In statements by representatives of the Socialist Corporation of Cement since 2019, the percentage of increase in production has been reported, but no details of each of the 10 plants are offered, how the installed capacity is or how much commercialization amounts to. According to data provided at the end of 2024, the volume reached 1.7 million annual metric tons, a quarter of what was produced 10 years ago
What is the volume of the annual cement production in Venezuela? No one knows, at least not the Venezuelan population. The opacity in many of the public figures on the activity of the different sectors of the economy are a mystery for more than a decade. At the end of 2024, Nicolás Maduro said that by 2025 “we will increase the production of 100% cement to build the housing of the town”, but without specifying the tons.
It is striking that in statements by representatives of the Socialist Cement Corporation since 2019, only the percentage of increase in production is reported, more no details of the volume produced are offered, how the installed capacity is nor how much marketing amounts. Nor has official information about whether the 10 state plants in the country have been operational.
Orlando Chirinos, president of the Federation of Cement Workers (Fetramento), warned in 2024 about the critical situation facing the cement industry in Venezuela, pointing out that cement production It had fallen to less than one million metric tons per year. In their statements issued in Radio Fe y Alegría NewsChirinos said that this panorama reflects the maximum stoppage in which the sector is located.
«There is no capacity to respond to the needs of the construction sector. Today we know that the construction system in the country is zero and completely paralyzed, ”he said.
The president of the fetramento attributed the crisis to the progressive deterioration of the productive and operational infrastructure, as well as the lack of investment, political will and the precarious employment situation of the workers.
In a transmission of the state channel VTV On January 21, an investment of 150 million dollars to be executed at the San Sebastián cement plant located in the Aragua state was reported. A representative of an international holding company that offered statements in the reporthe spoke of a current production of 1.7 million tons per year, and it was not clear if he referred to this plant or national production.
«We have found that the capacity of the cement plants in Venezuela is around 1.7 million annual metric tons and plan to increase that capacity and hope that our investment here can be made expedited and planned to invest 150 million dollars estimated in our bread Business, ”said the international investor that was reported belonging to an economic GPO of the BRICs.
If what this representatives is true is true, the current production of Venezuelan cement represents a quarter of what was produced in the country 10 years ago. But something true has as representatives of the Socialist Cement Corporation They affirmed the newspaper Last news that By the year 2024 the total volume would be increased to 1.5 million ton, So the increase to date has been quite moderate.
On the other hand, the secretary general of the CSC José Vale said in that report that in October 2023 there were 18,256 ton, «something that was not seen since 2018, thanks to the alternatives that have been followed to guarantee production in all the cement plants ». If that is so, by multiplying this same amount, which had been the best in a long time and if we inferred that this volume continued, for 12 months they add 219,072 ton in that year. Again, the accounts do not fit.
To remember
In 2015, for example, the installed capacity of the 10 cement companies, 9 of them state, was 11.9 million tons per year with a production of 6 million tons. At that time, there was already talk of a severe crisis of product scarcity. To expand that capacity, the execution of new projects that would raise the capacity of 11.9 to 14.9 million tons per year was agreed.
According to statements from official sources, to 2017 the export of cement was foreseen, as investments would be aimed at covering domestic demand and generating surpluses to export.
Data from the Ministry of Industry and Commerce published in 2016, it is observed that in 2010 the industry had a production of 7.4 million TON and an installed capacity of 10.9 million tons. In 2015 The figures refer to a production of a little more than 6 million ton and an increase in capacity to 11.9 million tons. For this year 2015, production represented 50.8% of the installed capacity, which for many was a “alarming” result, considering the needs of construction in the country and since this volume was the average of the capacity of a National Plant.
History is repeated
The Venezuelan cement industry has a trajectory of 118 years (1907-2025), comprising different stages from its implementation and growth, through an opening and transnationalization process (1989) and later because of its nationalization (2008).
In 1989 an opening and deregulation policy of the economy that included a privatization and openness process began to foreign capital. At that time the transnational companies Holcim, Lafarge and CEMEX bought the Venezuelan companies consolidated Cementos, National Cement Factory (FNC) and exploit.
In 1993, with an economic scenario of deep crisis and political instability, companies acquired by transnationals underwent patron changes. However, the cement companies did not interrupt their reason for being, as they remained executing activities aimed at cement production along with their technological modernization and the increase in productive efficiency, According to the CENDES in the study The Venezuelan cement industry: analysis of the socioproductive process.
The foreign administration of these industries remained until 2007, when in the management of Hugo Chávez, a policy of nationalization is adopted within the framework of the general lines of the 2007-2013 Nation Economic Development Plan, arguing that the Commercial policy of these companies privileged export on the domestic market.
Within this model, the cement industry is considered strategic for the country, which is why the State expropriated companies in the sector: Holcim, Lafarge and Cemex, in 2008, being under state management. Today there is the Venezuelan Cement Corporation that has 10 plants throughout the country, but of which it is unknown if all are operational and what is the production of each of them.
This is the result of the expropriations, statizations and opacity of the official data.
*Journalism in Venezuela is exercised in a hostile environment for the press with dozens of legal instruments arranged for the punishment of the word, especially the laws “against hatred”, “against fascism” and “against blockade.” This content is being published taking into account the threats and limits that, consequently, have been imposed on the dissemination of information from within the country.
Post views: 210
