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. Loma Negra is currently a

subsidiary A subsidiary, subsidiary company, or daughter company is a company (law), company completely or partially owned or controlled by another company, called the parent company or holding company, which has legal and financial control over the subsidia ...

of InterCement Participações, a company of the Brazilian conglomerate Mover Participações, which acquired it for

USD The United States dollar (symbol: $; currency code: USD) is the official currency of the United States and several other countries. The Coinage Act of 1792 introduced the U.S. dollar at par with the Spanish silver dollar, divided it int ...

1,000 million.

History

The 1926 discovery of large

limestone Limestone is a type of carbonate rock, carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material Lime (material), lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different Polymorphism (materials science) ...

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 Quechua 'plain'), also known as the Pampas 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 o ...

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 Mountain Range (; ) are the List of longest mountain chains on Earth, longest continental mountain range in the world, forming a continuous highland along the western edge of South America. The range ...

-range cities of

San Juan San Juan, Spanish for Saint John (disambiguation), Saint John, most commonly refers to: * San Juan, Puerto Rico * San Juan, Argentina * San Juan, Metro Manila, a highly urbanized city in the Philippines San Juan may also refer to: Places Arge ...

and Zapala, 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 (masonry), mortar, stucco, and non-specialty grout. It was developed from other types of hydraulic lime in England in th ...

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, 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 railway line and a chief competitor, ''Cementos San Martín S.A.'', in 1992; that year Fortabat inaugurated the group's new headquarters in

downtown ''Downtown'' is a term primarily used in American and Canadian English to refer to a city's sometimes commercial, cultural and often the historical, political, and geographic heart. It is often synonymous with its central business district ( ...

Buenos Aires. The company diversified into the

recycling industry Recycling is the process of converting waste materials into new materials and objects. This concept often includes the recovery of energy from waste materials. The recyclability of a material depends on its ability to reacquire the propert ...

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 aggregate bound together with a fluid cement that cures to a solid over time. It is the second-most-used substance (after water), the most–widely used building material, and the most-manufactur ...

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

. 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, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

ian conglomerate Camargo Corrêa in May 2005, for just over US$1 billion.''Clarín''
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, 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, Nuevo León, Mexico. It manufactures and distributes cement, ready-mix concrete and aggregates in more than ...

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
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References

External links

* {{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 Companies in the MERVAL Mover Participações