• There was a 10.5% decline in aggregate shipments in February, partly due to the strong comparative (+12.1% in February 2020). • US weather in February 2021 was also significantly cooler than in February 2020. • February’s shipments increased strongly in Utah (+25%), Arizona (+23%), South Carolina (+17%) and Northern California (+15%). • Conversely February’s…

Changes in exchange rates in April 2021

• Cement shipments in Texas rebounded in March, increasing by 19.7% after declining by 18.2% in February. • After February’s particularly cold weather, it was significantly drier in March 2021 than in March 2020. • Amongst the six companies that we follow, March’s shipments ranged from an increase of 31% for LafargeHolcim to growth of…

• Volumes were stronger in March in the emerging markets that we monitor, with the rate of improvement accelerating, as the comparatives in March 2020 began to be increasingly weakened by COVID. • Cement shipments in March 2021 were higher than in March 2020 in ten of the 13 countries for which data is currently…

Recent construction data for major developed markets

The Q1 reporting season starts on Friday (23 April) for the nine companies that we publish forecasts for. Three of them only report sales for Q1. Five report EBITDA and one reports EBIT as their main profitability measure. Q1 appears to have been a strong quarter, despite a strong comparative in Q1-2020. We have already…

Intercement and Votorantim, the two Brazilian based cement companies concluded the Q4 results season reporting on 1st and 8 April respectively. Their results were well worth waiting for, with particularly strong Q4 results from their home country Brazil where Votorantim’s EBITDA in Reals increased by 86% in Q4 on a 39% increase in sales. Even…

Margins at region and country level

Chinese companies again dominate

Latest quarter comparative results analysis of US/North America Based Businesses