Good morning. My name is Indira Díaz, Cementos Argos IR, and I welcome you to our third quarter results release. On the call today are Juan Esteban Calle, our CEO, Felipe Aristizábal, our CFO, María Isabel Echeverri, the VP of Legal and Sustainability, Simon Bates, the CEO of Argos USA, Camilo Restrepo, the President of the Cement Business in the US, Carlos Horacio Yusty, the VP of the Colombia Division, and Gustavo Uribe, the General Manager of Argos Panamá and Central America. Please note that certain forward-looking statements and information during the call or in the reports and presentation uploaded at www.argos.co/ir are related to Cementos Argos S.A. and its subsidiaries, which are based on the knowledge of current facts, expectations, circumstances, and assumptions of future events. Various factors may cause Argos' future results, performance, or accomplishments to differ from those expressed herein.
The forward-looking statements are made to date, and Argos does not assume any obligation to update said statements in the future as a result of new information, future events, or any other factors. All the discussions of the financial and operational results held during the call will be based on the adjusted figures, excluding non-recurring and non-core operations. For a detailed reconciliation of the adjustments, please refer to the annexes of our quarterly report. Today, after the initial remarks, there will be a Q&A session. If you have a question, please raise your hand by pressing the icon at the bottom of your screen at any time during the conference. We will record this Q&A session and upload it to our webpage. It is now my pleasure to turn the call over to Mr. Calle.
Thank you, Indira, and good morning, everyone. I would like to start today by highlighting the EBITDA margin recovery during the third quarter that reached 19% on a consolidated level with an increase of 20 basis points versus last year and an improvement of 28% on the EBITDA per ton that went from COP 112 ,000 on the third quarter of 2021 to COP 143,000 on the same period of 2022. We continue to believe that our company is going through its best moment, both from an operational and financial perspective.
As of September, Cementos Argos has dispatched 12.3 million metric tons of cement, 5.8 million cubic meters of ready-mix concrete, and has achieved a year-to-date EBITDA of COP 1.5 trillion, expanding 4% versus the same period of last year and setting a new all-time high for the company. These results have been possible due to the successful execution of three main pillars. First, carefully straddling our production and supply chain processes that have allowed us to maximize our dispatches in a context of high utilization rates and complex supply chain restrictions derived from global disruptions.
Second, our capacity to leveraging our logistics network in order to fully integrate our operations, achieving important milestones such as the supply of the roughly 300,000 tons of cement consumed by our Houston ready-mix operations with our own production and the accelerated transitions to PLC cement that accounted for 60% of dispatches in the U.S. in September. Third, an effective pricing strategy that has resulted in price increases of 16% in the U.S., 18% in Colombia, and 26% in Central America and the Caribbean year-over-year, fully offsetting cost inflation and leading to EBITDA expansion in absolute levels and in unitary levels when compared to 2021.
It is also important to highlight that 2022 has been a year of important transformation for our company, most of them related to the preparations for the carve-out of the U.S. operations and its listing on the New York Stock Exchange. This transformation entails certain activities and associated costs that are either non-recurring or that do not represent any cash outflows from the company, which requires a careful analysis of our financial statements and adjustments to our financial results in order to properly assess the company's underlying financial performance.
Currently, these adjustments are concentrated in three main areas, the divestiture in the U.S. ready-mix business carried out in 2021 and 2022, the non-recurring expenses associated with the preparation for listing the U.S. operations on the New York Stock Exchange, and the non-cash tax provisions associated with the payment of certain intercompany accounts from Argos U.S. To Cementos Argos, all of which affect, to a certain extent, revenues, EBITDA figures, tax provisions, and net income. After adjusting for these effects, our net income stands at COP 222 billion year to date as of September, similar to the results obtained in the same period of last year. Now, it is precisely in this context of positive financial and operational results that the gap between the fundamental value of our company and our market value has been deeply widening.
I would like to invite Felipe Aristizábal, our CFO, to give you more context on this issue and our initiatives to tackle such imbalance.
Thank you, Juan, and good morning, everyone. I'd like to start by referring to the decoupling of our market cap and the fundamental value of our company.
