Spain: Following its 2018 appeal against a Euro445m fine for misreporting losses, granted on condition of the company paying the court Euro300m in line with its obtaining specified mortgages and land sales, Cemex continues to release its holdings on the Iberian peninsula.

Cinco Días has reported that Cemex’s Spain operations closed its sale to Turkey’s Çimsa of its White Cement division in the first quarter of 2019 for 180 million. In 2018, the Spanish subsidiary of Cemex divested itself of five pieces of property at a profit of Euro17,000. Its Azuara production line in Saragossa Province generated capital gains of Euro462,000.

In the first half of 2019, Cemex reported earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) in Europe of Euro185m, up by 21% from US$168m in the same period of 2018.

Cemex’s Spanish presence began in 1992, when it acquired the country’s two largest cement companies, and it was hit by the downturn of 2008. La Nueva España reports that Cemex has applied for concessions from the Port of Gijón for storage of a dissembled biomass fuel hopper which had been awaiting shipment to Cemex’s Tilbury plant when the recession struck, grounding it in the the port, where it has remained ever since. Autoridad Portuaria de Gijón, the administrative body responsible, is currently considering Cemex’s application.