Displaying items by tag: Colombia

Colombia: Cementos Argos will invest US$45m to strengthen its operations in Colombia, according to a press release on 22 April 2025. The investment will reportedly fund infrastructure modernisation, implementation of new technologies and ‘operational excellence’, with the goal of increasing efficiency, competitiveness and sustainability nationwide.

The president of parent company Grupo Argos previously revealed that around US$3bn would be invested in fixed-income securities in the US following its sale of a 31% stake in Summit Materials in February 2025. In the longer term, the company would evaluate investments in heavy building materials, logistics companies and aggregates in the US.

Colombia: National grey cement production fell by 4% year-on-year to 1.05Mt in February 2025. Domestic shipments declined by 7% to 0.97Mt in the same month. In the first two months of 2025, total production dropped by 5% to 1.99Mt and domestic shipments also fell by 5% to 1.83Mt.

Colombia: Jorge Mario Velásquez, the president of Grupo Argos, has revealed the group’s plans for its subsidiary Cementos Argos, following its sale of a 31% stake in US-based Summit Materials in February 2025. Mario Velásquez told the El Colombinao newspaper in an interview that, in the short term, around US$3bn is being invested in fixed-income securities in the US. In the medium term, the company is evaluating investment opportunities in heavy building materials and logistics companies. The latter sector is being considered to maximise the reach of existing production capacity. He added that aggregates in the US are being looked at. However, the company is prepared to consider investing elsewhere.

In March 2025 bondholders and shareholders of Grupo Argos and Grupo Sura agreed to a spin-off agreement to dispose of cross-shareholdings between the conglomerates.

President Trump said he was going to do it… and he did. The US announced tariffs on most imports on 2 April 2025 that took effect from 5 April 2025. So, once again, we ask what the consequences of this might be upon the cement sector.

Table 1: Estimated burden of US tariffs on selected countries importing cement based on 2024 data. Source: Based on USGS data.

Global Cement Magazine Editorial Director Robert McCaffrey posted a similar table to the one above on LinkedIn on 4 April 2025. It applies the new import tariffs to the value of imported hydraulic cement and clinker to the US in 2024 as reported by the United States Geological Survey (USGS). As such it gives us a starting idea of how the new tariffs might change what happens in 2025. For an idea of the volumes of cement imported to the US in recent years refer to the graph in GCW695.

However, a couple of key caveats were pointed out by commentators to that LinkedIn post. Marty Ozinga noted that the values from the USGS are customs values. Crucially, he said that the tariffs will be charged upon the FOB value of cement at the point of origin and not on the transport costs. This is significant because the cost of moving the cement can sometimes be more than half the total values reported in the table for certain countries. Another commentator wanted to make it clear that tariffs on imports are imposed upon the supply chain and are paid somewhere along it, typically by end users, rather than the originating country. Elsewhere, the feeling was very much one of waiting to see what would happen next and how markets would reorder.

Taken at face value, the first takeaway from Table 1 is that the variable tariffs disrupt the competitiveness of the importers. Any importer from a country with the lowest rate, 10%, now has an advantage over those with higher ones. Türkiye seems to be the obvious winner here as it was both the largest importer of cement in 2024 and it has the lowest rate. Vietnam appears to be a loser with a massive 46% rate. Canada and Mexico may have problems with a 25% tariff but how their cement gets to the US market may make a big difference as Ozinga mentions above. And so it goes down the list. What may be significant is how the order of the importers further down the list changes. For example, Algeria has a 30% rate compared to Egypt’s 10%. Both nations exported a similar volume of cement to the US in 2024.

The first casualty of the last week has been market certainty. The US announced the tariffs and stock markets slumped around the world. They started to revive on 8 April 2025 as the US government made more reassuring noises about trade talks but this was dampened by renewed fears of a US - China trade war. The orthodox economic view is that the US tariffs are increasingly likely to cause a recession in the US in the short term regardless of whether they have a more positive effect on the longer one. This view can be detected in former PCA economist Ed Sullivan’s latest independent report on the US economy. He acknowledged the fairness argument the US government has made, but warned of stagflation.

