Spain’s cement consumption fell by a further three per cent in August 2014 to 819,249t. In the first eight months of 2014 domestic demand registered a two per cent YoY fall to 7.1Mt.

“With these data we can talk about record lows, with figures even more daunting in regions such as Catalonia, with a cumulative decline of 15.8 per cent in the first eight months of the year,” said Oficemen CEO, Aniceto Zaragoza.

“Given the weak state of the domestic market and to preserve activity in our plants, we are working intensively to develop exports and as a result we are selling 53 per cent of our production. With nearly 9Mt of exports, we are the leading cement exporters in the EU,” he added.