According to preliminary data from Brazil's national cement industry union Snic, cement sales in June 2020 increased 24.2% year-on-year, reaching 5.2mn tonnes.
Snic notes that after seeing the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on sales in March and April 2020 the sector started to see recovery in May 2020 and this continued through June 2020, driven by residential and commercial construction and work resuming on real estate projects.
These factors accounted for 80% of consumption in the first half 2020, which saw cement sales reach an accumulated 26.9mn tonnes, up 3.6% from the first six months of 2019.
Snic also reports that average sales per working day increased 7.7% in June 2020 in comparison with May 2020, at 228,000 tonnes, and were up 16.1% from June 2019.
In terms of region the biggest increase in sales of 44.8% was recorded in the North East in June 2020, followed by the North region with a 28.4% increase in sales, and the Central West with a 28.1% increase.
In the first half 2020 the North East region also led the growth in sales, whilst the North was the only region to see an accumulated drop in sales.
