Displaying items by tag: Peru

Holcim Mexico has been promoting itself as the lynchpin of the group’s growth in Latin America this week. The move makes sense following the spin-off of Holcim’s North America business in late June 2025. The company says that Mexico has a housing deficit, has the highest profitability margin in Latin America and it is leading the transformation toward circular and low-carbon construction.

The bullseye on Latin America was first planted by Holcim in the group’s NextGen Growth 2030 strategy that was released in March 2025. With the company preparing to separate off its most profitable section in the US, it decided to highlight new reasons for investors to stay interested. The summary was ‘focused investment’ in attractive markets in Latin America, Europe, North Africa and Australia, sustainability-driven growth with demolition materials singled out and an emphasis on the building solutions division. Although the Latin America division supplied the smallest geographical share of new group net sales in 2024 (US$3.9bn, 19%), the profitability metric presented, recurring earnings before interest and taxation (EBIT) margin, gave the region the highest result. Or in other words, Holcim is telling investors that it may have divested North America but it still has business south of the Rio Grande… and it looks promising. It then said that it has the ‘best’ geographical coverage and vertical integration in the region and the largest construction materials retail franchise in the form of Disensa.

Understandably, the likes of Cemex, Cementos Argos, Votorantim and others might take exception to some of this. For example, Cemex reported net sales in excess of US$6bn in Latin America and the Caribbean, and Votorantim reported net sales of around US$4.8bn in 2024. Yet, Holcim’s claim of regional spread does carry some weight. It purchased Comacsa and Mixercon in Peru and assets from Cemex in Guatemala in 2024. At the end of the year the group owned integrated cement plants in Argentina, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico and Peru. Plus it held grinding plants in the French Antilles and Nicaragua. All of these are majority-owned subsidiaries, often also with aggregate, ready-mixed concrete and building systems businesses. Holcim may have sold up in Brazil in 2022 but it still holds a relatively intact network in Latin America.

Graph 1: Grey cement production in Mexico, 2020 - April 2025, rolling 12 months. Source: National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI).

As for the market, Holcim reported modest but growing net sales in Latin America in 2024, despite lower sales volumes plus elections in Mexico, economic issues in Argentina and political instability in Ecuador. Focusing on Mexico, local cement volumes were said to be stable, aided by a recovery in bagged cement in spite of bulk sales falling on the back of fewer infrastructure projects. Holcim Mexico also spent US$55m on building a new grinding unit at its integrated Macuspana plant in Tabasco. Once complete, the update will increase the site’s capacity by 0.5Mt/yr to 1.5Mt/yr.

Cemex, the market leader in Mexico, released more direct information. It saw its sales and operating earnings fall in 2024. This was blamed on a poor second half to the year following the presidential election in June 2024. GCC’s sales fell more sharply in 2024 and this was blamed on “energy infrastructure limitations and permitting delays in Juarez.” So far in 2025, in the first quarter, the pain in Mexico for the construction sector has continued, with both Cemex and GCC noting strong falls in cement volumes and sales due to a slowdown in industrial demand. Holcim has not reported on Mexico directly so far in 2025 only saying that sales have risen in local currencies in Latin America as a whole in the first quarter. Cemex started a cost cutting exercise in February 2025 in response to the situation. Graph 1 above shows Mexican cement production. Although it should be noted that Cemex and GCC still run subsidiaries in the US. Holcim now does not. Rolling 12-month cement production figures in Mexico started falling in September 2024 and continued to do so until April 2025, the date of the latest data provided by the National Institute of Statistics and Geography.

Despite falling volumes though, the price of cement in Mexico remains high by international standards. At the start of July 2025 the National Association of Independent Businessmen (ANEI) raised the alarm that distributors had warned of an 8% price rise on the way. It’s in this environment that news stories such as Bolivia-based Empresa Pública de Cementos Bolivia (ECEBOL), a producer in a landlocked and mountainous country, preparing to export clinker to Mexico from July 2025 start to sound credible. Sales may have been down in Mexico in 2024 but earnings and margins remain high. In the medium-to-longer term the country looks even more promising, with plenty of scope for development and building products. Ditto the rest of Latin America.

One way a multinational heavy building materials company with a presence in sustainability-obsessed Europe might gain an advantage in the region is by using its knowledge to capture the easier decarbonisation routes first. This is exactly the route Holcim and Holcim Mexico seem to be taking by promoting lower carbon cement and concrete products, and by growing the recycling of demolition materials. Another option, of course, is that Holcim is bolstering its Latin America division ahead of a potential divestment. Either way, Holcim is presenting a plan for growth in its new form, shorn of North America. It’s all to play for.

Peru: National cement shipments rose by 6% year-on-year to 0.98Mt in June 2025, bringing the 12-month total up by 2%. Cement production reached 0.9Mt, up by 2% year-on-year, while clinker output rose by 24% year-on-year to 0.85Mt. Cement exports increased by 33% year-on-year to 12,000t and clinker exports rose by 166% to 98,300t during the same period.

Cement imports grew by 142% year-on-year to 71,000t, while clinker imports also increased by 496% compared to June 2024, to 0.1Mt.

