Driven by increased domestic demand and consumption of cement products, Yura Cements – owned and operated by the Peruvian Gloria Group – will push ahead with its 7-year, $500 million investment project for its operations in Peru.
The Gloria Group, a conglomerate of Peruvian capitals geared toward the food sector, cement, pharmaceuticals, cardboard containers as well as transport and customs sectors, plans to invest $500 million by 2016 to construct a new cement production plant, purchase new material and double its annual production capacity from 2 to 4 million tons of cement. Increasing exports to Peru’s neighbor, Brazil, is also a primary objective.
Though cement sales have dropped from 625,019 to 559,968 tons since last October, demand shot back up by 6.6 percent in January 2009, reported the Peruvian Association of Cement Producers, or Asocem.
And, according to Peru’s National Statistics Institute, or INEI, cement production – funneled mainly into Peru’s still booming construction sector – steadily increased by 16.46 percent in 2008.
In 2008, per capita consumption of cement in Peru rose to 254 kilograms, a 58 percent increase since 2006.
