Cement sales in Morocco surge amid public works boom and housing loan growth

Cement sales in Morocco, a key indicator of construction and public works activity, continued their upward trend in early 2025, reflecting renewed momentum in infrastructure projects and real estate financing.

According to the latest data from the Financial Studies and Forecasts Directorate at the Ministry of Economy and Finance, cement sales rose by 4.5 percent in the first quarter of 2025, reversing a 0.4 percent decline recorded during the same period a year earlier.

Anis Benjelloun, vice president of the National Federation of Real Estate Developers, attributed this rise to a structural increase in demand from public infrastructure projects. “The link between the acceleration of major public works and the steady increase in cement consumption has become undeniable,” he said.

Benjelloun noted that the growth is primarily driven by ready-mix and prefabricated cement products used in large-scale infrastructure initiatives rather than residential or commercial real estate developments.

“Cement sales reflect ongoing activity in construction and building sectors, even as labor and construction service costs have jumped by at least 30 percent,” Benjelloun added, citing recent gains in the agricultural sector thanks to improved rainfall.

Despite the surge in cement sales, Benjelloun warned that the core metric for real estate developers—namely, the number of housing units under construction or officially declared completed—has witnessed a noticeable decline.

An April report from the Financial Studies and Forecasts Directorate showed that growth in cement sales was largely fueled by a 16.8 percent increase in shipments of prefabricated concrete and an 18.6 percent rise in ready-mix concrete deliveries.

By segment, housing loans grew by 2.1 percent, up from 1.6 percent last year, while loans to property developers jumped by 6.6 percent, a sharp turnaround from the 0.7 percent drop recorded in 2024.