Peru: National cement shipments rose by 5% year-on-year to 1.01Mt in May 2025 and by 0.7% over the 12-month period, since the start of June 2024, according to national cement association ASOCEM. Cement production reached 929,000t, up by 5% year-on-year and down by 1% in the 12-month period. Clinker production rose by 16% year-on-year to 832,000t but fell by 7% across the 12-month period.

Cement exports dropped by 27% to 7900t year-on-year, while rising by 4% over 12 months. Clinker exports rose by 0.4% year-on-year to 70,600t but declined by 31% across the 12-month period. Cement imports dropped by 28% year-on-year to 9000t and rose by 99% in the 12-month period. Clinker imports rose by 213% year-on-year to 88,000t and increased by 31% across the 12-month period.

Peru: Grupo Gloria plans to invest US$100m in an upcoming lime plant in Lima. OneStone Consulting has reported that the plant will supply lime for Lima’s construction, agriculture and mining sectors.

Grupo Gloria subsidiary Cal & Cemento Sur already operates a five-kiln lime plant in Puno Region with five kilns, comprising three Maerz Parallel Flow Regeneration (PFR) vertical kilns and two horizontal kilns.

Peru: National cement shipments in April 2025 fell by 1% year-on-year to 958,000t, matching the cumulative figure for the past 12 months. Cement production dropped by 2% year-on-year to 855,000t, while clinker production also declined by 2% year-on-year to 786,000t. Clinker output was down by 9% between April 2024 and April 2025.

Cement exports rose by 4% year-on-year to 9400t in April 2025 and by 3% over the 12-month period. Clinker exports dropped by 1% year-on-year to 35,800t in April 2025 and by 28% from April 2024 to April 2025. Cement imports increased by 2% year-on-year to 54,000t in April 2025 and by 73% over the 12-month period. Clinker imports fell by 21% year-on-year to 70,000t in April 2025 but rose by 21% on a 12-month basis.

Peru: Cemento Yura, a subsidiary of Grupo Gloria, has launched a 28MW photovoltaic plant, the first in the Peruvian cement sector, according to M-Brain News.

The 45-hectare facility consists of 51,264 photovoltaic modules and will generate 80.65GW/yr of electricity, covering around 30% of the Yura cement plant’s energy needs. The project cost US$23.5m.

Peru: National cement despatches reached 0.99Mt in January 2025, down by 2% compared to January 2024 and by 0.7% in the 12-month cumulative period, according to ASOCEM. Cement production declined by 6% year-on-year to 0.87Mt, while clinker production dropped by 30% to 0.59Mt. Over the 12-month cumulative period, cement production fell by 3% and clinker production declined by 9%.

Cement exports reached 10,200t, down by 2% year-on-year and by 5% in the 12-month cumulative period. Clinker exports increased significantly, by 122% to 73,600t in January 2025, but were down by 18% in the cumulative period.

Cement imports rose by 63% year-on-year to 50,000t in January and by 23% in the 12-month period. Clinker imports fell by 29% to 44,000t in January but increased by 28% in the cumulative period.

Peru: Cemento Yura has launched a premium white cement, designed to meet the increasing demand for architectural and decorative applications. The producer has a production capacity of 300,000t/yr, ensuring stable supply to domestic and export markets.

Technical manager of research and development Bruno Bertolotti said "This launch is the result of extensive research and innovation. Our goal is to provide our customers with a high-performance product that ensures unparalleled reliability and results."

Peru: National cement despatches reached 0.97Mt in December 2024, a 0.1% year-on-year increase, according to the Cement Producers Association (Asocem). Total despatches in 2024 were nearly 12Mt, marking just a 0.01% rise compared to 2023, indicating stagnation in the sector.

Asocem members produced almost 0.92Mt of cement in December 2024, a 1% year-on-year decrease, and recorded a 3% decline in 2024 to 11Mt. Cement exports from members rose by 70% year-on-year in December 2024 to 0.13Mt, but fell by 8% for the full year. Imports increased to 3000t in December 2024, up by 22% year-on-year, and grew by 29% over 2024, with Chile as the sole supplier.

Clinker production by Asocem members dropped by 30% year-on-year in December 2024 to 0.66Mt, and by 8% over the 2024 period. No clinker was exported by Asocem members, a 100% year-on-year decrease from December 2023. Clinker imports surged by 376% year-on-year in December 2024 to 0.2Mt, sourced from South Korea (44%), Japan (24%), Ecuador (19%) and Turkey (13%).

Peru: Cementos Pacasmayo has appointed Ely Hayashi as its Chief Financial Officer (CFO) with effect from 1 April 2025. She will succeed Manuel Ferreyros in the post, who has been CFO since 2008.

Hayashi has worked for Cementos Pacasmayo since 2005, when she started as a Management Control Analyst intern. She subsequently became Head of Management Control in 2011 and then the Central Manager of Finance and Management Control in 2022. She holds a degree in business administration from the Universidad del Pacífico in Lima and an International Master of Business Administration from the IE Business School.