Spain: Turkey’s Çimsa Çimento has purchased Cemex’s white cement business in Spain, including its Buñol plant, for around US$180m. Cemex expects to sign the final agreement in April 2019 and close this divestment during the second half of 2019. The proposed divestment does not include Cemex’s white cement business in Mexico, nor its interest in Lehigh Cement in the US.

“With the purchase of the Buñol white cement plant in Spain, we are upgrading our game in the white cement sector, the highest value-added business in the global cement market. With the integration of the Buñol white cement plant to our production and distribution networks, we will increase our white cement production capacity by 40%, translating into Çimsa becoming the world's largest white cement company,” said Tamer Saka, the president of Sabancı Holding Cement Group and chairman of Çimsa. He added that Çimsa is among Turkey’s leading exporters. In 2018 it generated over 50% of its operational profit from overseas operations.

Once a final agreement is reached the transaction is subject to standard regulatory approval.