Displaying items by tag: Mexico

Mexico: Cemex has made a series of changes its senior level organisation with changes to the heads of its operations in the US and its South, Central America and the Caribbean region. These personnel changes will come into effect from 1 September 2019.

Jaime Muguiro Dominguez, the current president of Cemex South, Central America and the Caribbean, and managing director and chief executive officer (CEO) of Cemex Latam Holdings (CLH), has been appointed president of Cemex USA. He succeeds Ignacio Madridejos who had held the role since late 2015. Madridejos will leave Cemex to become the CEO of Ferrovial, a Spanish infrastructure development company.

Jesus V Gonzalez Herrera, current Cemex Executive Vice President of Sustainability and Operations Development, has been appointed president of Cemex South, Central America and the Caribbean. In addition, on 6 August 2019, Gonzalez was appointed CEO of CLH by the board of directors of CLH.

Juan Romero Torres, currently the Executive Vice President of Global Commercial Development, has been appointed Executive Vice President of Sustainability, Commercial and Operations Development. This new role combines Romero’s current responsibilities with those of the Executive Vice Presidency of Sustainability and Operations Development, which include the Health & Safety, Operations and Technology, Energy, Procurement, Sustainability and Research & Development areas.

Mexico: Austria’s Unitherm Cemcon has been awarded the supply of an MAS DT burner to an unnamed cement plant in Mexico. The burner is designed for coal, natural gas and liquid secondary fuel operation. To optimise the maintenance work, the burner is equipped with a divisible jacket tube. A satellite burner, with the supplier’s adjustment system, will be mounted on top of the main burner to improve solid secondary fuel utilisation.

Mexico: Cemex Mexico has launched a new website to sell concrete. It is intended to serve builders, contractors, small business owners, architects, construction entrepreneurs and the general public for any size of project from 1m³ upwards.

The site includes an online calculator to help customers work out the amount of concrete required for a project and technical support to aid the transaction. It also supports scheduling delivery at a specific time and date, as well as having visibility and tracking of the order in real time. The company says it is the first conle concrete sales channel in the country with ‘express’ service and full coverage.

Mexico: Cemex’s sales have fallen in all regions except for Europe. Its net sales fell by 4% year-on-year to US$6.72bn in the first half of 2019 from US$7bn in the same period in 2018. Its operating earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) dropped by 11% to US$1.21bn from US$1.36bn. Cement sales volumes decreased by 9% to 31.3Mt and ready-mixed concrete volumes by 3% to 24.9Mm³.

“The second quarter was impacted by the challenging global economic environment. Weaker-than-expected industrial activity and continued trade conflicts have resulted in lower investment in several of our markets. Mexico in particular has been affected by these factors, which led to lower-than-expected volumes. Adverse weather in the US also translated into muted activity during the quarter. In contrast, we are very pleased with the favourable performance of our Europe region,” said chief executive officer (CEO) Fernando A Gonzalez. He added that earnings were expected to pick up in the second half of the year due to improved government spending in Mexico, higher prices and sales volumes of cement in the US and Europe, stabilising energy prices and the group’s ‘Stronger Cemex plan’.

Mexico: GCC’s results for the first half of 2019 have been negatively affected by poor weather in the US. Its net sales grew slightly by 1.3% to US$404m from US$399 in the same period in 2018. Sales fell in the US but they rose in Mexico. Its earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) fell by 5% to US$109m from US$115m.

“While GCC’s US operations continued to be adversely impacted during the second quarter by an above average precipitation, below-average temperatures and construction labour shortages, the substantial backlog at our US operations underscores strong demand for our products. We’ve begun to reap the benefits early in the third quarter, as the US weather has finally cleared,” said Enrique Escalante, GCC’s chief executive officer (CEO). He added that the group had ‘successfully leveraged’ its new Trident plant in Montana and improved production levels at its Rapid City plant in South Dakota following a stabilisation process. Oil well cement shipments from its Chihuahua Plant to new terminal at Fort Stockton in Texas have also started.

Mexico: Williams Crusher has appointed Alfredo Martinez as sales representative for the Mexico region. He holds 20 years of experience with the Williams line of equipment and its markets in Mexico. Williams Patent Crusher & Pulverizer Company supplies equipment for the crushing and pulverising industry. Its headquarters is in St. Louis, Missouri.

Mexico: According to figures from INEGI, Mexico’s national institute of statistics, sales of cement were worth US$1.21bn during the first quarter of 2019. This figure was 7% lower than during the first quarter of 2018. In volume terms sales fell from 11.89Mt to 10.91Mt, a fall of 8.1% year-on-year.

