The consumption of aggregates for construction has registered a decrease of 25.68 percent in the Canary Islands, in the period 2009-2010. This decrease is the highest in Spain. While the Archipelago consumed 7.4 million tons in 2009, in 2010 manufacturers had to settle for selling 5.5 million tons of this material. In the country as a whole, 207.6 million tons of aggregates for construction were used last year, data very similar to those recorded in the period 1988-1992.
All these data were made public at the General Assembly of the Association of Aggregate Manufacturers (AFA) of the Canary Islands, which took place this Tuesday in Lanzarote. The annual report of the aggregates sector was presented at the meeting, in the presence of the national association and a large group of businessmen from all the Canary Islands. During the assembly, the businessmen also decided to file a complaint with the Canary Islands Environment Prosecutor's Office to try to prevent illegal extraction.
In addition, the economic situation of the construction sector, and particularly of aggregates, was analyzed, and an assessment was made of all the measures adopted by the association of aggregate manufacturers in the Canary Islands. It was also announced that there are 60 active aggregate exploitations registered in the Archipelago, including quarries and gravel pits, while in the rest of Spain there are 1,743.
According to this business association in a statement, aggregates are the second most consumed raw material by man after water. Thus, it is estimated that each Spaniard used about 4,500 kilograms per year of this material in 2010.
Despite this high consumption, the truth is that the economic crisis has hit this sector hard, in which more than 6,000 direct jobs and more than 20,000 indirect jobs have been destroyed.
