The crisis of the coronavirus has provoked a decrease in the economy although the construction sector forecasts, in its most optimistic estimations, that in 2021 this decrease will stop and consumption of materials will remain stable.

In 2020, consumption of cement dropped 9.7%, the worst fall since the crisis of 2008 from which the sector had almost completely recuperated. The global economic crisis caused by Covid-19 has stopped this recuperation and experts estimate that the activity won’t recovery in pre-pandemic pace until well into 2021. The director of the group of cement manufacturers in Spain, Oficemen, Dimas Vallina, has put numbers on the decline in cement consumption in 2020: if the average was 25 million tons of cement up to this year, in 2020 the figure will be 13 million.

Cement consumption in Spain comes from two main sources, public works and housing. 2020 has been a bad year for both. Public works accounted for up to 60% of cement consumption in Spain until 2018, but in 2020 it was only 38%. As far as housing is concerned, the halt in economic activity brought about by the Covid-19 crisis has also affected the construction of new homes, which has slowed down.

Another factor to take into account is exports. Spain is the leading exporter of cement in the European Union, which enabled it to keep the construction sector afloat during the 2008 crisis. In the current crisis, as a global phenomenon, exports have also fallen sharply, and the sector cannot rely on them to maintain its activity.

As far as forecasts for the future, Oficemen estimates that in 2021 cement consumption could range from a 3% fall to a 3% growth, which would not mean the recovery of the sector but a slight stabilization.

In view of this situation, the main representatives of the country's cement companies are calling for a recovery plan for the construction sector, which has some 400,000 companies and more than a million workers. In order to be effective, the Recovery Plan counts on a reliable General State Budget and the arrival of the European Union Recovery Fund.