01/13/2009 09h06
Cement producers have best December in ten years
Gazeta Mercantil - 01/13/2009
Despite the shrinking of some sectors of the civil construction - with news of employees' dismissals and the cancellation of future real estate projects -, the industry still works at full steam to meet the new level of consumption Brazil reached in the last two years. Preliminary data of the National Union of the Cement Industry (Snic, in Portuguese) shows growth of 14.3% in the sales of the product to the domestic market, getting to the unprecedented level of 51.1 million tons sold in the year. Considering only December, the increase was 11% compared to the same period of 2007, to 3.9 million tons. It is not only a good level for the last month of the year - which uses to be weak due to the holidays and the rainy period - it is also the best performance for a month of December in the last ten years. With the 51 million tons of cement Brazil reached in 2008, the Country should assume the 6
th place of largest world consumer of cement again, since it lost it in 1999, reaching the 10
th place in 2006. Still with the probability of a lesser growth in 2009, the companies of the sector do not rule out the need of a greater capacity. Throughout 2007 and 2008 most of the ten cement companies located in the Country announced investments that would expand the installed capacity by 50%, from the current 60 million tons a year to 90 million tons, according to estimates of the Snic. The largest company, Votorantim Cimentos, which has nearly 40% of the market share, announced a project of investments of R$ 3.2 billion (US$ 1.4 billion) until 2012. The greatest part of the project - at least three new large units - should be ready only in 2010, when, according to Chamma, the international market shall be more stable. Throughout 2008, however, the company opened three grinding units and has already reopened three plants that had been deactivated since the beginning of the decade. "If Brazil goes through the first half without going into recession, or with a mild recession, the trend is that the market resumes growing normally in 2010", said André Schaeffer, commercial officer of the Camargo Corrêa Cimentos, owner of the Cauê trademark. The company is outlining a plan to increase the capacity for this year but it did not provide any further information. "The market may still be good in 2009. Despite of the lesser growth, it will still be a year of hard work for the cement industry", affirmed Schaeffer.
