Concrete Financial Insights Building Materials Focus Financial Expertise
Volume & Price Trends - US Cement Industry
Industry trends
The US cement industry generates $14 billion of revenue measured as the mill net price. The industry continues a slow but steady recovery from the downturn resulting from the general economic crisis in 2008.
Between 2012 and 2022, shipments grew at a cumulative average growth rate of 3.4% per year from 87.2 million tons in 2012 to 121.3 million tons in 2022.
The chart above has been updated based on the annual mineral commodity summary published by the US Geological Survey as updated in March 2023.
This updated 2022 report includes minor revisions to data reported for the the prior years.
Insights
The full year volumes in 2022 remain well below the previous peak for annual shipments of 2005. Annual shipments of 121.3 million tons in 2022 were 21 million tons, or 15%, below that prior peak year.
U.S. production capacity does not support this level of cement consumption so the U.S. imports one fifth of its cement requirements.
Current cement import information is detailed in a separate section below.
US Cement Consumption by State
Ten States account for > 50% of Cement Consumption
Shipments of Portland and Blended cements totaled 121 million U.S. short tons (110 million metric tons) in 2022, up by 2.4% over the prior calendar year. An additional 2.6 million short tons of masonry cement were shipped in 2022. The top ten cement consuming states - Texas, California, Florida, Georgia, Ohio, Illinois, Arizona, North Carolina, New York, and Pennsylvania, accounted for 54% of U.S. consumption during 2022.
Texas was the leading destination of US cement shipments in 2022 and consumed 15% of the cement sold in the United States.
Insights
Three states states dominated cement consumption in both 2022 and 2021:
- Texas
- California
- Florida
These three states were the destination of one third of U.S. cement shipments in both calendar years.
US Cement Shipment and Import Trends
Imports of cement increased as proportion of supply due to constraints of U.S. production capacity
U.S. cement production capacity has been relatively stagnant over the past decade so imports have played an increasingly important role in satisfying the demand. Additional investments in modernization for efficiency and increased production volume at some locations were largely offset by capacity eliminated elsewhere.
Economic decisions related to the additional investment otherwise required to bring individual older plants up to the stringent emissions limits of the 2010 National Emissions Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants regulations, or market conditions in specific geographies, led to these offsetting capacity eliminations. Cement production capacity was increased by conversions from Ordinary Portland Cement to Portland Limestone Cement at many cement plants in 2022.
These conversions, which can add 5% - 10% in production capacity, are reflected for a partial year in 2022 in most cases.
In 2022 net imports accounted for 22% of US cement shipments.
Insights
Imports now supply over 1/5 of U.S. cement consumption. Imports as a percentage of shipments peaked at 26% of shipments in 2006 and fell to 7% of US shipments by 2012.
The US Geological Survey reported that imports of cement and clinker increased by 26% in 2022 over the prior year in its annual commodity survey published in January 2022. Net cement and clinker imports of 27 million short tons accounted for 22% of 2022 shipments.
Where does the cement come from?
The countries of origin for the imported cement are detailed in the section below.
Where do U.S. Cement Imports come from?
Turkey and Canada supplied over 50% of the cement imported into the United States during 2022
U.S. cement demand has grown faster than U.S. cement production capacity over the past decade. Consequently, imports have played an increasingly important role in satisfying the demand. Imports now supply over 1/5 of U.S. cement consumption.
Net imports increased by 4 million tons from 23 million short (2,000 lbs.) tons in 2021 to 27 million short tons in 2022. Most of the increased volume of cement imports came from Turkey, Mexico, Vietnam, and the United Arab Emigrates. Turkey increased its exports of cement to the United States from 7.6 million short tons in 2021 to to 10.6 million short tons in 2022.
Where does it go?
Nearly 20% of the imported cement came in through the Houston / Galveston customs district.
The next highest volumes of cement imports came in through the San Francisco,
New Orleans, New York City, and Seattle custom districts.
Insights
Imports now supply over 1/5 of U.S. cement consumption. Imports, as a percentage of total cement shipments, peaked at 26% of the tons of cement sold in 2006 before falling to 7% of US shipments by 2012 after the financial crisis caused a sharp drop in demand. Imports have slowly been building as demand for cement recovered and supplied 22% of total U.S. demand in 2022.
The United States imported cement from 32 countries during 2022. Turkey and Canada, supplied 54% of the cement imported into the United States during 2022. The next largest suppliers of cement, by volume, were Mexico, Greece, and Vietnam.