Colombia: In 2019 Grupo Argos subsidiary Cementos Argos’ sales rose by 11% year-on-year to US$2.8bn from US$2.5bn in 2018 and its earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) rose by 14% year-on-year to US$0.5bn from US$0.4bn in 2018. Cement dispatches rose by 0.6% to 16Mt. In the US, its main market, the company sold 6.3Mt of cement, up by 9.5% from 5.8Mt in 2018.
Argos CEO Juan Estaban Calle praised the company’s successes in 2019, such as the completion of its Thermally Activated Clays (TAC) project at its 1.4Mt/yr integrated Cementos Rioclaro plant in Colombia. “This allows for production and distribution of green cement with a greatly reduced clinker factor, 38% lower CO2 emissions and 30% of the energy consumption of ordinary Portland cement (OPC) production,” he said.