Displaying items by tag: Grupo Argos
Colombia: Grupo Gilinski has abandoned its plan to buy a 26% stake in Grupo Argos. Grupo Argos shareholders reportedly offered the prospective buyer an 11% stake in the group on 6 July 2022. This fell below the minimum stake for the tender offer.
Colombia: Cementos Argos exported 297,000 of cement in the first quarter of 2022, up by 32% year-on-year from first-quarter 2021 levels. The producer said that it achieved the increase thanks to the commissioning of its new 3.5Mt/yr Cartagena terminal in February 2022, which tripled its export capacity. The company says that its export network will now have the capacity to export 1.3Mt of cement in 2022.
Colombia: Cementos Argos recorded sales of US$642m in the first quarter of 2022, up by 11% year-on-year from first-quarter 2021. The company’s earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) fell by 18% year-on-year to US$88.6m. Cement volumes remained level year-on-year at 3.9Mt. Cementos Argos said that higher inflationary pressures impacted costs associated with raw materials, energy, freight and maintenance, but noted its ‘very good price performance’ across all of its regions. It expects the rise in cement prices to a contribute to a reduction in inflationary cost impacts in the rest of 2022.
CEO Juan Esteban Calle said "Demand for our products and solutions remains very healthy and dynamic in all regions. We are operating at full capacity, despite a challenging environment due to global supply chain disruptions and inflation in energetics and raw material costs. In this environment, we are focused on maximising production at our integrated cement plants to meet our customers' growing needs and on executing a pricing strategy that mitigates the impact of inflation.”
Argos Florida Cement secures Slag Cement Association’s Durability and Infrastructure awards
04 April 2022US: Cementos Argos subsidiary Argos Florida Cement has won the Slag Cement Association (SCA)’s Durability and Infrastructure awards at its 2022 Sustainable Concrete Project of the Year Awards. The producer won the awards for its supply of slag cement to two projects in Florida in 2021. Its involvement in the American Bridge Company’s SR 679 Pinellas Bayway Bridge – Structure E replacement won it the Durability award, while its involvement in Superior Paving’s State Road 52 realignment. Argos Florida Cement congratulated its customers, who also received the awards.
US: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has awarded its Energy Star certification to cement plants belonging to two Titan America subsidiaries. Titan Florida’s Pennsuco, Florida, cement plant has secured its 14th consecutive Energy Star, while Roanoke Cement’s Troutville, Virginia, cement has secured its 15th consecutive Energy Star.
Other cement plants to receive Energy Stars in 2022 included two Argos USA plants (Calera, Alabama, and Harleyville, South Carolina), two GCC plants (Pueblo, Colorado, and Rapid City, South Dakota), Buzzi Unicem’s Chattanooga, Tennessee, plant and three plants in Arizona: CalPortland’s Rillito plant, Drake Cement’s Paulden plant and Salt River Materials Group’s Clarkdale plant.
Grupo Gilinski increases Grupo SURA stake to 32%
01 March 2022Colombia: Grupo Gilinski has increased its stake in Grupo SURA by 7.7% to 32%. Grupo SURA controls a 36% stake in Grupo Argos, the parent company of Cementos Argos and US-based Argos USA. The deal awaits validation and agency approval.
Argos increases sales and volumes in 2021
18 February 2022Colombia: Grupo Argos subsidiary Argos recorded consolidated sales of US$2.57bn in 2021, down by 9.1% year-on-year from US$2.27bn in 2020. It sold 17.1Mt of cement across all regions, up by 16% from 14.6Mt in 2020. In the US, its cement sales rose by 5.7% to 6.1Mt, in Colombia they rose by 23% to 5Mt and in the Caribbean and Central America they rose by 27% to 6Mt. The producer’s earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) rose by 34% year-on-year to US$443m from US$406m.
CEO Juan Esteban Calle “I am extremely proud of these achievements, which are the result of a disciplined strategy of expansion, efficiencies and customer-centricity that has been carried out based on a long-term vision of sustainability, growth and profitability, aiming at delivering sustained and increasing value to our shareholders.”
Cementos Argos launches Soluciones Modulares Argos
17 February 2022Colombia: Cementos Argos has announced the launch of its new modular concrete solutions subsidiary Soluciones Modulares Argos. The company will produce precast concrete elements for use in housing and infrastructure construction. It aims to build 500 new homes in the second half 2022 and says that its products will halve building times.
Cementos Argos Colombia regional vice president Carlos Horacio Yustysaid "Modular concrete solutions revolutionise the execution of traditional structures and constitute a disruptive bet in construction systems technology."
US: Argos USA has announced the upcoming transition of its Roberta, Alabama, cement plant to Portland limestone cement (PLC) Type IL production. By mid-2022, the company plans to produce 100% PLC at the 1.7Mt/yr plant. Its Durham, Statesville and Wilmington cement terminals in North Carolina will also transition to the exclusive distribution of PLC. The Roberta plant will directly serve customers in Alabama, Florida, Georgia and Mississippi.
Argos USA has also launched PLC production at its Harleyville, South Carolina, Newberry, Florida, and Martinsburg, West Virginia, cement plants. It aims to begin producing PLC at all of its cement plants nationally by 2024.
CEO Bill Wagner said "We are excited to announce the transition of the Roberta plant to 100% (PLC) Type IL. With this transition, we continue to support our customers and the industry on its road to lower greenhouse gas emissions. With PLC, we are supplying a more environmentally friendly building solution for our customers, engineered to deliver an outstanding quality and performance while lowering our carbon footprint.”
Grupo Argos ranked Gold in S&P Global Sustainability Yearbook 2022
02 February 2022Colombia: Analyst S&P Global has given Grupo Argos the rank of Gold in its Sustainability Yearbook 2022. Grupo Argos is the only construction materials company to have achieved Gold in the yearbook. Thailand-based Siam Cement Group (SCG) ranked Silver, while Ireland-based CRH and Switzerland-based Holcim, along with the latter’s subsidiary Ambuja Cements, ranked Bronze.
Legal and sustainability vice president María Isabel Echeverri said “This recognition is a result of teamwork and the permanent commitment of Argos to building a better future in which the creation of value for society and for the company is our greatest motivation. We will continue to strengthen our initiatives and strive to positively contribute to the responsible development of our sector and the well-being of our stakeholders, to enable a more sustainable, prosperous and inclusive society.”