ANALISYS: The masonry materials sector reached 150 million euro

Sales on the local market for masonry materials (ceramic blocks and autoclaved aerated concrete - AAC) have registered an average growth of about 3% in the last year, totalizing more than 150 million euro, compared to 140 million euro recorded in 2013. The two segments of the field have continued, however, to follow different patterns. Thus, if brick manufacturers have registered some developments at an average rate of 3%-5% in terms of turnover, the market situation was slightly better in AAC segment, most operators in the industry indicating growths of sales of about 7%. For 2015, the competitors in the field are expecting the trend of increase to continue in both markets, the improvements being placed around 5%. From a quantitative perspective, the local market of ceramic blocks has stood at the end of 2014 at about two million cubic meters, an increase of 3% compared to the 2013 level, corresponding to a value of 69 million euro, while the AAC segment increased with 5% to 2.1 million cubic meters. In the next interval, the main difficulty for the competitors active on AAC sector is the "struggle" beared at the level of prices, which have no winner, however. Prices are negatively affected by the cost of natural gas, which has doubled in the past two years, and their current level is lowering the competitiveness of the whole industry of construction materials in Romania. Despite the fact that producers allocate important budgets for major investments in energy efficiency, the increases of costs can not be transferred to customers, since the clients will prefer products made in other countries, and large production units will be forced to reduce or even shut the own facilities. A particularly negative influence is exerted also by the price increases in gas distribution as a result of ANRE decision. The current level is very high for industrial consumers and creates windfall profits for gas distributors. Another problem of AAC local market is the overcapacity of the production units. According to existing data, the existing production capacity of bricks and AAC in Romania amounted 5 million cubic meters annually, the local market being capable to absorb 60% -70%.