Market leader Cemex reported a sales fall of 15% in the analysed period despite a price increase of 4%. Cementos Fortaleza, owned by Elementia, posted a sales growth of 1% in terms of value, thanks to rising prices.

Swiss firm LafargeHolcim, through its subsidiary Holcim Apasco, saw total sales shrink by 7.4% in Latin America, with sales of cement falling by 2.6% as a consequence of the demand drop in Mexico and Argentina. Only Cementos Chihuahua registered significant growth, with sales increasing by 8% in during the quarter due to the construction of new industrial buildings and mining projects in the north of the country.

Mexico: A team led by José Iván Escalante Garcíaat at the Saltillo unit of the Center for Research and Advanced Studies of the National Polytechnic Institute (Cinvestav) is researching the use of volcanic ash in making blended cements and concrete. Volcanic ash is being considered to reduce the clinker factor of cement due to its abundance, low cost and its appropriate chemical composition. A clinker substitution factor of up to 80% has been achieved using volcanic ash. The research group has developed 15 alternatives to Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC) using waste or materials or minerals.

Talk of US tariffs on imports from Mexico was not troubling the National Chamber of Cement (CANACEM) this week. Director general Yanina Navarro pointed out to local media that Mexico only exports 1.42Mt or 3.4% of its total production of 44Mt/yr to its northern neighbour. This is a little higher than the 1.04Mt reported by the United States Geological Survey (USGS) in 2018, although that figure is believed to have underestimated imports to El Paso district in Texas. Mexico was the fifth largest exporter of hydraulic cement and clinker to the US behind Canada, Turkey, China and Greece.

Commentators pointed out that Grupo Cementos de Chihuahua (GCC) might be affected more that other Mexican producers as two of its plants are close to the border at Samalayuca and Juárez in Chihuahua. However, GCC operates five plants in the US. Cemex also has a plant near the US border at Ensenada in Baja California. Yet it’s the fourth largest producer in the US by integrated production capacity. If either company had its export markets seriously disrupted by any border duties they could likely focus on production in the US to compensate.

Once again this is similar to the situation with the proposed border wall where, although President Donald Trump wanted Mexico to pay, it would have been Mexican companies benefiting the most from any construction boom. This was also the case with the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), the successor to the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). The international structure of many of the larger Mexican cement producers insulates them from these kinds of political and trade disputes.

Mexican producers shouldn’t be too complacent though. Tariffs are likely to play havoc with integrated supply chains as in the car industry. Building materials will probably be affected less so but that 1.42Mt export figure is more than the production capacity of many individual Mexican cement plants. Taking away this export market will drag on the industry’s utilisation rate and alternate destinations may be hard to find. Note the trouble Mexico has had distributing its products in Peru. The Supreme Court there upheld a fine this week on UNACEM for trying to block the distribution of Cemex’s brand of cement in 2014. Also, although Trump’s tariffs on Chinese products may not have much of an impact on building materials, USGS data shows that Chinese imports of cement to the US fell by 27% year-on-year to 0.76Mt in the six months to the end of February 2019. Similar reductions could await Mexico’s exporters.

The general consensus from the free market press is that tariffs will ultimately hurt both economies. In agreement the Portland Cement Association (PCA) published a market report in April 2018 on the effects of tariffs on US cement consumption in the wake of tariffs on steel and aluminium imports from the European Union (EU), Canada and Mexico. The summary was that all forms of tariff – from minor to a global trade war – would likely result in reduced US cement consumption to varying degrees due to slower economic growth. A full-scale set of tariffs on Mexican imports is likely to induce similar consequences.

Mexico/US: Yanina Navarro, the general director of the National Chamber of Cement (CANACEM), says that Mexican cement producers are not worried by US tariffs on imports. Mexico exports 1.42Mt or 3.4% of its total production of 44Mt/yr to its neighbour, according to the EL Financiero newspaper. Data from the United States Geological Survey (USGS) placed Mexico at the fifth largest exporter of cement to the US after Canada, Turkey, China and Greece.

Grupo Cementos de Chihuahua (GCC) could be affected more than other Mexican producers by any tariffs as 17% of its production is exported to the US. Mainly this covers production from plants at Samalayuca and Juárez in Chihuahua. Hoevever, GCC operates five plants in the US, which would enable it to reduce the potential negative affects of tariffs.