales in 2008 to 32% in 2024, leaving supply chains more dependent on volatile international markets.

Diana Casey, executive director for cement and lime at the MPA, said “We’re calling on the government to help put domestic production on a level playing field so that it can compete fairly with imports. The UK has a choice: to build these vital development projects with UK-made cement, or to build them with imports – sending jobs, investment and economic growth overseas.”

The MPA said that high energy, regulatory and labour costs are threatening competitiveness and jobs, with 40% of cement produced in the Peak District and 60% across the rest of the UK. The group said the carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM) due in 2027 must be paired with a procurement policy that prioritises domestic cement.

El Salvador: Data from the Central Reserve Bank (BCR) showed apparent cement consumption rose by 30% year-on-year in May 2025 to 4.8m 42.5kg bags, from 3.7m bags in May 2024, according to local press. The figure was the country’s highest monthly consumption in five years. Consumption from January to May 2025 reached 21.4m bags, up by 17% year-on-year from 18.4m bags in the same period of 2024.

From January to June 2025, imports of hydraulic cement totalled 0.3Mt, worth US$26m, up by 41% year-on-year from 0.21Mt in the same period of 2024. Guatemala was the leading supplier at US$12.7m, followed by Vietnam (US$6.6m), Japan (US$2.8m), Honduras (US$1.4m) and China (US$1.3m).

US: Shipments of Portland and blended cement, including imports, fell by 7.5% year-on-year to 8.91Mt in May 2025, according to the latest figures from the United States Geological Survey (USGS). Shipments for January to May 2025 totalled 37.9Mt, down by 6% from the same period in 2024. Texas, Missouri, California, Florida and Michigan accounted for 39% of production, while Texas, California, Florida, Ohio and Illinois received 40% of shipments.

Clinker production was 6.38Mt in May 2025 , compared with 6.46Mt in May 2024. For January to May 2025, clinker output dropped by 10% to 24.5Mt. Imports for the period declined by 5% year-on-year to 9.81Mt.

The second quarter of 2025 saw Russian GDP growth slow to 1.1% year-on-year, with a revised full-year growth forecast of 0.9%.¹ An economy bulked up on injections of military spending (budgeted at 33% of GDP in 2025)² since the invasion of Ukraine may slowly be keeling over. Faced with this eventuality, the Russian cement industry will likely be reviewing strategies not to be dragged down with the rest of the economy.

Prior to the release of the latest economic data, Russian construction had been forecast to grow at a CAGR of 2.5% in 2026 – 2029. Drivers included anticipated investments in oil and gas, transport, airports and renewable energy.

Purely in cement terms, the data no longer appear to corroborate this outlook. Market leader Cemros expects total domestic demand to drop from 67Mt in 2024, by 10 – 15% year-on-year, to 57 – 60.3Mt in 2025. In the first half of the year, Russia consumed 28.4Mt of cement, just 4% above production volumes of 27.2Mt in the same period. Cemros cited ‘declining cement consumption’ to account for its upcoming instigation of a four-day working week at its plants across Russia from October 2025.

On 12 August 2025, Cemros spoke out about a threat to the interests of the domestic industry: increased imports from Belarus. It said that Belarus’ three-plant industry is supplying Russia with cement at a rate equivalent to the combined production volumes of two-to-three cement plants. Time to cap them, it told the government, suggesting a ceiling of 1.5Mt/yr.
The producer may have received a shock on 18 August 2025, when Belarus-based Krasnoselskstroymaterialy announced an upcoming US$100m upgrade to its 700,000t/yr Vaŭkavysk cement plant in Grobno Oblast, Belarus.

By that time, the Russian cement association, Soyuzcement, had already called for an anti-dumping investigation into all cement imports. It expects that import volumes of 3.74Mt in 2024 may rise to 5Mt/yr ‘in the near-term future.’

Lingering behind these discussions is the fact of high operating costs, partly precipitated by Russia’s continuing burden of international sanctions.

