Ponce Cement

Ponce Cement, Inc. was a cement and limestone manufacturer in Ponce, Puerto Rico. The company was located at the intersection of PR-123 and PR-500, in Barrio Magueyes.[3] It was founded in 1941[4] by Antonio Ferré Bacallao, a Puerto Rican industrialist of Cuban origin.[5] In 1963, the company became the first Puerto Rican company to go public and be listed in the New York Stock Exchange.[6]

Ponce Cement, Inc.
TypePrivate
IndustryConstruction
FoundedPonce, Puerto Rico (1941)
HeadquartersPonce, Puerto Rico
Key people
Antonio Ferré Bacallao, Luis A. Ferré
ProductsCement, lime
Revenue$180 Million[1]
Number of employees
490+ [2]
WebsiteWebsite

Ponce Cement was part of the Empresas Ferré enterprise from 1941 to 2002. In 1950, Empresas Ferré purchased another cement enterprise, the Puerto Rico Cement Company, then owned by the Government of Puerto Rico.[7] In 2002, Ponce Cement, Inc., was sold to Cemex, a Mexican business concern that is both the world's largest building materials supplier and the third largest cement producer, of which Ponce Cement is now a subsidiary.[8] The plant continues to operate at the same location, and continues to sell its products to the Puerto Rico market, but with the change in ownership, the company is no longer named Ponce Cement, Inc.; it is now Cemex, Puerto Rico.[9] The new owners did keep the Cemento Ponce product label.[10]

History
The Ponce Cement plant, where Cemento Ponce is manufactured, on Puerto Rico Highway 123 in Barrio Magueyes Urbano (the plant is now owned by CEMEX)

The municipality of Ponce was the perfect place to establish a cement plant, as the type of soil needed for cement production is abundant in the region.[11][12] After founding the Puerto Rico Iron Works, and the El Dia newspaper, Empresas Ferré entered the construction business with Ponce Cement, Inc., and subsequently with Puerto Rican Cement, Inc.[13][14]

Over the 1940s, the company enlarged and Luis A. Ferré became its chief engineer. By 1960, the company had become the leading cement supplier on the island, much of it the result of increasing new highway and housing construction projects spreading throughout the Island.[13]

Approvals

On 23 February 1989 the Ponce Cement plant received approval for conversion from a wet to a dry manufacturing process, which allowed it to almost double its output.[15] As of year 2000, cement was Puerto Rico's leading nonfuel mineral commodity.[16]

See also

References
  1. CEMEX S.A. de C.V. Company Profile.
  2. Comerciantes del Area Sur y Obreros de la Puerto Rican Cement Levantaron so Voz de Apoyo a la Decision Tomada por la Alta Gerencia de las Empresas Ferre de Demandar al Gobernador Pedro Rosello. 12 November 1997. El Nuevo Dia. p. 8 Accessed 18 February 2011.
  3. Facility Detail Report: Puerto Rico Cement Inc. (Ponce PR) Facility Registry System. US Environmental Protection Agency. Retrieved 27 November 2009.
  4. National Register of Historic Places Registration Form: Edificio Empresas Ferre, a.k.a., Centros Isolina Ferre. Juan Llanes Santos, Historian. Puerto Rico State Historic Preservation Office. 19 June 2013. San Juan, Puerto Rico. National Register of Historic Places. ID # 13000638. Page 8. Retrieved 27 November 2013.
  5. History. Retrieved 27 November 2009.
  6. Guillermo A. Baralt. La Historia de El Nuevo Dia (1909-2000): "Al servicio de mi tierra". Page 569. Fundación El Nuevo Dia. San Juan, Puerto Rico. 2002. ISBN 1-881720-82-9.
  7. National Register of Historic Places Registration Form: Edificio Empresas Ferre, a.k.a., Centros Isolina Ferre. Juan Llanes Santos, Historian. Puerto Rico State Historic Preservation Office. 19 June 2013. San Juan, Puerto Rico. National Register of Historic Places. ID # 13000638. Page 7. Retrieved 27 November 2013.
  8. Cemex acquires Puerto Rican Cement. 1 July 2002. Archived 11 March 2006 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved 27 November 2009.
  9. CEMEX, Puerto Rico. Retrieved 27 November 2009.
  10. Cemento Ponce. CEMEX. Retrieved 27 November 2009.
  11. Mariano Vidal Armstrong. Ponce: Notas para su Historia. San Juan, Puerto Rico. Segunda Edición. 1986. p. 88.
  12. Puerto Rico Minerals Map 1999. PR Dept of Natural Resources, and USGS. 1999. Retrieved 27 November 2009.
  13. Caribbean Business: Puerto Rico Grieves Over The Loss Of Its Premier Statesman Four Months Short Of His 100th Birthday, Luis A. Ferre Aguayo (1904-2003). By Marialba Martinez. Puerto Rico Herald. 30 October 2003 Retrieved 27 November 2009.
  14. Carola Borja, Diana Dimitrova, Catherine Izard, and Rita Lohani. The Cement and Concrete Industry in Puerto Rico: An Industry Overview and Analysis. Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies: Applying Industrial Ecology Tools to Island Economies. (Course: Industrial Ecology, FES 501. Spring 2006 Group Project.) 9 May 2006.
  15. Puerto Rican Cement Company receives final approval for plant conversion. 23 February 1989. Retrieved 27 November 2009.
  16. "The Mineral Industry of Puerto Rico and the Administered Islands" (PDF). U.S. Geological Survey. Retrieved 29 December 2018.

Further reading
  • Fay Fowlie de Flores. Ponce, Perla del Sur: Una Bibliografía Anotada. Second Edition. 1997. Ponce, Puerto Rico: Universidad de Puerto Rico en Ponce. p. 66. Item 337. LCCN 92-75480
  • "Expansion y Modernización de la Puerto Rican Cement Company, Inc." Urbe. Volume/Year 25 (Octubre-Noviembre 1967) pp. 28-31. (University of Puerto Rico, School of Architecture Library).
  • Fay Fowlie de Flores. Ponce, Perla del Sur: Una Bibliografía Anotada. Second Edition. 1997. Ponce, Puerto Rico: Universidad de Puerto Rico en Ponce. p. 63. Item 321. LCCN 92-75480
  • "Cemento...bombones...pañolones de seda." Fomento de Puerto Rico. Volume/Year 1 (January 1952) pp. 20-24. (CUTPO; UPR).
  • Fay Fowlie de Flores. Ponce, Perla del Sur: Una Bibliografía Anotada. Second Edition. 1997. Ponce, Puerto Rico: Universidad de Puerto Rico en Ponce. p. 70. Item 372. LCCN 92-75480
  • "Puerto Rican Cement: cuatro décadas de aportaciones." Comercio y Producción. Volume/Year 20 (July-August 1980) p. 22. (Colegio Universitario de Cayey; Recinto Universitario de Mayaguez).
  • Fay Fowlie de Flores. Ponce, Perla del Sur: Una Bibliografía Anotada. Second Edition. 1997. Ponce, Puerto Rico: Universidad de Puerto Rico en Ponce. p. 82. Item 438. LCCN 92-75480
  • Luis A. Ferre. "El cemento." Puerto Rico. pp. 335-342. Barranquilla, Colombia: s.n., 1949. (Colección America, vol 10.) (CUTPO).

18°1′1.56″N 66°38′19″W

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