Votorantim to invest in Spanish plant

Votorantim Cimentos will invest EUR1.7m in the Toral de los Vados cement plant of its Spanish subsidiary Cementos Cosmos. The investment will fund environmental improvements as well as health and safety initiatives.

Last year the Brazilian major invested around EUR1.8m in the modernisation of the facilities despite the works seeing clinker production fall by 10 per cent with further declines expected for this year. Votorantim attributed the 2015 drop due to a decrease in exports. “Our lack of competitiveness leaves us out of some export markets. To this we must also add the crisis in Brazil, which had become a strategic target for us and saw a substantially reduced demand,” said Jaime Santoalla, plant director at Toral de los Vados.