Peru's Unacem acquires US cement plant for US$300mn

Unacem, Peru’s largest cement company, has acquired a US plant for US$317mn, the company said in a market disclosure on Thursday. 

The Tehachapi plant in California has capacity of 1mn short tons a year of cement, 940,000 of clinker and recorded sales of US$114mn in 2022, according to Unacem.

The purchase was made via Skanon Investments, a subsidiary of the Peruvian company in the US. According to the statement sent to Peru’s securities regulator SMV, Unacem acquired 100% of the stake held by plant owner Martin Marietta Southern California Cement.

"The acquisition will double the current clinker and cement production capacity of the Unacem Group in the US, accessing one of the most important markets on the West Coast," the statement said. The funds for the acquisition will be obtained via bank financing, it added.

In addition to Peru and the US, Unacem has operations in Chile, Ecuador and Colombia. Unacem's US unit represented 16% of the group's revenues in 2022. In 1H23, the unit's cement production totaled 312,000t compared to 348,000t in the first half of 2022.

In mid-January, the group's electric power subsidiary Celepsa closed the purchase of the Termochilca generator for US$141mn.