Displaying items by tag: Jamaica

Jamaica: Caribbean Cement plans to launch an upgrade to expand its Rockfort cement plant’s capacity by 30% to 1.3Mt/yr in October 2023. The producer says that the expansion will cost US$40m and that the new capacity will come online in early 2025. The work will include enlargements of multiple kiln sections and the installation of a new coal dosing system, clinker cooler and clinker transport system.

Jamaica: Local investor Mark Hart plans to establish a new cement terminal at Montego Bay, St James. Hart plans to invest US$8m in the terminal's construction. The Jamaica Observer newspaper has reported that construction will commence later in 2023. Once operational, the terminal will supply local roadbuilding and hotel, home and hospital construction. Current projects in this vein include a widening of the North Coast Highway and construction of the Montego Bay perimeter road and Runaway Bay and Discovery Bay bypasses, worth a total US$274.5m, and of new hotels with a total of 20,000 rooms.

Buying House Cement operates the only existing cement terminal in Montego Bay. The company imports cement produced in the Dominican Republic by Domicem. It currently serves 10% of Jamaica's demand. Hart is chair of Cargo House Handlers, which holds a 30% stake in the importer.

Hart said " We have highways, we have hotels, we have the hospitals being built in the west, we have a lot of housing projects. The government has a very ambitious plan to provide a lot of housing units. And all these things rely on stable, well-priced cement." He continued "We are proposing to offer an alternative to the one supplier that exists so that they have stability of supply and stability of pricing for the customers, so that the construction industry can continue to do what they do."

Jamaica: Cemex subsidiary Caribbean Cement has co-processed 1t of waste at its Rockfort cement plant under the National Environment and Planning Agency's Adopt-a-Beach programme. Since July 2022, the producer has also recovered 500kg of recyclable materials for processing by its partners. The Our Today newspaper has reported that the cement company has carried out three cleans of its adopted beach, Sirgany Beach, to date.

Jamaica: Mexico-based Cemex plans to expand production by up to 30% at its integrated Rockfort cement plant near Kingston. The first phase of the upgrade project will cost around US$40m and be completed during 2024. Cemex’s chief executive officer Fernando A Gonzalez made the announcement during a visit to the plant. Andrew Holness, the Prime Minister of Jamaica, also attended the event.

Gonzalez said “We are in the final stages of the engineering phase and in obtaining permits from the local authorities.” He added, “Very soon we will begin to procure the equipment needed for this initial phase of the project, designed to not only expand our capacity, but also allow us to optimise our heat consumption in the manufacturing process, and therefore, reduce the carbon footprint of our cement facility in Jamaica.”

The event also included the unveiling of a mural at the plant which commemorates the 60th anniversary of Jamaica’s independence. Titled ‘Reignited for Unity’, the mural measures around 15m tall by 50m wide. It was painted by Mexican artists Irving Cano and Freddie Herrera and Jamaican artists Anthony Smith, Yanque Yip and Jordan Harrison. The mural is part of a local government initiative to use art to promote different communities in Kingston.

Jamaica: Caribbean Cement recorded operating earnings of US$28.2m in the first half of 2022, down by 2% from US$28.8m in the first half of 2021. The company’s net income also fell by 2%, to US$19.7m, despite a 10% rise in sales to US$88.5m. The company attributed its decline in earnings to increased operational expenses amid a ‘downturn in the global economy.’

Jamaica: Caribbean Cement says that its Rockfort cement plant in Kingston has surpassed 1000 days without a health and safety incident among employees and contractors. Health and safety coordinator Andre Haynes said that the achievement demonstrates that parent company Cemex’s Zero4Life zero-incident policy is possible.

Haynes said “As a company, we have invested heavily in the people aspect, with training geared towards improved safety and culture, and capital expenditure to improve the overall safety of the plant.” He said that the Rockfort cement plant will advance to its next safety milestone by keeping its focus on ‘closing all unsafe conditions’ and developing employees as health and safety champions.

Panama: Cemex exported 3000t of bagged Ordinary Portland Cement to Jamaica from the Bahía Las Minas Grain Terminal in Colón. Data from the Ministry of Commerce and Industries shows that the company started exporting cement in January 2021 and recorded sales of over US$17m in 2021. In the first two months of 2022 Panama exported OPC to countries including Jamaica, the Bahamas, Guyana, Bonaire, Cuba and Curaçao.

Jamaica: Caribbean Cement recorded revenues of US$153m in 2021, up by 19% year-on-year from US$129m in 2020. Its operating expenses rose by 6.4% to US$16m from US$15.1m. The company recorded a loss for the year of US$3.31m, just under half of the US$6.79m loss that it recorded in 2020.

Jamaica: The Ministry of Industry, Investment and Commerce has granted Growth Tech Special Projects a licence to import 50,000t of cement from Turkey before 31 December 2021. The Gleaner newspaper has reported that the nation's other cement importer, Buying House, holds a licence to import 120,000t/yr. Sole producer Caribbean Cement is in the process of expanding its 1Mt/yr Rockfort cement plant's capacity to 1.4Mt/yr.

Jamaica: Caribbean Cement says that it will export an additional 200,000t/yr of cement after it completes the 40% capacity expansion of its 1.0Mt/yr Rockfort cement plant to 1.4Mt/yr. In 2020, the producer exported 1580t of cement, all to North America, at a total value of US$156,000.

CBR News has reported that general manager Yago Castro said “We believe the right way is to invest in local manufacturing and make it bigger, solid and more powerful. This is why we’ve been increasing our production capacity over the past three to four years. Our team is always working on improving the supply to the market, quality of our products and service.”

The Jamaica Observer newspaper reported on 5 September 2021 that regular three-day lockdowns begun in Jamaica in August 2021 to stem the spread of Covid-19 have slowed Caribbean Cement’s distribution.