Mike Ireland, president and CEO of Portland Cement Association (PCA), has embarked on a nationwide tour of PCA member company plants, sitting down with CEOs, plant managers and other personnel to discuss efforts to bring the cement industry to carbon neutrality.In this interview, Mike talks with Massimo Toso, CEO and president of Buzzi Unicem USA and chairman of PCA’s Board of Directors, at Buzzi’s Alamo Cement Plant in San Antonio, Texas. By Mike Ireland, PCA, USA.
Mike Ireland (MI): What is the history of the Alamo Cement Plant and Buzzi collectively?
Massimo Toso (MT): The Buzzi family founded the company in 1907 so we’ve been around more than 110 years, and we still remain a privately-owned company today, now in its fourth generation. In Italy Buzzi is one of the most successful family business stories.
The first Alamo plant was built in the 1880s, which relocated to the San Antonio area in the early 20th century. Buzzi bought the company in the 1970s and started producing clinker by 1981.
It remains one of the most efficient and valuable Buzzi plants in the United States. If you can pay a visit to San Antonio, go to the Quarry Market and you can still see five stacks from the original plant in the middle of the shopping mall. If you go into the movie theatre and open the doors, you can see the old engines. It was a nice restoration of the area to keep the heritage. There’s now a golf course in the quarry, so you can actually go and play golf in what was once a quarry for a cement plant.