Over the last five years, we have experienced a significant improvement in our operational and financial performance that has not been reflected in the market price of our shares. To date, our company exhibits the highest 12-month operational EBITDA of its history, the lowest leverage ratio of the last nine years, and surprisingly, our shares trade at record lows. The EBITDA growth of close to 50% and the improvement of the leverage ratio of 40% during the last five years have been accompanied by a contraction in the price of our shares. In order to close this gap between the fundamental value and the market value of our company, we're working on a plan that includes several initiatives. Please allow me to mention each one of them briefly.
First, we're doubling down on our focus to improve further our financial performance with an emphasis on profitability, sustainability, and growth. Second, we continue work on the listing of our U.S. business in the NYSE. Finally, third, we have started structuring mechanisms that would allow us to make distributions in the future to shareholders other than dividends and that are not limited by net income or accounting reserves. Now, I'll take a moment to walk you through each initiative and explain the rationale and current status. Regarding our continued commitment to improve further our financial performance, we exhibited a 27% increase in the consolidated EBITDA and a 20 basis points margin expansion during the third quarter. These results were supported by higher prices, strong market dynamics, and an efficiency and cost management program across our footprint.
Consequently, our leverage ratio decreased 9% to a level of 2.8 x, the lowest ratio of the last nine years. This point, I'd like to make a pause and refer to the recent increase in our financial expenses, which has been driven by higher interest rates, mainly the Colombian CPI that accounts for 37% of our debt, and that has gone from 5% - 11% during the current year. To soften the impact of this rising trend, we have fixed around 40% of our CPI-linked debt, generating yearly savings of around COP 36 billion in interest expenses. Additionally, we have repurchased around COP 80 billion of CPI-linked bonds in Colombia financed with fixed rate debt with one-time savings of COP 6 billion.
Now, in relation to the listing of our U.S. business in the NYSE, we reaffirm the importance of this initiative within our strategic plans and our expectations of tapping the market once the window reopens. Simultaneously, we continue performing internal tasks aligned with our intention of being a public company in the U.S., such as the recent syndication of a loan in our U.S. operation for an amount of $750 million to replace existing debt with longer maturity and improved conditions, and the appointment of Simon Bates, an individual with proven experience in leading public companies in the U.S. building materials space as the new CEO of Argos USA. Before moving to the last initiative, I wanna take a moment to briefly discuss two idiosyncratic characteristics of Cementos Argos that allow us to generate significantly more cash flows than accounting net income.
First, given the fact that we operate a rather new set of plants and production facilities, and that international accounting standards force us to depreciate these assets during a 20-25-year lifespan, when the actual useful life of these assets is closer to 70-80 years, over the past five years, our effective annual maintenance CapEx has been on average COP 600 billion lower than the depreciation cost recognized in our accounts. Second, we do carry in our balance sheet a very valuable asset, a COP 700 billion deferred tax asset. In 2022 alone, this asset will allow us to shield up to COP 180 billion in taxes, and we expect to fully take advantage of this benefit over the next few years.
Again, being mindful of the impact of distributions on the long-term total shareholder return, it is an imperative to identify mechanisms in addition to traditional dividends that enable us to continue and even accelerate distributions to shareholders above and beyond the limits imposed by accounting net income. Together, these initiatives are aimed at closing the material gap between our intrinsic value and the market value of our company and are expected to accelerate the process of unlocking value to all of our shareholders.
Thank you, Felipe. Before starting with the regions, I would like to give a warm welcome to Simon Bates, our recently appointed CEO of Argos USA, who is joining our company to succeed Bill Wagner, who recently retired after a long and very successful career. Simon has many years of relevant executive experience, of which the last 25 have been focused on the building materials industry. He is an economist from University of York in England and has a master in finance and accounting from University of Manchester and a master in marketing from Salford University .
His background, together with his proven and very successful professional experience, which has been lately focused on leading public companies in the building materials industry in the U.S., will surely play an important role in the successful execution of our ambitious strategic goals for our U.S. operations and in the immediate future of our company. To Bill, a message of gratitude for all his commitment and hard work that took our U.S. operations to its best operational and financial moment in our history. Now, I would like to invite Simon Bates to provide more context on the U.S . Region.
Thank you, Juan, and good morning, everyone. During the third quarter of 2022, EBITDA was 26% higher than the same period of last year, with an EBITDA margin expansion of 47 basis points. Our successful pricing strategy deployed via three price increases so far this year, combined with operational efficiencies, fuel hedging, increases in local production and in imports, have all been fundamental to completely offset the inflationary pressures during the third quarter, as well as an increase in volumes in both segments. In terms of pricing, we carried out a third price increase in both cement and ready-mix and maintained a temporary fuel fee in both products during the quarter. Our FOB prices increased 16.5% in cement and 16% in ready-mix vis-à-vis September 2021, and are at the highest levels in our recent history in the U.S.
