Displaying items by tag: Mexico

Mexico: GCC’s sales rose by 15% year-on-year to US$608m during the first half of 2023. The company’s cement volumes rose by 6.9% in Mexico, but fell by 11% in the US. Its earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) rose by 27% to US$196m.

GCC’s chief executive officer Enrique Escalante said “Despite persistent weather-related challenges during the quarter, GCC achieved year-on-year growth in both top and bottom-line, attributable to the successful execution of our pricing and cost strategies, along with our focus on operational excellence.” He added “We remain vigilant in monitoring demand and economic dynamics in the US, planning to ensure we’re positioned to capture opportunities, while we take advantage of the momentum we’re seeing in the Mexican market.”

Mexico: Cemex's waste management subsidiary Regenera has signed a deal with the municipal council of Huajuapan de León to receive the latter's sorted non-recyclable municipal solid waste (MSW). Under the deal, Regenera will receive up to 6000t/yr of MSW, which it will supply to Cemex's Tepeaca cement plant in Puebla.

Italy: Buzzi Unicem reported first-quarter sales of Euro956m in 2023, up by 20% year-on-year from Euro800m in the first quarter of 2022. The producer's cement volumes dropped by 8.8% to 5.8Mt from 6.36Mt. It attributed this to a general slowdown of the construction sector across its markets. Local low demand from the residential market and adverse weather compounded the regional sales contraction in Central Europe. On the other hand, the group recorded volumes growth in Mexico and Russia and stability in Brazil. Both Mexico and Brazil produced revenues growth, while Buzzi Unicem's revenues fell in Russia due to the effect of the appreciation of the ruble against the comparison period in 2022, when the start of the on-going Russian invasion of Ukraine devalued it.

Overall, the group expects to 'easily' match its 2022 full-year earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) in 2023. It said that that it could not currently delineate a 'clearly different picture,' but added "The stabilisation of energy prices, albeit at higher levels than in 2022, if confirmed, will allow us to have better visibility on the unfolding of the production costs from spring onwards."

Mexico: Cemex recorded sales of US$4.04bn in the first quarter of 2023, up by 8% year-on-year from US$3.73bn a year earlier. The producer recorded operating earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) of US$733m, up by 7% year-on-year from US$685m. This was despite a 9% year-on-year decline in group cement sales volumes to 14.4Mt from 15.8Mt. First-quarter 2023 cement volumes fell by 3% in Mexico, by 19% in the US, by 10% in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia and by 8% in South, Central America and the Caribbean.

Cemex retained its guidance of a low single-digit year-on-year increase in operating EBITDA in 2023. It also expects its energy cost per tonne of cement produced to rise by 10%.

Mexico: Switzerland-based building materials group Holcim concluded a deal to acquire the Mexican roofing producer PASA on 3 May 2023. PASA employs 250 people, and generated sales of US$38m throughout 2022.

Holcim said that the deal will help to expand its products and solutions business, an area in which it has now made five acquisitions to date in 2023. Chief executive officer Jan Jenisch expects the group to acquire 30 companies throughout 2023, of which it already acquired 12 during the first quarter of the year.

Mexico: Cemex has announced that Juan Romero Torres will step down as its executive vice president of sustainability, commercial and operations development from 1 June 2023. The multinational cement producer said that Romero Torres had decided to retire after a career of several years with the company. His existing responsibilities will be assigned to other members of the Cemex executive committee.

Mexico: The construction materials producer GCC reported double-digit growth in its first quarter results, driven by higher prices for its products in Mexico and the US. Its operating earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) for the first three months of 2023 rose by 16% year-on-year compared to the same period in 2022 to reach US$63m, while revenues rose by 18% to US$243.9m.

"GCC delivered solid results in the first quarter," said Enrique Escalante, GCC’s chief executive officer. "High demand continues and we are leveraging all of GCC's resources to ensure we deliver the highest profits and strengthen our margins."

The growth in revenue was driven by higher ready-mixed concrete (RMC) sales volumes in the US, which were 27% higher than in 2022, and 11% higher cement and RMC volumes in Mexico. GCC also noted an increase in cement and RMC prices of 21% and 6%, respectively, in the US, while in Mexico the increases were 13% for cement and 11% for ready-mix.

Mexico: Cooperativa La Cruz Azul has removed director José Alfredo Álvarez Cuevas from his position and terminated his membership in the cooperative. ESPN News has reported that Mario Sánchez Álvarez, Eduardo Borrell Rodríguez and Ramsés Dolores Anguiano also received exclusions from the cement company.

Cooperativa La Cruz Azul’s ordinary general assembly established that the four former employees had ‘improperly exercised their positions’ and ‘availed themselves to commission of acts of corruption.’

Mexico: Vulcan Materials is reportedly preparing to launch new legal action against the government of Mexico. The government supported an alleged illegal entry by Cemex into the company's Punta Venado cement terminal on 14 March 2023. The cement producer is engaged in existing lawsuits against the government for compensation worth a total sum of US$1.9bn. It originally sued the government for US$529m in 2019. Local press has reported that the producer previously filed a subordinate claim to its suit for incursions onto its mining operations in Quintana Roo in mid-2022. The latter supplied limestone to Vulcan Materials' US operations.

Mexico: Holcim Mexico has commenced production of its Fuerte Más reduced-CO₂ cement at its cement plants in Macuspana and Tabasco at a combined rate of 60,000t/yr. The cement offers 50% reduced CO₂ emissions and 10% higher physical performance than ordinary Portland cement (OPC). The El Economista newspaper has reported that Holcim Mexico replaces some of the clinker in the cement with locally-sourced minerals from Southeast Mexico. Chemical compounds in the material colour the cement red.

The Centre for Technological Innovation for Construction (CITEC) Toluca verified the product as suitable for all applications. Holcim Mexico's industrial director Adrián Belli said that comparable green cements are currently only available in France and Italy.