Displaying items by tag: Mexico

Mexico: GCC reported sales of US$1.05bn in the first nine months of 2025, up by 2% year-on-year from US$1.03bn. The company’s US sales rose by 8% year-on-year to US$784m, while sales in Mexico fell by 13% to US$265m. Cost of sales rose by 9% year-on-year, resulting in earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) of US$349m.

CEO Enrique Escalante said “While the third quarter of 2025 unfolded in a mixed environment, GCC executed with discipline and delivered revenue growth, underpinned by strong performance in our US concrete business.” Looking ahead to the current, fourth quarter of 2025, Escalante said “Our focus remains on rigorous cost control, plant reliability and investing to strengthen our network, supporting our long-term strategy to compound value into 2026.”

Mexico: Cemex has completed the sale of its operations in Panama to Dominican-Republic based industrial conglomerate Grupo Estrella for an enterprise value of approximately US$200m. The divested assets include a 1.2Mt/yr capacity cement plant in Calzada Larga, Chilibre, along with related ready-mix, aggregates operations, and rights to acquire additional reserves. Cemex has increased its holdings to a majority stake in US-based Couch Aggregates, using a small portion of the Panama sale proceeds to offset the EBITDA impact from the divestment.

“These transactions are important building blocks in our strategy to rebalance our portfolio and continue investing in growth in priority markets,” said Jaime Muguiro, CEO of Cemex.

Mexico: The government of Campeche and directors of La Cruz Azul Cooperativa have officially launched the construction of the company’s new 1.0Mt/yr cement plant in Seybaplaya, Campeche. This will be the company’s fifth cement plant.

Gustavo Cruz Vega, director of new projects, said the plant will be “a modern automated facility, with 432 vibration measurement points, 600 temperature and vibration sensors, digital management and 100% advanced artificial intelligence, in addition to being able to generate clean energy and use alternative fuels.” He added that the plant’s systems will ‘guarantee zero dust emissions’ and low levels of pollutants.

He Xiaolong, vice president of China National Materials Group Corporation (SINOMA) and president of China National Building Material Group (CNBM) and Equipment Group (TCDRI), said this will be the first smart production line the consortium has built outside China, with 90% of the equipment designed and manufactured by its own engineering teams.

Mexico: Cement consumption fell by 8 – 10% in the first half of 2025 compared to the same period of 2024, according to José María Barroso Martínez, CEO of Cementos Moctezuma. He attributed the drop to factors such as the change of government in Mexico, the US government's tariff policy, a decrease in small-scale private works and on-going negotiations towards a replacement for the United States – Mexico – Canada Agreement (USMCA) for North American free trade, among other factors.

In an interview with Grupo Reforma News, Martínez said “Cement is the first variable that moves when the economy accelerates or decelerates. In the second half of 2025 we can achieve additional volumes to correct the trend and close the year similar 2024, when the industry reached close to 42Mt sold."

Mexico: Cementos Moctezuma has established what it calls an ‘ambitious’ plan to reduce its embodied CO₂ emissions per tonne of cement to below 500kg by 2030. José María Barroso Ramírez, Cementos Moctezuma's CEO, explained that the company will optimise efficiency at every stage of production, without compromising cement quality. The company’s cement plants will also co-process up to 30% of alternative fuels. Maribel Leyte Jiménez, director of sustainability, environment, and continuous improvement, emphasised that reducing the clinker factor – while maintaining performance – is also key to lower emissions.

Cementos Moctezuma's 2030 roadmap is based on health and safety, energy and climate change, social responsibility and the environment, as well as biodiversity and the circular economy. These pillars are used to evaluate the company's performance each year.

One of the projects being carried out by the company is Reef Balls, in which artificial reefs are used to repopulate coastal areas with flora and fauna. Engineer José María Barroso points out that the implementation of approximately 500 Reef Balls would lead to a reduction of more than 1200t of CO₂. This initiative has been carried out in the state of Yucatán, but plans are underway to replicate the project on more beaches in Mexico.

