Cement Sales in the Dominican Republic rise 2.3% in 2025

• The Dominican Republic’s cement sector ended 2025 with 2.3% growth in sales volume, driven largely by strong export performance, despite a slowdown in domestic construction activity. Sales to the local market increased by 0.9%, reflecting stability in domestic demand but remaining well below the growth levels seen in previous years, when construction activity was more dynamic. In contrast, cement exports rose by 9.2%, supported by investments to expand installed capacity, improve operational efficiency, and meet international quality standards.
• According to Jorge David Pérez, president of the Dominican Association of Cement Producers (ADOCEM), the investments have enabled companies to supply both local and international markets, position Dominican cement in strategic regional destinations, generate foreign exchange, reduce the trade deficit, and strengthen employment and industrial activity. He noted that the sector’s performance mirrors the challenges faced by construction in 2025, which closed the year with 1.8% negative growth, according to Central Bank data.
• Of note, a strictly enforced, hawkish immigration policy meaningfully depressed the construction labour force, with the industry shedding nearly 25,000 jobs in the first half of 2025 alone, a fall of 5.4%. Public comments by industry leaders, citing a lack of construction workers, and the uptick in deportations of Haitian migrants (who make up the majority of the construction sector labour force in the Dominican Republic), led to projects being increasingly delayed by the lack of workers or rising labour costs.
• That said, Pérez highlighted the resilience of the cement industry in a more demanding economic environment, while stressing the need to promote public policies that stimulate construction, infrastructure, and housing investment, given the sector’s key role in economic growth, competitiveness and job creation.

(Sources: Dominican Today & BMI, A Fitch Solutions Company)