The February shipments were made up of 938,327 tons destined for the domestic market (with an increase of 15.6% in the year-on-year comparison) and 10,786 for export (26% increase compared to February 2021).
In the comparison with February 2020 -the last month before the start of the coronavirus pandemic in Argentina- dispatches showed an increase of 36.6%.
Since there were no imports of cement (as in the last 38 months), domestic consumption was once again equal to local dispatch.
The provisional AFCP projections for all of 2022 show a level similar to that of 2021, which was the highest in the last five years.
The evolution of shipments coincides with that of the economic activity in general and that of the construction industry in particular, which showed a decrease from the process of devaluation of the peso that began in the second quarter of 2018, with a special incidence in the real estate market.
As construction was not included among the essential sectors at the beginning of Social, Preventive and Mandatory Isolation (ASPO), cement shipments fell sharply in the first months of the pandemicbut as the restrictions were relaxed, they evidenced a rebound that was reflected in uninterrupted growth between September 2020 and December 2021, partially interrupted in January of this year.
In April and May 2021, when some restrictions on construction activity were reinstated amid rising Covid cases, shipments showed monthly declines, although they maintained the positive year-on-year trend.
As it is one of the main inputs in the sector, the increase in cement shipments is taken as an advance of the data on the general activity of the construction sector, which the National Institute of Statistics and Censuses (Indec) will release on March 9 next.
On Wednesday, the statistical agency will report the indicators of the construction situation for January.
Source: Ambito
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