Cement volumes increased 6.2% compared to the third quarter of 2021, driven by solid demand across our footprint, especially in Florida and the Deep South regions, which grew 20% and 23% respectively year-over-year. For the ready-mix business, our volumes increased 3.6% on a comparable basis versus 2021, with the residential segment driving the growth. Our transition to PLC continues making progress and has been fundamental to achieve volume growth in a sold-out market. As we mentioned during our previous earnings call, the Roberta plant is fully converted to PLC since June, and we are ahead of schedule by having fully converted Harleyville and Newberry in August and October, respectively.
I'd like to highlight that during the third quarter, EcoStrong PLC sales represented over 60% of our total cement sales in the U.S., ratifying the rapid and successful substitution of Type I and Type II cement across our footprint. We estimate that by December 2022, close to 100% of our production will be PLC. During the past three months, the combination of higher prices and good cost control provided a positive balance to the cost inflation. In the cement business, prices increased 31% more than the unit costs, and in ready-mix, the price increases were 14% higher than the increase in our unit costs. As a result, we achieved great EBITDA during the quarter, reaching $77 million, which is 26% higher year-over-year on a comparable basis.
EBITDA margin closed at 18.5%, 47 basis points higher than the same period of last year. This result was achieved despite the adverse weather conditions generated by Hurricane Ian that affected Florida during the last week of September, with an estimated impact on our EBITDA of around $1 million. The market dynamics over the past three months in our markets have been volatile but continue to support the solid demand conditions. We are constantly monitoring all the market variables, and the company is fully prepared to take advantage of opportunities the market presents in the future. We are confident about the midterm potential of the U.S. based on the evident needs in housing and infrastructure.
Thank you, Simon. In Colombia, the market continues to be strong despite the political noise. DANE reported total country cement dispatches in September of 1.2 million tons, growing 8% versus 2021 and accounting for a year-to-date increase of 6% versus the same period of last year. Carlos Horacio will now provide more context on the region.
Thank you, Juan, and good morning. During the third quarter, EBITDA in the Colombia region grew double digits, supported by strong dispatches across all segments, our successful price increase strategy, and the positive results of cost control initiatives. Additionally, our focus is expanding exports provided very encouraging results both in terms of dispatches and EBITDA. As announced on the previous quarter, we successfully restarted the second kiln of the Toluviejo plant, which will allow us to continue expanding our export capacity and to optimize the logistics network on the north zone of the country. Cement dispatches remained flat during the quarter. Exports from Cartagena increased 37%, reaching 319,000 tons, the highest quarterly result in the history of the plant. Following our strategy to increase our own production and reduce trading volumes due to the high prices of clinker and cement worldwide.
In the national market, retail, housing, and infrastructure supported the continuation of a strong demand conditions. Cement dispatches were 7.8% lower compared to the same period of last year due to the price hike implemented in July, which had an impact in that month and was partially recovered in August and September. The ready-mix business continues its steady recovery, supported mainly by formal housing and infrastructure projects. Dispatches were 7.8% higher year-over-year and reached the highest quarterly result since the second quarter of 2019.
The successful deployment of our commercial strategy, which has made possible to increase prices in the entire product portfolio and in every region of the country with a very detailed and structured plan, has allowed us to reach the highest price in the history of the company for the cement and ready-mix segments, which has been fundamental amidst the continuous inflationary pressures the industry has faced in 2022. Local prices for cement posted an 18.4% year-over-year increase and were 4.1% higher sequentially, while ready-mix prices rose 12% year-over-year. The persistence of inflationary pressures remained an issue for both the cement and ready-mix businesses. During the quarter, price increased 12% more than unitary cost in the cement business and 25% more in the ready-mix business.
The positive balance in price versus our cost increases, together with a solid dispatches in both segments, led to an EBITDA growth of 6.4% year-over-year when excluding the result from the export division. I would also like to highlight that EBITDA in our export division was more than 3 x higher compared to last year, ratifying the importance of this division not only for integration across the region, but also due to its contribution to our financial results. Overall, EBITDA reached COP 157 billion, which is 14.5% higher compared to the same period of last year. EBITDA margin was 22.3% on the quarter and posted an expansion of 75 basis points.
