Madrid (EFE).- The national consumption of cement closed 2022 with a fall of 0.8%, however, with 14.9 million tons it becomes the second best exercise in the last eleven years, according to what has been said this Friday the employer of the sector, Oficemen.
With a view to 2023, the group of cement manufacturers expects consumption to move between 0% and a drop of 3%, which will depend on macroeconomic developments, the degree of project execution, the impact of the elections and the arrival of European funds.
Despite the forecasts made by the association at the beginning of 2022, after the strong increases in January and February, the outbreak of the war in Ukraine and the consequences that stem from it cooled the prospects of the industry, which finally ended 2022 in red .
However, the consumption figures confirm that 2022 was a good year, marking the second highest figure since 2012, only surpassed by that of 2021, which reached 15 million tons after increasing 11% year-on-year. In addition, after the consumption peaks from 2005, a stabilization of the market is observed, has pointed out the president of Oficemen, José Manuel Cascajero.
However, Spain is far from the 27 million tons of Germany and occupies the twentieth European position by consumption “per capita”.
Low degree of execution
Among the factors that explain the fall in 2022, the degree of execution of the projects stands out, which is below 60%, and which mainly responds to the revision of the prices of the contracts due to the increase in costs, which has forced them to be renegotiated or delay them, explained the general director of the employers’ association, Aniceto Zaragoza.
All this despite the fact that public bidding grew by almost 28% in 2022, exceeding 30,000 million.
This decline has also been influenced by the 6.3% drop registered in December due to the impact of the rains and in which close to 80,000 t were lost compared to 2021. A drop that left behind the increase in November after its six-month period to lowers it
Exports still haven’t picked up
Cement and clinker exports fell by 16.8% in 2022 to 5.6 million tons, half of what was reached in 2009 and the forecasts for 2023 are still not optimistic since Spain has lost a lot of competitiveness due to the European green pact with respect to countries outside the region and extra-community sales have been significantly reduced.
For their part, imports also registered a fall of 5.4% to 1.3 million tons.
Industry claims
Oficemen calls for a change in the rules of the wholesale electricity market and to have auctions of infra-marginal generation energy since the cost of electricity has quadrupled and that of CO2 and fossil fuels has tripled.
In addition, it calls for new measures to offset the cost of electricity, a further reduction in charges, compliance with the European Border Carbon Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), greater agility in tenders or that environmental requirements be included in the specifications.
The cement sector, which does not foresee a risk due to the contraction of the real estate sector due to the rise in rates, sets climate neutrality in 2050 as a challenge.
