Global Cement dives into the Cemex Miami plant ahead of the visit by delegates of the IEEE-IAS/ACA Cement Conference.
Global Cement (GC): Please can you introduce the Cemex Miami plant?
Jose Alberto Torres Balaguer (JATB): The Miami cement plant was built in 1957 and entered production in 1958. It was operated by Rinker for most of its history before being acquired by Cemex in 2007 when Cemex acquired Rinker’s global operations. Over the years, the plant has undergone multiple upgrades and improvements to enhance operational reliability, environmental performance and production efficiency.
Most recently, the plant underwent a major overhaul in the early 2000s with the installation of a new dry process line by FLSmidth Fuller. This significant upgrade enabled the plant to remain one of the key cement plants supporting the growing construction market in South Florida.
GC: Please can you take our readers through the plant’s production process?
JATB: The process starts with the quarry, which is unusual as it is underground. We drill and blast and then use a dragline to extract the limestone. When it reaches the surface, the material is crushed in a 850-950t/hr crusher from Cedar Rapids and conveyed to the plant. Upon arrival, it is ground in an FLSmidth Fuller vertical roller mill at 250-270t/hr and sent to a homogenising silo.
The homogenised material is then reclaimed using a series of air slides and is conveyed by bucket elevator to the top of the 5-stage preheater tower, one of the first low-NOx combustion systems from FLSmidth Fuller. The kiln, rated at up to 3200t/day, is 65m long and has a diameter of 4.5m. The cooler is a recuperating grate cooler that feeds hot exhaust air back to the raw mill and coal mill.
There are then five finish mills. Four of them are Fuller machines dating from 1957. They are our ‘reslient veterans,’ - old, but, thanks to careful attention throughout the decades, they have stood the test of time and still work very well. There is also a new FLSmidth Fuller ball mill, which was installed in the early 2000s. It handles approximately 60% of throughput, with each ‘veteran’ handling around 10%. Between them, the mills can produce 1.0-1.1Mt/yr of cement.
Around 90 - 95% of cement leaves the plant in bulk road tankers, with 5-10% of cement bagged. The system is another ‘resilient veteran’ system, dating from and continuously updated since 1957. The plant does have a rail terminal, which was used in the past. However, there has been a trend away from rail transport in this part of south Florida in recent years. It is our intention to recommission this facility in the future, as this will help reduce costs and CO2 emissions at the same time.
GC: What types of cement are produced by the plant?
JATB: The plant makes Type 1 cement and Type 1 L cement, a lower-CO2 cement blend that contains a proportion of limestone. Most of our output, around 60 - 65%, is Type 1 L. Type 1 accounts for 30-35% and we also produce ~5% specialty blends.
GC: What types of fuel are used by the plant?
JATB: The main fuels are coal and petcoke, depending on market conditions. We preferentially use coal from the US. It is cheaper and also in line with the current trend of using domestic resources as much as possible. We do need to supplement it with some coal from Colombia, which has low moisture and sulphur levels, to ensure that we stay within safe limits for the process. Petcoke represents around 5-10% of the blend but - again - we need to tread carefully with petcoke due to the higher sulphur levels.
We also use around 45% waste oil, which is sourced from several suppliers in the marine sector, as Miami is a major hub for refuelling and maintenance of large ships. We use this, as a liquid, in both the main burner and in the calciner.
GC: What projects are being undertaken at the plant right now?
JATB: In the past the plant did use refuse-derived fuel (RDF), but not to a great extent. So that we can increase our use of alternative fuels (AF) in the future, we are currently in the process of installing new feeding systems for the preheater tower. The circular economy is starting to take shape in south Florida and we want to be part of the solution in the coming years.
We are also upgrading the central control system with the help of Schneider Electric. This will involve a complete overhaul of the fibre-optics around the plant and programmable logic controllers (PLCs), bringing greater efficiency and fewer failures, hence greater reliability and profitability.
We are also investing in AI-led preventative and process optimisation, which has been developed by Cemex’s global in-house AI team and a third party. On one side, we are using AI to predict when machines will fail. This analyses vibrations, temperatures and other operational parameters and alerts the team to potential failures. At first it was somewhat over-sensitive. However, we now find that, after sufficient training, the real-world situations match what the AI has told us. It could alert the team to, for example, looseness in a bearing on the non-drive side of the mill and, when the machinery is shut down, this is exactly what the maintenance team finds. The savings in reduced downtime are already substantial.
We’re also using AI on the operational efficiency side, with the large cement mill being entirely controlled by AI, we call it MAIC, which continuously adjusts the process. This has enabled the mill to reach very stable operation as standard. The ‘human team’ can then feed the AI data, for example about the strength development of the cement made previously, so that the mill can be optimised, be it for greater strength, lower energy consumption, a certain particle size distribution, whatever is desired. It’s important to remember that the human intelligence sets the agenda, the AI produces the results.
GC: How is the south Florida market at present?
JATB: The market saw something of a plateau in 2025 as a whole, but it certainly picked up towards the end of the year. We started 2026 on a similar trajectory and expect demand to improve in the second and third quarters of 2026. Florida has a lot of ongoing infrastructure projects and a lot of residential construction.
Being so accessible by sea means that we focus on operational excellence at the plant, to make sure that we remain competitive with imports. We have managed to reduce the market’s reliance on imports in the past few years but will still use spot imports to meet demand if required.
GC: How do the current administration’s policies affect your operations?
JATB: There’s been a lot of money for infrastructure in recent years, which is great for the cement sector. If you’re asking about tariffs, I think we need to look at the positives. There has been a readjustment when it comes to local procurement, for sure. We are looking domestically for suppliers far more than in the past, and they are stepping up to the plate.
At the same time, the European cement industry suppliers have been observant enough to set up US subsidiaries, maintaining their market share, albeit with some adjustments. Regarding labour issues, Cemex is keen, like the government, to invest in its own workforce, which is our biggest strength as a company and as a plant.
GC: What are the biggest threats to the Miami plant over the next five years?
JATB: On the global scale, the cement industry faces an unprecedented challenge in the face of decarbonisation. All plants need to adopt low-CO2 production, become more energy efficient and use carbon capture technologies. Retaining profitability while meeting these challenges will be difficult, but not impossible.
GC: What are the plant’s biggest advantages in the face of these challenges?
JATB: The Miami plant benefits from its very strategic location in one of the fastest growing regions in the US. We are also supported by our One Cemex culture, which enables us to cross-pollinate with ideas from other parts of the group. This gives us access to best practice in technologies and sustainability, with full support from our global operations. Finally, we have a very strong staff with vital collective experience. They remain committed to our safety culture, our operational excellence and our continuous improvement, which will allow the Cemex Miami plant to flourish... well into the future.
GC: Thank you for your time today Jose.
JATB: You are welcome - and see you soon!
About Jose Alberto Torres Balaguer
Jose Alberto Torres Balaguer is Plant Manager at Cemex’s Miami plant in Florida, US. A Spanish national, he has worked for Cemex since 2015, first in Colombia and then in Panama. During this time, he held two regional roles, Regional Process Advisor and Operational Excellence Manager, which enabled him to visit 12 Cemex cement plants across Latin America. This provided wide experience in different production environments and markets. Jose became Production Manager at Cemex’s Demopolis plant in Alabama, US, in 2022, before being promoted to Plant Manager in 2024. He moved to the Miami plant as Plant Manager in mid 2025.
