The Municipality of San Jose, Costa Rica is looking at funding options to replace asphalt with concrete on all the avenues in the city center.
During the inauguration ceremony for the new works on Avenida 10 in the capital city, the mayor, Johnny Araya, said: "We will be analyzing the financial alternatives, to see if we can give continuity to the project in other parts of the city and, that in the heart of the city at least, all the streets will be done in concrete .
In order to position better in a very competitive market, manufacturing companies are betting on strengthening their technical divisions, customer service and infrastructure.
Such is the case of Productos de Concreto (PC) which since its separation from the Holcim group, has been focussing its efforts on strengthening its technical division and developing a customer service area.
Ultralight Precast Concrete
Organization that operates in Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Panama, Honduras and Nicaragua
Phone: (506) 2665 1441 - (506) 8391 7632
The most affected sectors are cement and concrete with a decrease in demand of 20% and 30% respectively.
According to Carlos Gonzalez, country director for Cemex (company which closed 5 concrete plants in Costa Rica), the reactivation of the Costa Rican economy would be achieved with three levers: State investment in infrastructure, increased credit to encourage domestic consumption and "encouragement of direct foreign investment through incentives or improvements to the free trade zone law."
In the face of a 20% to 30% decrease in the demand for cement and concrete, the multinational closed five of its concrete plants.
Of the three production lines that Cemex has in Costa Rica, cement, concrete and aggregates, the concrete sector has been hardest hit by the crisis. With the closing of the 5 facilities, there are only 3 left operating.