Caribbean Cement Company Limited

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What it is

Caribbean Cement is a Jamaica-based building-materials company engaged in the manufacture and sale of cement, clinker, and the mining of gypsum, shale, and pozzolan. It supplies cement to more than 90 per cent of building and civil construction in Jamaica — making it, effectively, the island’s sole cement infrastructure.

It makes two main products: Carib Cement Plus, a general-purpose Portland cement in bags and bulk, and Carib Cement HE (High-Early), a faster-setting formulation available in jumbo bags and bulk tankers. A subsidiary, Rockfort Mineral Bath Complex Limited, operates a national-heritage mineral spa on the same site.

Who owns it

Caribbean Cement opened in Jamaica in 1952; after several ownership changes, it is today owned by Trinidad Cement Limited (TCL). TCL acquired a 74.1% shareholding in 1999.

Sierra Trading, a subsidiary of the Mexican cement giant CEMEX, holds approximately 69.8% of TCL itself — meaning CEMEX is the ultimate controller, sitting two layers above Caribbean Cement’s roughly quarter-free-float on the JSE. TCL also owns seven other cement companies in Trinidad, Barbados, Anguilla, and Guyana.

Who runs it

Jorge Alejandro Martinez Mora has been Managing Director of Caribbean Cement since December 1, 2023. Parris A.

Lyew-Ayee CD serves as Chairman of the Board of Directors, and Hollis N. Hosein chairs the Board Audit Committee.

A Chief Financial Officer is not disclosed in available sources. The company’s first chairman was the Canadian-British industrialist Sir William Stephenson — known by the wartime codename “Intrepid” — who served for nearly 20 years.

The money, in plain words

Caribbean Cement earned a net profit of JMD 5.9bn (US$38m) for its December 2024 year-end — a 6.7% increase year-on-year — even after Hurricane Beryl disrupted production in the second half, with revenues rising 2.3% to JMD 27.9bn (US$178m). It keeps about 21 cents of profit from every Jamaican dollar of sales — a net profit margin of 21.3% (our calculation) — solid for a single-factory industrial company.

The gross profit margin also improved slightly, climbing to 41.5% from 40.8% in 2023 — meaning raw production has become more efficient even as weather cost it output. The company ended 2024 with JMD 8.5bn (US$54m, our calculation) in cash and equivalents, double the prior year’s level.

What it is doing now

On June 26, 2025, Caribbean Cement officially commissioned its JMD 6.7bn (US$42m) Debottleneck Project at the Rockfort facility — its largest single investment in recent history. Managing Director Jorge Martinez reported that one month in, daily production had already exceeded expectations, with the upgrade targeting a rise in production capacity from 1 million to 1.3 million tonnes per year.

Caribbean Cement has already exported 3,000 tonnes of cement to Curaçao following the project’s completion, with Martinez saying the shipment demonstrated the company’s ability to serve both domestic and regional markets. In the first quarter of 2025, revenue hit JMD 8.2bn (vs JMD 7.6bn a year earlier) and operating earnings rose from JMD 7.8bn to JMD 9.3bn, with quarterly net profit improving to JMD 1.99bn.

What to watch

• Export momentum: The company plans to export 28,000 tonnes to Caribbean markets starting August 2025, subject to demand — a first, and a new revenue stream outside Jamaica.
• Demand pipeline: Management is counting on hotel investments along Jamaica’s north coast, with the government projecting hotel room count to grow from 32,000 to 50,000 within five years.
• Earnings vs. share price gap: Over the past three years, earnings per share have grown at 15% per year while the share price has fallen 11% per year — a divergence that either reflects a valuation opportunity or signals that investors see risks the income statement does not yet show.
• CEMEX parent strategy: CEMEX controls the company through two layers of ownership; any shift in the parent’s capital-allocation priorities — or a delisting push, which it floated in 2016 — would move directly through to minority JSE holders.

This is news, not investment advice.