It would seem that Guyana is not the only country in the region that has issues with used tyres, even though in one other CARICOM country a company is seeking to respond to the problem by turning its piles of tyres into something useful…cement.
The Caribbean Cement Company has just announced that among its 2019 US$9 million capital projects will be an investment in an initiative that seeks to convert old tyres from waste to cement.
The Jamaica Gleaner recently reported the cement company as saying that among its 35 projects planned for the current financial year, is one which it says was pitched by the entity’s outgoing General Manager, Peter Donkersloot Ponce. It seems that the idea has arisen not as a money-making venture, but as one meant to make a positive contribution to the environment by making constructive use of the otherwise useless and potentially environmentally hazardous used tyres.
The project seeks to target the elimination of the large volumes of tyres and gives itself four years in which to do so.
Caribbean Cement is owned by the Mexican company CEMEX, which the Gleaner quotes as saying that it will make public, further details of the venture once an agreement is signed with the Jamaican Government. So far, Caribbean Cement has reportedly invested US$500,000 to adjust its facilities to enable accommodation of the used tyres.
“Over three years, Caribbean Cement’s capital expenditure budget is estimated at JM$2.9 billion. Over the short term, the company plans to put aside JM$2.6 billion to have cash available for “strategic investments,” the Gleaner writes.
One of the projects undertaken by the company this year was a US$69 million investment in a palletiser robot; a machine that moves bagged cement on to pallets in rapid succession.
The Gleaner says that most of Caribbean Cement’s investments are now focussed on increasing its output to better serve the needs of “a widening market” that is demanding increasing volumes of cement. The company is currently targeting production of 1.2 million tonnes of cement by December 2020, or about one-third higher than its current annual production of about 950,000 tonnes, according to the Gleaner Report.
Caribbean Cement is also reportedly set to spend around US$60 million over ten years refurbishing Jamaica’s 100-odd year-old Rockford Mineral Baths, situated on the outskirts of Kingston on the road to the airport. Its waters are said to have a therapeutic effect and the aim of the investment, the Gleaner says, is to transform the facility into a world attraction.
Having reportedly accumulated losses totaling JM$7.3 billion in 2014 the company is believed to have reduced those losses to around JM$1 billion last year. During this year, the company reportedly cleared all of its accumulated losses.
