The Siguaney cement factory, located in the municipality of Taguasco, in Sancti Spíritus, restarted its production this week after being paralyzed for seven months. The repair of his kiln with imported refractory bricks aspires to allow a greater availability of cement in the province and open up new possibilities for national supply and export.
The director of Siguaney, Gonzalo Reina Aguilar, regretted that manufacturing was limited and that they had to interrupt it several times in recent years. In his opinion, the importation of bricks to condition the kiln will be the guarantee for optimal operation of the facilities in the future.
During the short period since it started working, Siguaney has already manufactured 1,000 metric tons of clinker, the main component of Portland cement. According to what his director said to the official newspaper Escambraythe company has not been affected in recent days by power cuts, which would have made proper cement processing impossible, but has enjoyed the “necessary electricity allowances” essential to not stop production once again.
In addition, Reina Aguilar specified, 500 tons of gray cement have been produced, considered a “deficit material”, which is already sold in various establishments in Sancti Spíritu and Ciego de Ávila.
The Siguaney factory has been the subject of numerous reports in the official press, who have had to tone down triumphalism and point out the precariousness of the facilities. Last August, another note from Escambray He described that “so much smoke” no longer came out of Siguaney’s chimneys. Victim of the “unfathomable shortage of inputs”, the cement industry was at a critical point and heralded “long stops” in production in the coming months.
At that time, the director Reina Aguilar himself was optimistic about the manufacture of blocks and advanced a “plan aimed at the production of hexagonal slabs and pavers”
Fifty years of exploration, since 1971, had exhausted the cement kilns despite the fact that Saúl Rodríguez, its technical director, who had denounced the “technological obsolescence” of Siguaney’s “old machines”, risked affirming that “they still hold on”.
At that time, the director Reina Aguilar himself was optimistic about the manufacture of blocks and advanced a “plan aimed at the production of hexagonal slabs and paving stones”.
Earlier, at the end of 2021, Reina Aguilar spoke of a “depressed production” –of the usual 1.5 million tons not a million had been produced that year– and announced that this meager amount would have to be sold in freely convertible currency ( MLC). “We have received the indication to sell a lot of cement in MLC and, although it seems contradictory, it is a good deal for the country,” she acknowledged.
“The country decided not to export and now some 3,000 tons are sold in those stores, but it is what the country needs, which does win, because what is built stays in Cuba.” As for the oven, on which the factory now pins its hopes of increasing production, Saúl Rodríguez told the official press that it reached 2022 “propped up” for the next three months, although in practice it lasted a while longer. “Repairs have been made and some advances have been made that have maintained it, but the life of a basic brick area is no more than a year. (…) Every year the basic refractory element must be replaced and that is around 300,000 euros” .
Despite increasing emigration, cement continues to be one of the most sought after materials by the Cuban population. Not only the construction but also the repair of homes is impossible on the Island. During 2022 the prices of materials have increased significantly.
Some increases, as the economist Pedro Monreal has pointed out, are greater than 50%. The rises reach very high levels, as in the case of the 55-gallon concrete tank, which by April had grown by 368% compared to 2021, the 40×40 cm tile, which rose by 300%, the concrete blocks by 66% and a small sink, more than 41%.
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