Saudi Arabia’s cement sector started the year badly, with January’s volumes down 13% Y-o-Y and 3% M-o-M, according to Yamama Cement’s monthly report. The decline was seen across all companies, except for Yamama Cement Company (YCC), which was able to post a positive trend (+33% Y-o-Y) in its sales volumes, and Southern Province Cement, which posted 27% growth in dispatches and continued its growth trend.
 
The Southern region outperformed, Western region declined: The Southern region remained the strongest region and posted 19% growth Y-o-Y, while the Central region was resilient (up 3% Y-o-Y), post consecutive months of declines. The Western region, on the other hand, was hit hard and posted a sharp decline (-35% Y-o-Y), likely because of intense competition from Southern and Central region players. The Eastern and Northern regions also performed poorly with volumes down 20% and 23%, respectively
 
Export activities are stable: Total export activity remained relatively stable M-o-M (-4%). Cement exports stood at 141k tonnes during Jan (but only accounted for 4% of total sales volume). Clinker exports were also stable M-o-M at 535k tonnes. Arabian Cement started exporting cement for the first time; however, quantity is insignificant at 14k tonnes. Eastern Cement has started to export clinker for the first time with decent volume of 95k tonnes (18% of sector clinker exports)
 
Clinker inventory remains unchanged M-o-M: Clinker inventory remained stable at 42mn tonnes (+20% Y-o-Y, flat M-o-M), which makes up c14 months of clinker need. Northern region companies have the highest level of clinker inventory in the system (partly due to comparatively low demand), of up to 18 months of their clinker requirements; on the other hand, Southern region players have the lowest level (10 months).

Sameer Kattiparambil, Dina Hicham