Ponce Cement, Inc. was a

cement A cement is a binder, a chemical substance used for construction that sets, hardens, and adheres to other materials to bind them together. Cement is seldom used on its own, but rather to bind sand and gravel ( aggregate) together. Cement mi ...

and limestone manufacturer in

Ponce, Puerto Rico Ponce ( , , ) is a city and a Municipalities of Puerto Rico, municipality on the southern coast of Puerto Rico. The most populated city outside the San Juan, Puerto Rico, San Juan metropolitan area, Ponce was founded on August 12, 1692Some publ ...

. The company was located at the intersection of PR-123 and PR-500, in

Barrio ''Barrio'' () is a Spanish language, Spanish word that means "Quarter (urban subdivision), quarter" or "neighborhood". In the modern Spanish language, it is generally defined as each area of a city delimited by functional (e.g. residential, comm ...

Magueyes. It was founded in 1941 by Antonio Ferré Bacallao, a Puerto Rican industrialist of Cuban origin. In 1963, the company became the first Puerto Rican company to go public and be listed in the

New York Stock Exchange The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE, nicknamed "The Big Board") is an American stock exchange in the Financial District, Manhattan, Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It is the List of stock exchanges, largest stock excha ...

. Ponce Cement was part of the ''Empresas Ferré'' enterprise from 1941 to 2002. In 1950, Empresas Ferré purchased another cement enterprise, the Puerto Rico Cement Company, then owned by the Government of Puerto Rico. In 2002, Ponce Cement, Inc., was sold to

Cemex CEMEX S.A.B. de C.V., known as Cemex, is a Mexican multinational building materials company headquartered in San Pedro, near Monterrey, Nuevo León, Mexico. It manufactures and distributes cement, ready-mix concrete and aggregates in more than ...

, a Mexican business concern that is both the world's largest building materials supplier and the third largest cement producer, of which Ponce Cement is now a subsidiary. The plant continues to operate at the same location, and continues to sell its products to the Puerto Rico market, but with the change in ownership, the company is no longer named ''Ponce Cement, Inc.''; it is now ''Cemex, Puerto Rico''. The new owners did keep the ''Cemento Ponce'' product label.

History

The municipality of Ponce was the perfect place to establish a cement plant, as the type of soil needed for cement production is abundant in the region. After founding the Puerto Rico Iron Works, and the El Dia newspaper, Empresas Ferré entered the construction business with Ponce Cement, Inc., and subsequently with Puerto Rican Cement, Inc.''Caribbean Business: Puerto Rico Grieves Over The Loss Of Its Premier Statesman Four Months Short Of His 100th Birthday, Luis A. Ferre Aguayo (1904-2003).'' By Marialba Martinez. Puerto Rico Herald. 30 October 2003
Retrieved 27 November 2009. Over the 1940s, the company enlarged and Luis A. Ferré became its chief engineer. By 1960, the company had become the leading cement supplier on the island, much of it the result of increasing new highway and housing construction projects spreading throughout the Island.

Approvals

On February 23, 1989, the Ponce Cement plant received approval for conversion from a wet to a dry manufacturing process, which allowed it to almost double its output. As of year 2000, cement was Puerto Rico's leading nonfuel mineral commodity.

References

* Fay Fowlie de Flores. ''Ponce, Perla del Sur: Una Bibliografía Anotada.'' Second Edition. 1997. Ponce, Puerto Rico: Universidad de Puerto Rico en Ponce. p. 66. Item 337. * "Expansion y Modernización de la Puerto Rican Cement Company, Inc." ''Urbe.'' Volume/Year 25 (Octubre-Noviembre 1967) pp. 28-31. (University of Puerto Rico, School of Architecture Library). * Fay Fowlie de Flores. ''Ponce, Perla del Sur: Una Bibliografía Anotada.'' Second Edition. 1997. Ponce, Puerto Rico: Universidad de Puerto Rico en Ponce. p. 63. Item 321. * "Cemento...bombones...pañolones de seda." ''Fomento de Puerto Rico.'' Volume/Year 1 (January 1952) pp. 20-24. (CUTPO; UPR). * Fay Fowlie de Flores. ''Ponce, Perla del Sur: Una Bibliografía Anotada.'' Second Edition. 1997. Ponce, Puerto Rico: Universidad de Puerto Rico en Ponce. p. 70. Item 372. * "Puerto Rican Cement: cuatro décadas de aportaciones." ''Comercio y Producción.'' Volume/Year 20 (July-August 1980) p. 22. (Colegio Universitario de Cayey; Recinto Universitario de Mayaguez). * Fay Fowlie de Flores. ''Ponce, Perla del Sur: Una Bibliografía Anotada.'' Second Edition. 1997. Ponce, Puerto Rico: Universidad de Puerto Rico en Ponce. p. 82. Item 438. * Luis A. Ferre. "El cemento." ''Puerto Rico.'' pp. 335-342. Barranquilla, Colombia: s.n., 1949. (Colección America, vol 10.) (CUTPO).

External links

''Geologic map of the Ponce Quadrangle.''
R.D. Krushensky and W.H. Monroe. IMAP 863. U.S. Department of The Interior. United States Geological Survey. 1971. Accessed 6 December 2018. {{DEFAULTSORT:Ponce Cement Cement companies Companies based in Ponce, Puerto Rico Cement companies of Puerto Rico 1941 establishments in Puerto Rico Barrio Magueyes Urbano Limestone industry Manufacturing companies established in 1941 2002 mergers and acquisitions

History

Approvals

See also

References

Further reading

External links