Corona Launches Construction of Big Cement Plant in Antioquia
Colombia-based multinational ceramic-products maker and basic materials producer Corona announced January 10 the launch of construction on a 1.35 million tonnes/year cement and 3,150 tonnes/day clinker plant at Sonson, Antioquia, about 50 kilometers east of Medellin.
Corona and Spain-based partner Cementos Molins are putting US$238 million into project via a new joint venture, dubbed “Ecocementos.” Spain-based OHL Industrial is the construction contractor for the Sonson plant.
The alliance “combines the great experience and global operations of Cementos Molins with the knowledge of the construction and remodeling markets, distribution channels and the mineral reserves of Corona,” according to a joint press statement from the partners.
Plant machinery will be provided by Denmark-based cement-production specialist FLSmidth.
In addition to the forthcoming cement plant, Corona has 19 other types of manufacturing plants in Colombia, three in the USA, three in Central America, three in Mexico and one in Brazil. Corona was born 135 years ago in the Medellin suburb of Caldas (see Medellin Herald on August 23, 2016).
Cementos Molins is a multinational with operations in Spain, Argentina, Uruguay, México, Tunisia, Bangladesh and Bolivia, according to the company.
The new Corona-Cementos Molins plant would become the third of its kind in Antioquia, behind the recently inaugurated Cementos Argos plant in Rioclaro and the proposed Cemex plant in Maceo, the latter of which has been delayed because of environmental permitting issues as well as legal questions about Cemex acquisition of certain adjacent lands around the proposed plant site.
