Displaying items by tag: Trinidad & Tobago

Trinidad & Tobago: Cemex subsidiary Trinidad Cement (TCL) has reported a strong start to 2025, posting a net profit attributable to shareholders of US$3.8m in the first quarter of the year. This represents a significant turnaround from the US$1.1m loss recorded in the first quarter of 2024, with TCL reporting higher revenues and ongoing cost management initiatives. TCL attributed this to a series of necessary price rises, the most recent of which took effect in February 2025.

TCL’s revenue for the first quarter of 2025 rose by 9% year-on-year US$92.2m, up from US$84.4 in the first quarter of 2024. Its gross profit climbed to US$27.4m, which the company attributed to improved sales volumes and operational efficiencies across its regional markets, including Trinidad & Tobago, Jamaica, Barbados and Guyana.

Trinidad & Tobago: The government will reduce the rate of duty on other hydraulic cement from 10% to 0%, following the fifth price rise by Trinidad Cement since 2021, including the most recent 7% increase in early 2025.

The nation’s cabinet suspended its cement quota and registration system in February 2024. Cement remains on the import negative list, requiring a licence and compliance with Caricom standards. The legal order for the duty cut will be published in the coming days.

Trinidad & Tobago: Trinidad Cement (TCL) has appointed Gonzalo Rueda Castillo as its General Manager and Roberto Adrian Villarreal Villarreal as its Group Strategic Planning Manager.

Rueda succeeds Guillermo Rojo de Diego as General Manager. As part of the role, Rueda will also oversee the operations of TCL’s business units in Trinidad, Barbados and Guyana. Rueda has over 25 years professional experience, and most recently held the position of Vice President – Commercial at Cemex Colombia.

Villarreal will replace Gustavo Alejandro Ruiz Silva as Group Strategic Planning Manager. Ruiz will take up another position within the Cemex Group. Villarreal has been domiciled in the Caribbean for approximately 10 years, and most recently held the position of General Manager with responsibility for the operations of TCL’s business units in Barbados and Guyana, namely, Arawak Cement Company Limited and TCL Guyana.

Barbados: Trinidad Cement, owners of Arawak Cement Company, noted a decline in the Barbados cement market in 2023, according to its annual report.

Managing director Francisco Aguilera Mendoza said "In Barbados, the overall market declined by 14.3%, of which Arawak Cement Company experienced a decline of 8.8% in domestic cement volumes compared to 2022. Trinidad and Tobago’s cement export volume fell by almost 11% when compared to 2022, due to supply chain constraints and an increase in the local market demand. This drop in cement exports was almost fully compensated by our clinker exports to Barbados that started in 2023 after Arawak Cement’s change in its operating model.”

The core of the Caribbean cement industry consists of the Dominican Republic (with 5.9Mt/yr in integrated capacity), Cuba (4.7Mt/yr) and Jamaica (3.5Mt/yr). Haiti and Trinidad & Tobago also command small, single integrated plants, while there are numerous grinding plants and cement terminals along the region’s extensive coastlines. The industry has been the subject of new commercial and capital expenditure-related announcements in the past fortnight. Regarding the Caribbean’s cement producers, these developments seem to lack a single clear direction.

Caribbean market leader Cemex revealed that it was considering selling up in the region’s largest market, the Dominican Republic, on 1 September 2023. Bloomberg cited unnamed sources stating that the Mexico-based cement giant hired financial services JPMorgan Chase to explore the possible divestment of local subsidiary Cemex Dominicana. Exactly one year had passed since Cemex completed its sale of Cemex Costa Rica and Cemex El Salvador to Guatemala-based Cementos Progreso for US$329m. Sources clued in on the latest development reportedly expect Cemex Dominicana to command a selling price three times greater than the Central American divestments combined.

Cemex has discussed its scattered disposal of global assets since 2019 as a strategic realignment towards its main markets, in particular those in North America and Europe. On this understanding, the Caribbean straddles an invisible line between Cemex’s strategic core in North America and Central America on its periphery.

Just to the north of the line lies Jamaica. There, Cemex subsidiary Caribbean Cement will expand its Rockfort cement plant by 30% to 1.3Mt/yr through a US$40m upgrade, scheduled for completion in early 2025. Late last week, Caribbean Cement told investors that the upgrade will equip the plant with new equipment, including a new dosing system. The producer expects this to help the Rockfort plant to further increase its alternative fuel (AF) substitution rate. It co-processed 5.6% AF in its kiln during the first half of 2023, more than double its first-half 2022 substitution rate of 2.7%. Caribbean Cement began exporting cement to Turks and Caicos on 16 September 2023, and plans to increase its shipments there and elsewhere. Managing director Yago Castro reassured Jamaicans that Caribbean Cement would also continue to help meet domestic demand.

