In order to increase its production capacity in El Salvador by 58%, Holcim will invest $20 million in the reactivation of the Maya Plant and in improvements to the El Ronco Plant.
The company currently has a production capacity of 1.2 million tons of cement per year, but with the reactivation of the plant located in Metapan and the improvements of the other industrial complex, they intend to increase its capacity to 1.9 million tons.
The restriction to the construction activity due to the sanitary emergency and culmination of the third set of locks of the Canal, forces the cement producing companies in Panama to enter in "hibernation" mode.
During 2020, Holcim announced that it will invest $7.5 million in the construction of six concrete production plants and the purchase of machinery.
The new concrete plants that the company is already building will be in Santa Ana, Acajutla, Apopa, Ilopango, La Paz and La Unión. These will be in addition to the 12 that Holcim already operates in the country.
In Panama, the import of cement and the depressed activity of the construction sector explain the fall in the production of concrete and cement in the first half of the year.
The company Argos plans to invest $21 million in a new cement plant with capacity to produce up to 440,000 tons per year in Choloma, department of Cortés.
According to officials from Argos Honduras, the new plant will expand the company's total production capacity by 30%.
Seven companies are competing in a market which in the first semester of this year reported sales worth around $223 million.
Figures from the Dominican Association of Portland Cement Producers (Adocem) show that compared to the same semester in 2016 there was an increase of just 1.4% in sales reported by Cibao, Argos Dominicana, Cemex, Domicem, Andino, Santo Domingo and Panam.
The plant that Mexico's Cemex operates in Escuintla will increase its production capacity by 10%, reaching 545 thousand tons a year.
In addition to the increased production capacity, with the improvements made to the plant, capacity for bagging cement will rise by 46%, going from 65 to 95 tons per hour.
Holcim has started to operate its expanded cement plant, increasing production capacity by 30%, going from 330 thousand tons of cement per year to more than 400,000.
The plant expansion includes the startup of a dynamic high efficiency separator with which it has achieved its increase in production. In the last two years Holcim has invested approximately $10 million, and this year it plans to invest $6 million with the launch of a roller press.
The cement company has announced it will be investing $35 million over three years to increase the production capacity by 25% at the plant it operates in Costa Rica, near the border with Nicaragua.
From a statement issued by CEMEX:
MONTERREY, MEXICO - CEMEX, SAB de CV ("CEMEX") (BMV: CEMEXCPO) announced today that its subsidiary CEMEX Latam Holdings, SA ("CLH") (BVC: CLH) initiated a project to increase cement production capacity of its plant in Colorado, Costa Rica, by approximately 25% in order to reach an annual capacity of 1.1 million tonnes in 2017.