On the US construction market, prices look set to rise in areas that previously relied on imports or are near to them. Cement companies in the US should be able to sell higher volumes as some level of domestic production outcompetes imports. The sector produced 86Mt in 2024 and has a capacity of 120Mt/yr giving it a utilisation rate of 72%. It imported 20 - 25Mt of cement in 2024. One sign of this happening might be renewed investment in local capacity through upgrades, new lines and even new plants. However, a recession would reduce overall consumption. On the equipment side, there is likely to be a similar readjustment between local and foreign suppliers. Certainly, if the tariffs stick around then more non-US companies may be tempted to set up local subsidiaries and /or manufacturing bases if conditions permit. For example, note JCB’s doubling in size this week of a plant it is building in Texas. One interesting situation might occur if a US cement company wants to build a new production line. All the likely suppliers, at present at least, appear to be based outside of the US.

Finally, despite everything, Holcim declared this week that it had completed a $3.4bn bond offering ahead of the impending spin-off of Amrize in the US noting “strong investor interest in the future company.” It wants to shore-up confidence ahead of the creation of the new company at some point in the first half of the year. Holcim’s CEO said previously that he didn’t expect any blowback from tariffs as the company was a local business in the US. What may be worth watching for is whether the current disruption to stock markets causes any delays to the creation of Amrize.

The current situation with the tariffs is prompting a rapid-revaluation of the US construction market and the wider economy. US-based building materials companies look set to benefit but there may be disruption along the way. Foreign companies supplying the sector may well experience sharp changes in circumstances depending on how tariffs reorder supply chains. Prices for end-users look set to rise. We live in interesting times.

For Ed Sullivan’s take on the US cement sector read his article in the May 2025 issue of Global Cement Magazine

Colombia: Grey cement production in Colombia fell by 5.9% year-on-year to 0.95Mt in January 2025. Domestic shipments also fell by 3.0%, reflecting lower demand in the construction market, according to the National Administrative Department of Statistics (DANE).

DANE reported that cumulative production between February 2024 and January 2025 reached 13.3Mt, a 5.7% year-on-year decrease compared to the same period a year previously. Domestic shipments dropped by 12.1Mt. Industry experts warn that these results could impact the pace of construction activity in the country in the coming months.

Colombia: Cemex is ‘exploring’ the possible sale of its business in Colombia, Bloomberg has reported.

Cemex previously delisted Spain-based Cemex Latam Holdings from the Colombian Stock Exchange in 2023.

Colombia: Cementos Argos has obtained third-party verification for an environmental product declaration (EPD) for the Type VII cement produced at its Cartagena plant.

Tomás Restrepo, vice president of Cementos Argos, said "This certificate validates our efforts to reduce environmental impacts, optimise resources and offer a high-quality material that responds to the needs of each of our clients' projects.”

Colombia: Grupo Argos and finance conglomerate Grupo Sura have signed a spin-off agreement to dispose of their cross-shareholdings. This includes Grupo Argos subsidiary Cementos Argos’ stake in Grupo Sura. Grupo Argos will continue to focus on building materials and allied sectors.

President Jorge Mario Velásquez of Grupo Argos said “The cross-shareholding structure has far exceeded its objective: Grupo Argos consolidated its presence across the Americas, achieving compound annual growth of 21% in shareholder equity over the past 46 years and positioning Cementos Argos, utilities provider Celsia and construction firm Odinsa as regional leaders in their sectors. The simplification of the shareholding structure and portfolio will become another significant milestone in the disclosure and transfer of value to all Grupo Argos shareholders.”

Colombia: Grupo Argos grew its sales by 8% year-on-year to US$739m in the third quarter of 2024. It also grew its earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA), by 34%, to US$254m. As a result, net profit rose by 75%, to US$74.1m.

Colombia: Cementos Argos says that it exported 1.5Mt of cement and clinker through its terminals at the Argos Cartagena cement plant in the first nine months of 2024, up by 10% year-on-year from the volumes recorded in the corresponding period of 2023. The plant exports cement and clinker to the US and Caribbean and Central American countries. Its terminals give a combined loading capacity of 1000t/hr of cement or 800t/hr of clinker.

Plant manager Alberto Carlos Riobó said "In 2022, we launched the port expansion project for our Free Trade Zone and, since then, we have continued to invest in the realisation of a dream that has allowed us to export products on a larger scale, receive a larger number of vessels with greater capacity, and continue serving markets beyond our borders. In this way, we continue to confirm that the customer is at the heart of our decisions.”