Spain's cement exports fall 21% in first 8 months, hit by energy prices

MADRID (Reuters) - Spain's cement exports in the first eight months of the year fell 21% compared with the same period last year, as higher energy prices are making Spanish cement less competitive, industry group Oficemen said on Tuesday.

Exports fell to 3.75 million tonnes in the period, more than one million tonnes fewer than during the same period last year.

The cement industry's energy costs skyrocketed 400% over the past two years and made Spanish companies less competitive than other producers elsewhere in the Mediterranean, in Algeria, Turkey or Egypt, who are paying much less for their energy, the Oficemen general director Aniceto Zaragoza said in a statement.

Local cement consumption slightly rose 0.2% during the year through August to 9.87 million tonnes, Oficemen data showed, though the most recent data show a decline as August cement consumption was down 5.3% in August from a year ago, the association said.

(Reporting by Corina Pons, editing by Inti Landauro and Louise Heavens)