In Mexico, the cement market is dominated by few companies and some have serious internal conflicts that impact other sectors, although during the pandemic it faced even more challenges ranging from higher prices to conflicts in groups, generating a complex scenario for builders and developers.

During the first three months of the year, input inflation has reached levels not seen since August 2017, when the rise in prices began to slow down, even reaching negative rates.

According to data from the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (Inegi), in the first three months of the year the annual rate increase in cement prices exceeded 12% each month, thus accumulating inflation of 13% in the first quarter compared to the same period last year.

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Since 2017, the price of cement has not registered increases at rates such as those reported at the start of 2022, since in almost five years it has not exceeded double-digit increases.

In Mexico, cement producers are concentrated in six main groups: Cementos Cruz Azul, Cementos Fortaleza, Cementos Moctezuma, Cemex, Grupo Cementos Chihuahua (GCC) and Holcim, which make up the National Cement Chamber (Canacem).

Cemex is the one that registers the largest number of plants, with 14 units distributed throughout the country, according to information available in Canacem. In the first quarter of this year, the company reduced its consolidated cement production by 1%, to 15,776 metric tons, according to its recently published financial results; however, revenues from net sales grew 13% annually.

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GCC, another company with public information, informed its investors that in the first three months of this year the production of cement and concrete moderated compared to the results of 2021, but the increase in prices allowed sales to improve.

Most of the cement producers in Mexico have been consolidated as companies, most of them public; however, La Cruz Azul, which has four plants distributed in Hidalgo, Oaxaca, Puebla y Aguascalientes, operates under the cooperative society scheme. Specifically, this group has maintained a problem that was accentuated by the recent disturbances at the Tula plant.

In Solili you can consult industrial warehouses available in Ciudad Juárez and Tijuana

Original note