Displaying items by tag: Americas

Peru: Grupo Gloria plans to invest US$100m in an upcoming lime plant in Lima. OneStone Consulting has reported that the plant will supply lime for Lima’s construction, agriculture and mining sectors.

Grupo Gloria subsidiary Cal & Cemento Sur already operates a five-kiln lime plant in Puno Region with five kilns, comprising three Maerz Parallel Flow Regeneration (PFR) vertical kilns and two horizontal kilns.

US: More than 50 employees of the CalPortland cement plant near Mojave went on strike on 8 June 2025. A spokesperson for the workers said that it was the first strike at the location since 1981. A striking employee told local press that pay and retirement benefits are among workers’ concerns. The union's contract with the company expired in March 2025.

US: Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have developed an AI tool to compare studies of alternative raw materials for cement production. A collaborative team from the MIT Concrete Sustainability Hub and MIT’s recycling research programme, Olivetti Group, published its findings in the Nature journal. The team mined 5.7m academic publications to identify 14,434 alternative raw materials. These belonged to 19 ‘types,’ including bottom ashes, fly ashes, calcined clays and slags, as well as less homogenous types such as biomass ashes, glasses and mine tailings. The study more than doubles the number of fly ashes and slags recorded on a database of this kind. The tool then provides a unified assessment of cementitious reactivity and pozzolanicity, also accounting for variables in particle size and amorphous content.

Colombia: National grey cement production fell by 7% year-on-year to 1.06Mt in April 2025. Shipments to the domestic market declined by 7% to 0.99Mt. Between January and April 2025, production dropped by 3% year-on-year to 4.24Mt and domestic shipments fell by 1% year-on-year to 3.91Mt.

Trinidad & Tobago: Trinidad Cement (TCL) has amended its loan agreements with Citibank and Scotiabank for the third time. The TCL board entered a third amended and restated agreement to its 24 July 2018 loan deal, under which Citibank and Scotiabank will each lend US$20m.

The loan repays TCL’s obligations under earlier agreements with Republic Bank and RBC Merchant Bank dated 22 July 2021. TCL’s parent company Cemex guarantees the loan. It owns 69.83% of TCL through holding company Sierra Trading.

Mexico: Cemex will invest US$1.4bn in 2025 to strengthen its financial position, maintain liquidity and focus on projects delivering high profitability, including potential acquisitions in the US. Between January and March 2025, it invested US$221m, down from US$249m in the same period of 2024. It expects to invest a further US$1.15bn over the rest of 2025, subject to financial results and market conditions.

Cemex CEO Jaime Muguiro Domínguez said that the company will eventually transition its capital expenditure to acquisitions of small and medium-sized companies in the US that can ‘provide greater profitability.’ He added “Given the increased uncertainty in the current global macroeconomic environment, we will make sure that our capital allocation decisions do not compromise our financial metrics.”

US: The Trump administration has cancelled a US$500m grant awarded in December 2024 to National Cement in California for the conversion of its Lebec cement plant into the state’s first net-zero cement facility. The project, valued at US$891m, aimed to switch to limestone calcined clay cement and use agricultural waste as fuel, with CO₂ captured for permanent underground storage, according to the Bakersfield Californian newspaper. It was expected to create 20 - 25 permanent jobs. The US Department of Energy (DOE) said the project was among 24 grants worth US$3.7bn cancelled due to failure “to advance the energy needs of the American people,” and cited economic infeasibility and poor return on taxpayer investment.

US Secretary of Energy Chris Wright said that the previous administration “failed to conduct a thorough financial review before signing away billions of taxpayer dollars.”

Executive director Steven Nadel of the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy said “Choosing to cancel these awards is shortsighted, and I think we're going to look back at this moment with regret.”

The project was one of 33 cement, steel and aluminium decarbonisation projects awarded DOE grants in 2023. The project turned up on an April 2025 list of 39 projects the DOE's Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations was considering terminating.

Switzerland/US: Holcim will complete the 100% spin-off of its North American business, Amrize, with trading expected to begin on 23 June 2025. The US Securities and Exchange Commission has declared effective the Amrize Form 10 Registration Statement, and Amrize has received authorisation to list shares on the New York Stock Exchange and the SIX Swiss Exchange under ‘AMRZ’.

Holcim shareholders approved the move with 99.75% in favour at the company’s annual general meeting on 14 May 2025. Each Holcim shareholder will receive one Amrize share per Holcim share owned as of close of business on 20 June 2025. The spin-off will be treated as tax neutral for Swiss tax and tax-free for US federal income tax purposes. S&P Global Ratings and Moody’s Ratings rated Amrize at BBB+ and Baa1, respectively, both with stable outlooks.

Brazil: Votorantim Cimentos has received and begun installing a new cement mill at its Salto de Pirapora plant near São Paulo as part of its US$878m national expansion programme.

The 210t mill took six months to arrive from China via ship, and was then transported by a truck convoy from the Port of Santos to the plant. The mill will increase the plant’s capacity by 1Mt/yr. The unit is part of the Salto-Santa Helena complex, which will see its capacity grow by 20% when the expansion completes in the second half of 2025. Construction began in the first half of 2024.

General manager Rafael Frederico said “We are celebrating a new phase in the expansion project of the Salto de Pirapora plant with the arrival of the mill and all the equipment for assembling the new mill. The operation to transport the equipment from China to our unit was complex and executed with great operational excellence by our multidisciplinary teams and partners.”

US: Monarch Cement and Evergy Energy Solutions have celebrated the completion of a 39-hectare solar array, with a capacity of 20MW, according to The Chanute Tribune. The facility was inaugurated with a ribbon cutting ceremony attended by representatives from both companies. It will supply up to 33% of Monarch’s Humboldt cement plant’s energy needs. Monarch Cement president Kent Webber said the project took three years to complete.

Evergy also planted native pollinator-friendly grasses and plants to boost underground biomass, improve water infiltration and offer the potential to capture CO₂. The project reduces water demand compared to conventional power generation.