Loma Negra Companía Industrial Argentina S.A. is an Argentine manufacturer and the country's leading maker of cement, concrete, and lime. The company, established by businessman
Alfredo Fortabat, also founded its own
sports club
A sports club or sporting club, sometimes an athletics club or sports society or sports association, is a group of people formed for the purpose of playing sports.
Sports clubs range from organisations whose members play together, unpaid, and ...
,
C.S.yD. Loma Negra three years later. After the passing of Alfredo Fortabat, his wife
Amalia Lacroze took over the business.
History
The 1926 discovery of large
limestone
Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...
deposits by
Alfredo Fortabat at his San Jacinto Estancia led to his decision to open a cement factory in the nearby
pampas
The Pampas (from the qu, pampa, meaning "plain") are fertile South American low grasslands that cover more than and include the Argentine provinces of Buenos Aires, La Pampa, Santa Fe, Entre Ríos, and Córdoba; all of Uruguay; and Brazi ...
hamlet of Loma Negra (south of
Olavarría); the choice of location prompted Fortabat to christen his new venture ''Loma Negra'' (''"Black Hillock"''). The cement plant was built in 1927, and by the early 1950s, this facility and one in nearby Barker produced 500,000 tons of cement annually.
[Loma Negra: historia ]
New facilities in the
Andes
The Andes, Andes Mountains or Andean Mountains (; ) are the longest continental mountain range in the world, forming a continuous highland along the western edge of South America. The range is long, wide (widest between 18°S – 20°S ...
-range cities of
San Juan and
Zapala
Zapala is a city and touristic destination in the Patagonian province of Neuquén, Argentina with about 32,000 inhabitants according to the .
The city is located at the geographic center of the province at the confluence of national and provincia ...
, opened during the 1960s, made Loma Negra the leader in cement and concrete production in Argentina; in the 1980s, the company opened its first
Portland cement
Portland cement is the most common type of cement in general use around the world as a basic ingredient of concrete, mortar, stucco, and non-specialty grout. It was developed from other types of hydraulic lime in England in the early 19th ...
facility (in another Andes-range city,
Catamarca).
[
Loma Negra lost its founder, Alfredo Fortabat, in 1976, following which his widow, ]María Amalia Lacroze de Fortabat
María Amalia Lacroze de Fortabat (August 15, 1921 – February 18, 2012) was an Argentine executive and philanthropist.
Life and times
María Amalia Sara Lacroze Reyes de Fortabat Pourtal was born in 1921 to Amalia Reyes and Daniel Lacro ...
, became the company's majority stakeholder, President and Chairperson. Loma Negra enhanced its market leadership position in its industry locally by acquiring the newly privatized Ferrosur Roca
Ferrosur Roca S.A. (FR) is a private company which operates freight services over part of the broad gauge that belongs to General Roca Railway.
Some of the products transported by Ferrosur Roca include salt, clincker, plaster, cement, lime, ...
railway line and a chief competitor, ''Cementos San Martín S.A.'', in 1992; that year Fortabat inaugurated the group's new headquarters in downtown Buenos Aires.[
The company diversified into the ]recycling industry
Recycling is the process of converting waste materials into new materials and objects. The recovery of energy from waste materials is often included in this concept. The recyclability of a material depends on its ability to reacquire the p ...
in 1995 by launching ''Recycomb'', whose plant was built in Cañuelas (west of Buenos Aires). The acquisition of five concrete
Concrete is a composite material composed of fine and coarse aggregate bonded together with a fluid cement (cement paste) that hardens (cures) over time. Concrete is the second-most-used substance in the world after water, and is the most wid ...
producers in 1998-99 made Loma Negra the national leader in that construction staple, as well, and a plant opened in 2001 gave it a 1.6 million-ton production capacity of clinker for Portland cement
Portland cement is the most common type of cement in general use around the world as a basic ingredient of concrete, mortar, stucco, and non-specialty grout. It was developed from other types of hydraulic lime in England in the early 19th ...
. The Loma Negra Technical Center, opened in March 1999, is the only one of its type in Latin America.[
Debts of US$270 million incurred largely during the economic crisis around 2001 and Mrs. Fortabat's own, advanced age prompted the ''grande dame'' of Argentine industry to sell her 80% stake in Loma Negra, however. The company was thus transferred to ]Brazil
Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...
ian conglomerate Camargo Corrêa in May 2005, for just over US$1 billion.[''Clarín'' ]
/ref>
Loma Negra, at the time, accounted for half of the 6 million tons of cement produced nationwide. Following a period of rapid growth in the Argentine economy
The economy of Argentina is the second-largest national economy in South America, behind Brazil. Argentina is a developing country with a highly literate population, an export-oriented agricultural sector, and a diversified industrial base.
...
, nearly 10 million tons of cement were produced in Argentina annually in 2007-08 - of which Loma Negra retained a 48% market share; in 2008, Mexican cement giant Cemex
CEMEX S.A.B. de C.V., known as Cemex, is a Mexican multinational building materials company headquartered in San Pedro, near Monterrey, Mexico. It manufactures and distributes cement, ready-mix concrete and aggregates in more than 50 countries ...
expressed interest in acquiring a majority stake in Loma Negra.
Despite a modest decline in local construction activity since 2008 as a result of global financial instability, a US$235 million, five-year program to expand capacity by 20% was announced in November.''BusinessWeek'': Loma Negra
/ref>
References
External links
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{{MERVAL companies
Cement companies of Argentina
Argentine companies established in 1926
Manufacturing companies based in Buenos Aires
Manufacturing companies established in 1926
Argentine brands
Companies listed on the Buenos Aires Stock Exchange
Companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange
Argentine subsidiaries of foreign companies