El Salvador's construction industry is expanding at an unprecedented rate, driving strong 22% growth in cement demand in the first eight months of the year. According to the Central American Reserve Bank (BCR), from January to August 2025, enterprises nationwide purchased 34.3 million bags of cement (42.5 kg per bag), much higher than 28.1 million bags in the same period last year. In August alone, the monthly demand reached 3.9 million bags, an increase of more than 11% over the same period last year, indicating that the market continues to heat up.
Faced with blowout demand growth, local manufacturers are making every effort to improve production and distribution capacity. Industry giant Holcim El Salvador (Holcim El Salvador) has achieved a 20% increase in sales this year, and its executive director Manuel Arietta said that the company reached a record domestic production in the second half of 2025. Holcim currently has two operating plants in Metapan and plans to break the existing production record next year. By 2025, the company has sold more than 1.2 million tons of cement and invested nearly $80 million in capacity expansion and sustainable technology upgrades over the past five years to lay the foundation for long-term development. The complementary role of
import channels can not be ignored. In the first ten months of this year, El Salvador imported 614,000 tons of cement from Guatemala, Vietnam and Japan, with an import value of 51.6 million US dollars. Building materials throughput at the Port of Acajutla increased by 60% overall, reflecting the level of activity in the overall building materials market. However, these official statistics do not yet cover the large informal retail market, and the explosive growth of small construction projects has become another important driving force. The Metropolitan Planning Office of San Salvador (OPAMSS) has registered 689 small-scale construction projects this year, far more than 31 in the whole year of 2023, which shows the upsurge of grass-roots construction. The overall data of the
construction industry confirms the soaring trend of cement demand. In August, the output value of the construction industry increased by 29.8% year-on-year, and more than 120 residential development projects were under construction nationwide, becoming the core engine of economic growth. The demand for cement as a basic building material has permeated all levels of economic activity, from large-scale infrastructure to self-built housing, creating a rare window of development opportunity for El Salvador.
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