We are very pleased to announce that we have been awarded the contract to supply both cement and ready-mix to Puerto Antioquia, a port in the northwest of the country that will soon begin its construction phase and is expected to be completed in 2025. Regarding market dynamics, the residential segment in Colombia, especially on sales of social housing, continues to display encouraging signals, and housing starts remain on the highest levels in seven years. On infrastructure projects, we have evidenced continuous demand for 4G projects, which are advancing positively. Regarding 5G, there has been progress recently, and we expect that this program, together with the Bogotá Metro and other important projects in that city, support demand conditions for this segment in the medium term.
For the last quarter of 2022, we are confident that the positive results obtained throughout the year will continue, given the resilient demand from the retail segment, housing and infrastructure projects, which will benefit both dispatches and prices in the cement and ready-mix business. We remain focused on value maximization by taking advantage of our national presence and unparalleled competitiveness in the country.
Thank you, Carlos. Now moving to Central America and the Caribbean, we continue to see positive pricing dynamics in a challenging context of inflation and volumes. Gustavo will provide more context on the region.
Thank you, Juan, and good morning to everyone. The continuation of a strong pricing environment across the region was fundamental to fully offset the inflationary pressures during the third quarter of 2022. Despite lower cement dispatches, a positive balance on the price-cost dynamics led to reaching an EBITDA of the same level in the same period of last year. Cement prices grew 26% year-over-year as pricing power remained strong due to the global cement trading dynamics, which has influenced higher import parity prices in markets with high exposure to international supply. Local market cement dispatches were 8.9% lower year-over-year.
The main impacts came from very challenging social and political situation in Haiti that led to volumes being almost half compared to last year, and tough, very tough climate during the second half of September, which had an impact of around 20,000 tons that couldn't be dispatched in the period. Additionally, the governmental transition in Honduras and the major maintenance performed in Dominican Republic also had an impact on cement dispatches. Meanwhile, trading volumes decreased 21% year-over-year as part of our strategy to maximize the usage of our export capacity from Colombia, and lower dispatches to Haiti due to the previously mentioned situation. In Panama, cement volumes continue recovering satisfactorily, posting an 18% growth compared to the same quarter of last year due to increased demand from infrastructure projects such as the third and the first lines of the Panama Metro.
In Honduras, pricing remains strong, reaching a high single-digit improvement year-over-year. Cement dispatches from the quarter were 8% lower versus the same period of last year due to lower demand caused by the transition to the new government and heavy rainfall during the last 10 years of September. The Dominican Republic continues with strong pricing dynamics, leading to a 27% year-over-year growth and reaching the highest price in 10 years. Demand conditions in the country were solid, supported by strong retail segment. Nevertheless, cement dispatches were 14% lower year-over-year due to the major maintenance performed between July and August, and the hurricane season that had an impact of around 7,000 tons during the last days of the quarter.
Haiti has been heavily affected by a difficult social and political situation in which roadblocks, fuel availability, and protests around the country have led to a decrease of 48% in cement dispatches versus the same period of the year. We will continue to prioritize the safety of our people, and we will closely monitor the situation to operate as conditions allows us to. Despite having an impact of more than $1 million from the hurricanes on the last half of September, EBITDA closed at $31 million, equal to the result obtained on the third quarter of last year, as our successful pricing strategy more than offsets the cost inflation that has affected the region.
We are cautiously optimistic with the operations in Caribbean and Central America, and we'll remain focused on maximizing value through the integration with our operations in Colombia, and covering the impact from inflation via pricing and cost control.
Thank you, Gustavo. Given the outstanding evolution of our figures and our forecast for the remainder of the year, we reaffirm once again our EBITDA guidance of between COP 2.05 trillion and COP 2.15 trillion for the current year, and our net debt to EBITDA ratio of around 3x for December 2022. Based on our successful strategy of supply chain and integration, pricing, and the extensive use of our logistic network to tackle inflation across our footprint. For 2023, we have positive expectations in our three regions despite the uncertainty in the global economy due to persistent inflation and higher interest rates. With the disciplined execution of our strategy, the opportunity to further integrate our operations and higher price levels, we expect to be able to capture all the opportunities arising in the regions and maximizing the value for all of our stakeholders.
