In 2024, the demand for cement declined sharply, the overcapacity was further aggravated, and the market competition was fierce. Although the industry strengthened self-discipline in the fourth quarter and the cement price rebounded, the overall average price continued to decline. At the same time, despite the decline in coal prices, the cost decline was lower than change in cement prices, and the revenue and profit of the cement industry declined.
It is estimated that in 2024, the cement industry will achieve an operating income of 653.1 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 12.1%, a total profit of 26 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 18.8% , and a sales profit margin of 4%, a decrease of 3 percentage points over the same period last year.
Figure 1: The total profit of the cement industry continued to decline
in 2024 Data source: Cement Big Data (https://data.ccement.com/)
Since 2025, the back-end sales of real estate have gradually improved, and the decline has narrowed significantly. However, the new construction at the front end is still in the deep decline channel and is still in the bottom;
in terms of infrastructure, as of June 30, the issuance progress of special bonds accounted for more than half of the whole year. Although the issuance speed is fast, the internal differentiation continues to intensify, and the decline of transportation investment is still large. Demand for cement is expected to fall sharply this year. At
the price level, the decline in demand has further highlighted the contradiction of excess capacity, and the industry competition is extremely fierce. The current cement price has returned to the lowest level in recent years, and there is still no momentum to stop falling, and it is expected that there will be no improvement in the second half of the year.
To sum up, it is expected that the benefit of the cement industry will still be at a low level in 2025, and the overall operation pressure of cement enterprises will be greater.
Figure 2: The new construction of real estate is still declining
Data source: Cement Big Data (https://data.ccement.com/)
However, although the prosperity of the domestic industry continues to decline, many companies are actively seeking new ways to break through. And achieved good results.
Huaxin Cement actively searched for high-quality assets worldwide and purchased and transformed them at an opportune time to rapidly improve its production capacity. Western Cement continued to expand its presence in Africa and steadily promoted a number of projects under construction. It is expected that the overseas business of Huaxin Cement and Western Cement will be further developed in 2025, which will effectively hedge the decline of domestic performance, so as to achieve excellent operating profits in the context of the downturn of the domestic industry, which deserves our attention.
At present, the cement industry is facing the double test of energy saving, environmental protection and industrial intelligence upgrading. In order to implement the relevant policy requirements and accelerate the green low-carbon transformation and high-quality development of the cement industry, China Cement Network is scheduled for September 23-24. The 14th China Cement Energy Conservation and Environmental Protection Technology Exchange Conference and the 5th Intelligent Summit Forum were held in Zibo, Shandong Province. This conference will bring together industry experts, enterprise representatives and many industry stakeholders to gather group wisdom and promote energy-saving, environmental protection and intelligent transformation and upgrading of the cement industry.
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