Cement manufacturer expects growth to triple this year

A manager for a cement manufacturer expects the company’s growth to triple this year, due to the high volume of business throughout the country.

Alejandra Rivas, country manager for Cemex Bahamas, told Guardian Business yesterday that the company is making a “huge investment” at Arawak Cay with renovations to its headquarters, particularly its cement silos, because the market has increased by 10 percent versus last year. “So we are supporting a few projects on the island. The Freeport market is picking up too,” said Rivas.

She added: “We are the first company in the Caribbean with the green cement. So all the cement that we are supplying to all the projects is the green cement, with a smaller carbon footprint.

“We have the organic demand right now for all the Hurricane Dorian reconstruction, and also we have a big Carnival project, and we have also a new company, Heroic Concrete and Concrete Products, that is opening operations at the beginning of last month, that we are supplying cement. They are bringing a lot of work to us, and the same thing with ABC Construction, which is doing the hospital in Freeport.

“So the demand in Freeport has picked up 30 percent, which means that we are able to hire more Bahamian labor in Freeport, especially Grand Bahamians.”

Cemex Bahamas has hired more drivers and added more people to its operations in Grand Bahama over the last six months.

“The growth in Grand Bahama is evident. We also see business picking up in New Providence. We see in the east side with the domestic activity picking up. We see there are other projects ending, like the US Embassy, but other things are picking up.

“Usually, every year we grow maybe one percent or two percent, but I do believe we are going to grow at five percent. There is also a lot of work in the Family Islands, with new developments in Andros and a few other projects in Eleuthera going on.”

Everything Cemex Bahamas does is manufactured and processed in The Bahamas. Nothing is imported for its cement.

“The market right now is picking up, and we are trying to bring new talent to the company as we are very busy,” she added.

Cemex Bahamas’ parent company announced the launch of the fourth edition of its Cemex Campus across five Caribbean countries – The Bahamas, Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana and Jamaica. The program is designed to provide opportunities for young professionals to learn the construction and manufacturing industries. Cemex Bahamas is partnering with the University of The Bahamas (UB) on the country’s campus.

“We are expecting around 15 persons, and from that 15 persons we have three open positions, in different disciplines around the company. Two are related to operations and one is related to administration,” said Rivas.

Cemex Bahamas is expecting to pick up a few students from UB to enter into the program, which will be a “good opportunity”, Rivas said. Because the company is growing, the students can go to other Cemex locations around the world, as the company is in 62 countries.