Thank you all for your attention. Indeed, we can proceed now with the Q&A.
Thank you, Juan. We will proceed now with the Q&A session. Please remember that in order to ask a question, you need to raise your hand using the icon that is at the bottom of your screen. I will say your name and company, and will enable your microphone. Take into account that you need to unmute your microphone before you speak. First question comes from Vanessa Quiroga from Credit Suisse.
Hi, good morning. I hope that you can hear me well. My question is regarding prices, the pricing strategy that you're following. How much do you think you'll continue to increase prices mainly in Colombia and the United States? What is your target basically in terms of margin or in percentage or in dollars per unit? Thank you.
Good morning, Vanessa, and thank you for your question. I mean, we are closely monitoring each and every one of our markets. We are extremely happy with the results of the third quarter of this year. I mean.
We were able to offset inflation in all of our markets, and that is the plan going forward. We are seeing constructive pricing environments in Colombia and in the U.S. and in Central America and the Caribbean to further continue deploying our pricing strategy to be able to continue expanding margins. Our target is, once again, to have a consolidated EBITDA margin in excess of 20%, going forward.
Okay, great. Thank you.
Next question comes from Juan Camilo Dauder from Bancolombia. It seems like Juan Camilo had the same question as Vanessa. Next question comes from Rodrigo Sánchez from Davivienda Corredores.
Yes, good morning, and thank you for the presentation. I actually have a few questions. The first one is if you could please share the expected impact from the tax bill that it's about to be passed in Colombia and how that could have some effects on Cementos Argos. Also, could you please expand on the mechanisms that Felipe mentioned, different from dividends to make distribution to shareholders? Are we talking about possible buybacks or what did you mean with those mechanisms? The last one is just a question that I like to understand your CapEx figures because in the presentation you mentioned that as of 3Q, you had executed roughly COP 410 billion, which is something below something like $90 million.
However, your target is to execute COP 200 million in CapEx this year. Am I looking at the numbers incorrectly or should we actually expect a large execution in the last quarter of the year? Thank you.
Thank you, Rodrigo, and I think that, Felipe can answer your three questions.
Perfect. Thank you, Rodrigo, for your questions. Regarding the first one, the impact of the tax reform, the actual reform that is being discussed in Congress does have a negative effect in the future of our business. We do not expect an immediate impact in our results. Most of the impact is gonna be deferred up until 2025, 2026. I'd say. I'd mention that the major impacts are twofold. First, once the carbon taxes kick in, we're gonna have a negative impact in our cost structure. We're gonna have to pay this tax on all the coal that we consume internally.
Second, there's a possibility that for all the production in the free trade zone in Cartagena that is allocated to the Colombia market, we're gonna have to pay 35% rate as opposed to the current 15% rate that we're currently paying. Those are the two major effects that we're gonna have associated to the tax reform. Regarding your second question, you mentioned that you want to have more color regarding mechanisms that we are considering to complement dividends. We are in the process of analyzing all potential avenues to increase distributions to shareholders, including share buybacks, mechanisms to improve the liquidity of our stock.
Eventually, we're considering mechanisms that are more tax-efficient, like distributions of capital contributed by shareholders. We're currently considering all possibilities in order to maximize distributions to shareholders. Bear in mind, as I mentioned before, in any given year, we produce between three to five times as much cash as net income. We do have the ability to increase distributions even though our net income does not reflect the actual capital generated by the business. That's why we are considering all of these possibilities.
Finally, regarding the CapEx, we do expect to execute close to $200 million of CapEx in the year in the form of maintenance CapEx, profitability CapEx, and strategic CapEx. The right CapEx investment for the year is gonna be close to $200 million. At the beginning of the year, we mentioned that our plan included $210 million. Probably we're gonna be a bit below that number. Again, the net amount of capital allocated to these investments is gonna be close to $200 million.
Next question comes from Steffania Mosquera from Credicorp Capital.
I thank you very much for the presentation. I have one question regarding your debt structure. I believe that you announced the possibility to refinance around $700 million in debt to go from COP-denominated debt to USD. I would like to find out how that process is going, understanding that right now more than 60% of your debt is in Colombian pesos. My second question is regarding your process of the listing of the assets in the New York Stock Exchange, if you have any more information on that front.
