Cement deliveries were slashed by an annual 10.61% in the first month of 2018, to stand at 274,856 tons compared to 307,491 tons in the beginning of 2017. In addition, the six-month moving average of the number of cement deliveries fell by 4.02% year-on-year (y-o-y), to settle at 428,069 tons in January 2018.
However, it is worthy to highlight that cement deliveries in January 2018 slumped by 35% year-to-date (y-t-d); meanwhile, they recorded an uptick of 3.7% y-t-d in January 2017. This year’s contraction could be partly related to the larger quantities of cement bought in the last month of 2017 to avoid purchases on the elevated VAT rate of 11%, which took effect on January 1, 2018, replacing the fixed 10% VAT prior to 2018.
Total Monthly Cement Deliveries
Source: Banque du Liban