During the roaring years of the housing boom Spain was accounting for 80% of all of the cement used in the whole of Europe, but that ‘glory’ has long passed.

According to the cement-producers group, Oficemen, from the onset of the crisis in 2008 up to 2012, demand for cement has fallen by 70% – just in the first six months of this year it fell 24% on the previous 6-month figure. Put another way, we are back to the levels of the 1960’s.

The Chairman of Oficemen, Isidoro Miranda, says that this is because of the lack of public works, “something that we cannot sustain,” he warned.

According to Eurostat, during 2013 Spain will become the country with the lowest ratio of public investment to the PIB (Gross Domestic Product) in the European Union.

(News: Spain)