Brazil: Italy’s Buzzi Unicem has announced that it has reached an agreement to buy a 50% stake in the Brazilian company BCPAR from Grupo Ricardo Brennand for Euro150m. BCPAR operates two integrated cement plants, one in the north east state of Paraíba and one in the south east state of Minas Gerais. The Minas Gerais plant started operations in May 2011 and has an annual production capacity of 2.4Mt/yr of cement. The Paraíba plant was commissioned in August 2015 and it has a capacity of 1.7Mt/yr. Buzzi Unicem will retain the right to buy the remaining 50% of BCPAR from Ricardo Brennand until 1 January 2025.

Buzzi Unicem said in a press release that the agreement reached allows it to extend its industrial operations to the largest economy in South America and improve the geographical diversification of its regional presence. Buzzi Unicem believes that the current downturn in the Brazilian economy, and in particular of the local cement industry, can be positively resolved, starting from 2019. It adds that Brazil's key macroeconomic data concerning cement production are encouraging. The population is expected to grow at an average rate of 1.1%/yr and per capita cement consumption is currently at its lowest levels in years.