The president of Industria Nacional del Cemento (INC), Ernesto Benítez, said that the state-owned company needs an injection of about US$20m operating capital to ensure sufficient cash flow to allow it to make purchases of supplies including fuel and raw materials, according to a report by Noticias Financieras.
"This money will be used to buy fuel at a much more competitive price and of course to maintain the flow of raw material purchases in an efficient manner," he explained.
In spite of having sufficient local capacity, there is also a high supply of low cost imported cement entering the market at prices well below domestic levels, Benitez explained. The company faces the dual challenge of low selling prices and high input costs.
Benitez argued that while INC has a capacity to produce more than 2000tpd clinker, "the only inconvenience to reach that level of production is the availability to buy fuel (pet coke) for the kiln and this is due to the high cost of this fuel."
"Budgetarily, we do not have the sufficient [cash] flow to be able to face this type of operations", he emphasised.
According to INC's financial statements, cement production reached a total volume of 487,419t during the year, with an average of 40,618t per month. The highest production peak was reached in July 2022 with 54,256t of cement. Clinker production reached a total volume of 446,737 tons in 2022.