Currently, Caribbean Cement and fellow Jamaican producer Cement Jamaica compete in the domestic market against imports, including some cement from Dominican Republic-based Domicem. This enters the country via Buying House Cement’s Montego Bay terminal. Montego Bay Cold Storage, an affiliate of Buying House Cement, shared plans for a second, US$8m cement terminal in the city earlier in 2023. The facility is expected to help meet growing demand from residential and hospitality sector construction.

More new production capacity is soon to come online in the form of a 1.23Mt/yr grinding plant in the Dominican Republic. Cemento PANAM will own and operate the plant, while Germany-based Gebr. Pfeiffer will supply a 3750 C-4 vertical roller mill via engineering, procurement and construction contractor CBMI Construction.

In a market where the nearest cement exporter is only a short sail over the horizon, producers have to compete fiercely for their market shares, even at home. Disputes over Caribbean Community member states’ rights to protect domestic cement production have gone as high as the Caribbean Court of Justice. It ended Barbados-based Rock Hard Cement’s hopes of resuming exports to Trinidad & Tobago last year.

The Caribbean’s cement producers will be acutely aware of Cementos Argos’ planned expansion of its north-facing Cartagena, Colombia, cement export facility, hot on the heels of a previous, US$42m expansion. The South American giant says that it is targeting the US, where it anticipates an upcoming construction boom. Caribbean countries present other possible markets for producers like Cementos Argos, yet their cement industries might equally emulate any successes it enjoys in the US. Like Argos in Colombia, Jamaica’s Caribbean Cement is part of a group with an existing presence in the US. Its on-going investments in the Rockfort plant signal a readiness to catch the trade winds rapidly picking up in the Caribbean.

Trinidad & Tobago: Trinidad Cements' sales were US$309.6m in 2022, up by 9% year-on-year. Group earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) rose by 19% to US$77.0m. The Trinidad and Tobago Guardian newspaper has reported that the producer recorded a US$16.1m loss during the fourth quarter of the year. The producer attributed this to a weather-related drop in cement demand across its markets, as well as restructuring costs for its Barbados-based subsidiary Arawak Cement.

Trinidad Cement chair David Inglefield and managing director Francisco Aguilera Mendoza said "We will ensure that our operations remain resilient by continuing effective cost management initiatives to maximise value in this challenging economic environment. Additionally, we expect improved productivity and efficiency of our equipment on completion of major planned maintenance in 2023."

Trinidad & Tobago: Workers at Trinidad Cement’s Claxton Bay cement plant have launched a protest at the plant against an alleged breach of employment contracts. Troubled Company Reporter Latin America News has reported that Trinidad Cement has allegedly underpaid employees for more than seven years, with no cost of living allowance or gain share payments, and resulting pension miscalculations, according to a union representing the workers.

Trinindad & Tobago: The Caribbean Court of Justice has ruled against Hard Rock Cement in its challenge against Trinidad & Tobago’s 50% tariff on hydraulic cement. Nation News has reported that the Caribbean Community (CARICOM)’s Council for Trade and Economic Development (COTED) granted Trinidad & Tobago’s application to implement the new tariff in 2020. It remained in force for all of 2021. Cement importer Caribbean Cement challenged both the decision and the conduct of the application process.

Trinidad & Tobago: Current and former employees of Trinidad Cement have held two-day weekly protests since 10 January 2022 outside the company’s Claxton Bay plant in Couva–Tabaquite–Talparo Region. Staff from the past 10 years reportedly say that the company owes them their agreed cost of living allowance, gain shares and backpay.

Trinidad & Tobago: The government has reacted to a 15% rise in the price of cement by increasing imports and delaying an increase in taxes on the commodity. The country’s sole producer, Trinidad Cement (TCL), says that its price rise is set to start on 20 December 2021, according to the Trinidad Express newspaper. It has blamed this on mounting input costs such as gas, spare parts and other materials.

However, the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) told the cement producer that it viewed any price rise as ‘unacceptable’ given that 90% of inputs to production were local. In response the government has doubled the quota for cement imports to 150,000t in 2022 with each individual importer receiving a 50% boost to their own quotas. It has also agreed with the Council for Trade and Economic Development (COTED) of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) to suspend the Common External Tariff (CET) on hydraulic cement and a planned rise in the duty to 20% for one year to the end of 2022.

TCL’s competitor Rock Hard Cement, a cement importer, ended local operations in August 2021 after losing a court case against the country’s Ministry of Trade and Industry in July 2021.