Here, the cement sector’s hopes are riding on a very particular marketing campaign: that of President Vladimir Putin on the global diplomatic circuit. He must sell his war (or peace on his terms) in a way that fends off increased international sanctions or support for Ukraine. Existing sanctions were on show at the Alaska Summit in Anchorage, US, on 15 August 2025, where the Russian leader made his pitch to US President Donald Trump – including a request for de-sanctioning, alongside various proposed punishment measures against Ukraine. Before travelling back to Moscow, the Russian delegation reportedly had to offer to pay cash for aeroplane fuel.³

Though President Trump did not secure a ceasefire, he nonetheless held back from making good on threatened new sanctions, and rated the Alaska Summit ‘10/10.’⁴ Putin might be equally pleased with the inconclusive outcome as precisely the goal of all his obfuscations. For Russia’s cement producers, costs won’t suddenly rise, but nor will they come down any time soon.

Far from sitting idly by, the industry is seeking new ways to actualise the value of its product. On 20 August 2025, Soyuzcement hosted a meeting of nine producers and four retail chains to strategise ways to increase sales of bagged cement. It will be subject to mandatory digital labelling from 1 October 2025. Discussions included the possibility of batch labelling of bags on the pallet for ease of scanning at retail outlets.

For now, producers’ online media spaces give the impression of work continuing as usual. On 18 August 2025, Cemros announced a US$186,000 renovation of buildings at its Mikhailovsk building materials plant in Volgograd Oblast.

The cement business in Russia is big, established and diffuse. Transformation has been its defining feature in the 33 years since the fall of the USSR, including in the relatively stable latter decades of that period. Should macroeconomic or geopolitical events overtake it once again, we can expect some shapeshifting – but also survival.

References

1. Reuters, ‘Russia's GDP growth slows to 1.1% in Q2, says Rosstat,’ 13 August 2025, www.reuters.com/markets/europe/russias-gdp-growth-slows-11-q2-says-rosstat-2025-08-13/

2. Global Data, ‘Russia Construction Market Size,’ 30 June 2025, www.globaldata.com/store/report/russia-construction-market-analysis/

3. Spiegel, ‘Russen boten Rubio zufolge Barzahlung für Betankung ihrer Flugzeuge an,’ 18 August 2025, www.spiegel.de/wirtschaft/trump-putin-gipfel-russen-boten-offensichtlich-barzahlung-fuer-betankung-ihrer-flugzeuge-an-a-fdd9303c-546a-43aa-89dd-4f746b8e9df3

4. Focus, ‘Jäger deutlich: "Putin verkauft Trump eine Illusion - und hat ihn jetzt in der Hand",’ 16 August 2025, www.focus.de/politik/ausland/jaeger-putin-braucht-trump-nicht-zu-fuerchten-er-hat-trump-jetzt-in-der-hand_67785013-a14b-485c-9a4a-51755ec483fa.html

Peru: National cement despatches rose by 6% year-on-year to 1.1Mt in July 2025 and by 2% over the past 12 months, according to the Asociación de Productores de Cemento (ASOCEM). Cement production grew by 6.5% year-on-year to 0.97Mt, while clinker output fell by 22% year-on-year to 0.69Mt. Cement exports rose by 28% year-on-year to 13,300t, and clinker exports fell by 12% compared to July 2024 to 32,600t. Cement imports dropped by 63% compared to the previous corresponding period to 8000t, while clinker imports grew by 81% to 85,000t.

Russia: Cemros has proposed limiting Belarusian cement imports to 1.5Mt/yr, citing rising import volumes from Belarus, Iran and Kazakhstan, despite a stagnant market. The company said current imports are equal to the annual output of 2-3 cement plants, while underutilised Russian producers are reducing working hours and halting production.

The Cemros press service said “In the short term, a fair solution would be to fix cement import volumes at the levels seen before the introduction of preferential mortgages, namely a ceiling of 1.5Mt/yr of cement products.”

This comes after Cemros announcing on 8 August 2025 the implementation of a four-day working week from 1 October 2025, due to falling demand and increasing imports. On the same day, industry association Soyuzcement proposed introducing five-year anti-dumping measures, noting Belarus accounts for 69% of imports, Iran 20% and Kazakhstan 9%.

