Ponce Cement, Inc. was a cement and limestone manufacturer in Ponce, Puerto Rico. The company was located at the intersection of PR-123 and PR-500, in Barrio Magueyes. Retrieved 27 November 2009. It was founded in 1941National Register of Historic Places Registration Form: Edificio Empresas Ferre, a.k.a., Centros Isolina Ferre. Juan Llanes Santos, Historian. Puerto Rico State Historic Preservation Office. 19 June 2013. San Juan, Puerto Rico. National Register of Historic Places. ID # 13000638. Page 8. Retrieved 27 November 2013. by Antonio Ferré Bacallao, a Puerto Rican industrialist of Cuban origin.History. Retrieved 27 November 2009. In 1963, the company became the first Puerto Rican company to go public and be listed in the New York Stock Exchange.Guillermo A. Baralt. La Historia de El Nuevo Dia (1909-2000): "Al servicio de mi tierra". Page 569. Fundación El Nuevo Dia. San Juan, Puerto Rico. 2002. .

Ponce Cement was part of the Empresas Ferré enterprise from 1941 to 2002. In 1950, Empresas Ferré purchased another cement enterprise, the Puerto Rico Cement Company, then owned by the Government of Puerto Rico.National Register of Historic Places Registration Form: Edificio Empresas Ferre, a.k.a., Centros Isolina Ferre. Juan Llanes Santos, Historian. Puerto Rico State Historic Preservation Office. 19 June 2013. San Juan, Puerto Rico. National Register of Historic Places. ID # 13000638. Page 7. Retrieved 27 November 2013. In 2002, Ponce Cement, Inc., was sold to Cemex, a Mexican business concern that is both the world's largest building materials supplier and the third largest cement producer, of which Ponce Cement is now a subsidiary.Cemex acquires Puerto Rican Cement. 1 July 2002. Retrieved 27 November 2009. The plant continues to operate at the same location, and continues to sell its products to the Puerto Rico market, but with the change in ownership, the company is no longer named Ponce Cement, Inc.; it is now Cemex, Puerto Rico.CEMEX, Puerto Rico. Retrieved 27 November 2009. The new owners did keep the Cemento Ponce product label.Cemento Ponce. CEMEX. Retrieved 27 November 2009.

History

The municipality of Ponce was the perfect place to establish a cement plant, as the type of soil needed for cement production is abundant in the region.Mariano Vidal Armstrong. Ponce: Notas para su Historia. San Juan, Puerto Rico. Segunda Edición. 1986. p. 88.Puerto Rico Minerals Map 1999. PR Dept of Natural Resources, and USGS. 1999. Retrieved 27 November 2009. After founding the Puerto Rico Iron Works, and the El Dia newspaper, Empresas Ferré entered the construction business with Ponce Cement, Inc., and subsequently with Puerto Rican Cement, Inc.Caribbean Business: Puerto Rico Grieves Over The Loss Of Its Premier Statesman Four Months Short Of His 100th Birthday, Luis A. Ferre Aguayo (1904-2003). By Marialba Martinez. Puerto Rico Herald. 30 October 2003 Retrieved 27 November 2009.Carola Borja, Diana Dimitrova, Catherine Izard, and Rita Lohani. The Cement and Concrete Industry in Puerto Rico: An Industry Overview and Analysis. Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies: Applying Industrial Ecology Tools to Island Economies. (Course: Industrial Ecology, FES 501. Spring 2006 Group Project.) 9 May 2006.

Over the 1940s, the company enlarged and Luis A. Ferré became its chief engineer. By 1960, the company had become the leading cement supplier on the island, much of it the result of increasing new highway and housing construction projects spreading throughout the Island.

Approvals On February 23, 1989, the Ponce Cement plant received approval for conversion from a wet to a dry manufacturing process, which allowed it to almost double its output. As of year 2000, cement was Puerto Rico's leading nonfuel mineral commodity.

See also

Ponce Limestone Luis A. Ferré Ponce, Puerto Rico

References

Further reading Fay Fowlie de Flores. Ponce, Perla del Sur: Una Bibliografía Anotada. Second Edition. 1997. Ponce, Puerto Rico: Universidad de Puerto Rico en Ponce. p. 66. Item 337. "Expansion y Modernización de la Puerto Rican Cement Company, Inc." Urbe. Volume/Year 25 (Octubre-Noviembre 1967) pp. 28-31. (University of Puerto Rico, School of Architecture Library). Fay Fowlie de Flores. Ponce, Perla del Sur: Una Bibliografía Anotada. Second Edition. 1997. Ponce, Puerto Rico: Universidad de Puerto Rico en Ponce. p. 63. Item 321. "Cemento...bombones...pañolones de seda." Fomento de Puerto Rico. Volume/Year 1 (January 1952) pp. 20-24. (CUTPO; UPR). Fay Fowlie de Flores. Ponce, Perla del Sur: Una Bibliografía Anotada. Second Edition. 1997. Ponce, Puerto Rico: Universidad de Puerto Rico en Ponce. p. 70. Item 372. "Puerto Rican Cement: cuatro décadas de aportaciones." Comercio y Producción. Volume/Year 20 (July-August 1980) p. 22. (Colegio Universitario de Cayey; Recinto Universitario de Mayaguez). Fay Fowlie de Flores. Ponce, Perla del Sur: Una Bibliografía Anotada. Second Edition. 1997. Ponce, Puerto Rico: Universidad de Puerto Rico en Ponce. p. 82. Item 438. Luis A. Ferre. "El cemento." Puerto Rico. pp. 335-342. Barranquilla, Colombia: s.n., 1949. (Colección America, vol 10.) (CUTPO).

External links Geologic map of the Ponce Quadrangle. R.D. Krushensky and W.H. Monroe. IMAP 863. U.S. Department of The Interior. United States Geological Survey. 1971. Accessed 6 December 2018.