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."