Cemros forecasts that 2025 cement consumption could fall by 10–15% year-on-year in 2025 to 57–60.3Mt. In January–June 2025, Russia produced 27.2Mt of cement and consumed 28.4Mt, including 1.83Mt of imports. Soyuzcement predicts that imports could reach up to 5Mt/yr in the medium term, up from 3.74Mt in 2024.

Russia: Cemros will transition to a four-day work week across its plants from 1 October 2025 in response to declining cement consumption and rising imports. The producer said the part-time regime aims to preserve jobs and will retain the ‘full social package’, according to the local Construction Business News Agency. It will reverse the measure if the construction industry improves.

Cemros said the change is a “forced, but balanced measure aimed at long-term preservation of stability and social balance during a period of instability.” The producer previously suspended operations at its Belgorod cement plant due to lower profitability and increased imports.

It’s been a sobering week for the cement sector in South Korea with the release of sales data for the first half of 2025.

Data from the Korea Cement Association (KCA) shows that local shipments of cement fell by 17% year-on-year to 18.8Mt in the first half of the year. The last time half-year output was reported to be below 20Mt was in 1992. The association noted that a ‘severe’ construction recession had continued from 2024. An uptick in demand for building materials is anticipated in the second half of 2025 due to postponed construction work but it is expected to be limited by a forthcoming government budget. The association said that output for the whole of 2025 is forecast to be “significantly below 40Mt unless effective construction stimulus measures are available.”

Graph 1: Cement shipments in South Korea, 2019 - 2025. Source: Korea Cement Association.

20Mt of cement output marks a dividing line in the South Korea-based market in recent decades. Previous economic low points over the last 30 years include the Asian Financial Crisis in the late 1990s and the 2008 financial crash triggered by the subprime market in the US. However, on neither occasion did half-year cement output in South Korea fall below 20Mt. The current situation is likely to be reflected in the financial results of the local manufacturers, when they are released later in August 2025, following poor first-quarter figures.

The general construction sector is facing a tough time, with construction companies facing a liquidity crunch as lending rules have been tightened. At the same time prices and labour costs are both reportedly up by 30% in the past three years. One reaction to this in Autumn 2024 was plans suggested by construction companies to import cement from China. This gained some support from the government, which said it was looking at ways to reduce costs, but then faced opposition in the National Assembly. It is unclear what has happened since then, although KCA figures show that imports of cement grew by 40% year-on-year to 384,000t in the second half of 2024.

The cement producers have reacted by shutting down production lines in some cases. In April 2025 local press reported that eight of the country’s 35 production lines had been shut down. Hanil Cement’s Danyang plant had reportedly suspended two of its six production lines. One additional kiln at Asia Cement’s Jecheon plant was preparing to be closed at this time, with the manager citing the difficulty of coping with a 70% capacity utilisation rate. This would have brought the site’s number of active lines down to two of four. Another unmentioned kiln also reportedly preparing to suspend operations would bring the total of inactive kilns up to 10.

As might be expected in this kind of business environment, mergers and acquisitions activity has started. Hanil Cement announced in mid-July 2025 that it was preparing to buy its subsidiary Hanil Hyundai Cement. The transaction is expected to cut costs of the newly combined company and yield other synergy effects.

With its high cement consumption per capita, the cement market in South Korea remains atypical compared to peer economies in East Asia and Europe. Consumption dropped after a peak in the 1990s but it remained high by international standards. Hence the outcry about a half-year cement output bigger than most European countries can manage in a year. The IMF predicts a gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate of 0.8% in 2025 in South Korea, with a faster pickup of 1.8% in 2026. Construction levels are expected to remain sluggish into autumn and start recovering in 2026. General market trends in developed countries suggest that cement consumption will fall further in South Korea in coming decades, especially as sustainability trends embed. Cement sales in Japan, for example, have gradually been dwindling since the late 1990s. One question here is whether the cement market in South Korea can continue to hold its high level of consumption per capita. It remains to be seen.

US: The government has imposed a 20% import tax on cement from Vietnam, effective from 1 August 2025, doubling the previous 10% rate, according to the Vietnam Cement Association. It said that the move would have a significant impact on cement exporters, as Vietnam is the second largest cement supplier to the US, after Türkiye. It also said that the higher tariffs would now lead to costs being passed on to consumers, with increasing cement prices in the US expected.