While the sales process Black Hill is still going, the cement company owned by the Brazilian group InterCement obtained a new extension of the Ferrosur Roca railway concession until September 10, 2025.
This is the second extension achieved by the Olavarría company since the expiration of the main term of the 30-year concession that it had obtained in 1993, during the government of Carlos Menem.
The branch has an extension of 3,180 kilometers of tracks that cross through the central region of the province of Buenos Aires and continues through Neuquén and Río Negro. The freight train transports stones and other inputs for cement production in Olavarría, and supplies the Loma Negra factory in Zapala
The previous extension had been signed in January 2023, when Loma Negra managed to extend the freight train concession for 18 months, which expired last September.
Now, in a communication sent to the National Securities Commission, Loma Negra reported that by Resolution 991 of the Ministry of Economy, “the continuity of the concession contract approved by Decree No. 2681 dated December 29, 1992 was ordered. with its amendments and supplements, until September 10, 2025. The Resolution provides that the services that Ferrosur must provide under the Contract may be revoked at any time.”
A key railroad for the sale of the Loma Negra operation
The Ferrosur Roca concession is a business unit that appears among the assets of Loma Negra and is of key importance for its production since it links its main plants.
But from a business point of view suffers the same problems than the rest of the cement activity, affected by the drop in demand due to the cessation of public works and the economic crisis.
In the middle of last month, InterCement Participações, indirect controlling shareholder of the Loma Negra cement company in Argentina, agreed to a new exclusivity term for the benefit of Companhia Siderúrgica Nacional (CSN) to continue negotiating the acquisition of 100% of its share package until November 16.
The transfer of assets between two powerful Brazilian cement groups includes – in addition to the properties in Brazil – Loma Negra and all its assets in Argentina.
The Ferrosur concession is one more attraction for those interested in staying with the former Fortabat family company, which has been presenting depressed operating results in line with the adverse context that Argentina is experiencing, although with expectations of recovery for the second half of this year, as anticipated by its CEO, Sergio Faifman.
CSN has the way practically raided to stay with InterCement. It is also the second cement group in Brazil, with 21% of the market. The first is the Votorantim group, with 35%. And the third is Intercement, with 14% of that market.
Among the companies that at some point were rumored in Brazil to be interested in InterCement’s assets are the Italian company Buzzi Unicem, the Polimix group, owner of Cimento Mizu, and two Chinese companies. One is Sinoma and the other is Huaxin Cement, which took over InterCement’s assets in Africa last year.
Source: Ambito
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