Thank you, Steffania. I will answer the second question, and then I will ask Felipe to give you more color on our financing strategy. We cannot comment any further, I mean, due to the restrictions that we have with the Securities and Exchange Commission at this point in time. We remain fully committed to making the listing of Argos USA a reality as soon as there is a window of opportunity in the market. Now Felipe will give you more information about our financing strategy.
Sure. I'd start by mentioning that around 75% of our revenues and EBITDA are denominated in U.S. dollars. Given the fact that in the previous years, given the cash flow generated in the U.S., most of the prepayment of debt has been made in the U.S. operation. Today, the structure or the mix of the debt does not match the mix of our cash flow generation. We're in the process of aligning the capital structure to the structure of the cash flow generation.
A few months ago, we announced that we had structured a $750 million facility that could be drawn in two years in order to manage short and medium term maturities. I mean, once these maturities come due, we're gonna draw on this facility, and then gradually the capital structure of the company is gonna mimic the cash flow structure of the business. The $750 million facility was structured and announced a few months back, and we do expect that with the future drawdowns, the capital structure is gonna be more aligned with the actual currency profile of our business.
Great. Thank you very much.
Next question comes from Juan Camilo Dauder from Bancolombia.
Hi, good morning. Thank you for the call. I want to ask you about the expectations you have on the Colombian market. You have mentioned you see the market is still strong and able to receive further increases in prices. What we have seen that for example in the housing markets housing sales have decreased, and that announce a moderation in the growth path of the same demand at least. My question is in regards how do you expect the market will continue that strong if housing decelerates maybe next year. I mean a more stringent scenario? Maybe if you are waiting for a recovery in the infrastructure sector that can alleviate that deceleration, what is your assessment on that regard? Thank you very much.
Thank you, Juan Camilo . The reality is that housing starts to remain at record levels in Colombia. The reality is that new housing sales have been decreasing the last four to five months, but infrastructure is still very strong. You saw the significant improvement in our volumes of ready-mix. That means that infrastructure in the formal housing sectors is still going extremely well. Imports have decreased in a significant way into the Colombian market. The reality is that even though there's going to be a slowdown in new housing starts, probably starting in the last quarter of 2023, we still see that the Colombian market is going to remain very strong, at least until the last quarter of 2023.
I don't know if Carlos Horacio would like to add a little bit more color to my remarks. Carlos, would you like to add some more color to the view of Colombia?
Can you listened to me?
Yes. Now we are listening to you very well.
Okay. No, I just like to add, in that comment one, that in the infra segment is very important the starting of the line one of the metro, the Bogotá Metro, which probably is starting in January. There are a lot of activity of infra in Bogotá for the next year beside the metro. The Regiotram, another very important projects.
As you mentioned, in terms of the social housing starts, 2023 probably will be a record year for volume in that segment. In high income housing, probably we are seeing a reduction in terms of volumes, but in low income housing, 2023 will be a record year.
Carlos, thank you for your view.
Okay. You're welcome.
Next question comes from André Reis from MFS Investment Management.
Hi, guys. Can you hear me?
Yeah, we can hear you well.
Okay. Well, on the housing, I understand that your answer was about Colombia. I was going to ask about it for the U.S., the same question. Also, you mentioned that in Colombia, the cement volumes were down because of the price hike implemented in July. Could you mention how your competitors are reacting to this? Thank you.
Thank you, André. I will answer the second one, and then Simon will give you more color about the U.S. residential market. We will continue, I mean, with the strategy of improving prices in Colombia. I mean, with the devaluation, prices are in dollar terms way below import parity prices. We'll continue executing our price recovery strategy in Colombia in spite of whatever our competitors, you know, do in the market. You can check our results. In our opinion, we are generating value in Colombia, and we will continue, I mean, with that strategy going forward. Now Simon will give you more color about the U.S.
Thank you, Juan. It's day seven for me with the business, so forgive me if my knowledge may not be as good as I would like. I have spent a lot of time with the team, digging into the fundamentals around the demand for cement and ready-mix in our business. What I'm very pleased to see is that the base demand for cement remains strong despite an obvious slowdown in single-family housing caused by the increases in the federal interest rates. However, when we go through our backlogs and we look market by market, project by project, the demand remains robust, in part because the likelihood of the continued strong growth in multi-family housing is likely to supplement the offset from the decline in single-family housing.
Based on the information we have today, we look forward to a good market for cement and ready-mix for the rest of this year and going into 2020-