Mexico: Moctezuma inaugurated a US$12m alternative fuels storage system at its Tepetzingo cement plant in Morelos, after two years of engineering, planning and execution. The facility will process over 150,000t/yr of waste, including end-of-life tyres, municipal solid waste and non-recyclable materials, which will replace fossil fuels in cement production, with a goal of 30% substitution by 2030. The company said that the benefits of the project include saving thousands of tonnes of waste from landfill and mitigating methane emissions.

The producer, the Morelos government and the Ministry of Sustainable Development are also developing a circular economy centre in Jiutepec with an additional investment of US$1.6m. The facility will collect, shred and convert up to 3000t/month of tyres into alternative fuels.

Spain: Molins sales revenue fell by 5% year-on-year top €659m in the first half of 2025 due to negative currency exchange effects in Mexico and Argentina. Its earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) dropped by 8% to €175m. However, both sales and earnings rose if adjusted for currency effects due to price rises and good performance otherwise in Europe and South America.

Marcos Cela, the CEO of Molins, said, "The results for the first half of 2025 reflect the strength of our business model, capable of responding firmly in a complex global environment, which has continued to be marked by economic uncertainty and currency volatility.” In June 2025 the group said it had spent €100m on expansion in the precast concrete sector by buying Portugal-based precast concrete producer Concremat and by starting to build a new plant in Spain.

Mexico: Cemex has reported a 5.3% year-on-year decrease in its sales to US$4.13bn for the second quarter of 2025 compared to the same period of 2024. Its operating earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) also fell by 10.5% to US$823m.

The company attributed the declines to challenging demand conditions in Mexico and the US and a difficult comparison base in 2024. In Mexico, this related to strong infrastructure spending in 2024 prior to national elections. Cemex noted that higher local currency prices in key markets and strong volume performance in its Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) region partially mitigated the results. The EMEA region recorded its highest-ever first-half operating EBITDA.

The company’s reports stated “Our operations in Europe continue progressing on decarbonisation with net CO₂ emissions in the quarter reaching a new record low of 418kg/t cement equivalent. Demand conditions continue to improve in the Middle East and Africa with volumes expanding at double-digit rates, fuelled by housing, non-residential projects and large infrastructure works.”

Cemex’s sales in Mexico fell by 23% to US$1.06bn in the second quarter of 2025 compared to the US$1.38bn in 2024. Domestic grey cement, ready-mixed concrete and aggregates sales volumes contracted by 16%, 15% and 19% respectively. In the US, Cemex blamed the drop on high rain levels in various places and continued poor performance of the residential market. Due to this sales fell by 6% to US$1.3bn.

Mexico: Yakup Bayram, the CEO of PaneraTech, has been announced as the first keynote speaker at the 19th Unified International Technical Conference on Refractories (UNITECR) due to take place on 27 - 30 October 2025 in Cancun, Mexico. Bayram will discuss the use of artificial intelligence in refractories. He is also scheduled to moderate a panel entitled ‘Sustainability With Intelligence in the Refractories Industry.’ The call for papers for the event has closed and around 180 presentations are currently planned.

UNITECR held its first event in 1987 in Tokyo, Japan. The most recent outing took place in in Frankfurt, Germany, in 2023. The event, hosted by the German Refractory Association, featured over 200 speakers and more than 1100 participants in total. The meeting in 2025 is being hosted by the Latin American Association of Refractories Manufacturers (ALAFAR).

Mexico/US: Grupo Cementos Chihuahua (GCC) reported that sales in the US were up by 8% year-on-year in the second quarter of 2025 (April – June 2025), due to higher ready-mix concrete and cement volumes of 21% and 4% respectively. In Mexico, which represents 25% of consolidated net sales, it recorded a 13% decrease in ready-mix concrete volumes and a 6% decrease in cement volumes, impacted by an industrial slowdown and negative currency exchange effects.

The company recorded a fall in earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) of 12% to US$118m, while sales rose 1% to US$364m. Net income fell by 18% to US$73.5m from US$89.6m in the second quarter of 2024.