Unacem Executives Bullish On Their Americas Market Positions.
By Don Marsh
Executives of Peru’s Unacem Corp. took center stage at the 2026 IEEE-IAS/ACA Cement Conference, outlining priorities for their U.S. charter business, Scottsdale, Ariz.-based Drake Cement, and sister properties in Arizona, Nevada and California. The latter is home to the Tehachapi cement plant acquired in 2023 from Martin Marietta Materials.
U.S. sites are under the Unacem North America banner and fit a Pacific Coast alignment of the parent company portfolio. It includes flagship Peru cement and ready mixed concrete properties, plus Ecuador and Chile satellite businesses, and manufactured concrete production in Colombia. The cement plant fleet spans 12.5 million metric tons (Mt) of annual capacity, of which the Drake and Tehachapi mills account for 15%, or 1.9 Mt.
Panel Perspectives
Unacem executives anchored “Two Markets, One Industry: Global Leadership Perspectives in Cement.” The panel session was staged at the Broward County Convention Center in Fort Lauderdale, host venue of the late-April IEEE-IAS/ACA gathering.
Unacem Corp. Global CEO Pedro Lerner opened the discussion, noting the company’s plan to observe 20 years in the United States. The milestone stems from the acquisition of Drake Cement in 2007 – then an entity permitting a 750,000-tpy greenfield plant in Paulden, Ariz.
Since the 2011 start of production at the site, Unacem North America has bolted on Desert Ready Mix concrete and aggregate properties in Arizona and Nevada, leading into the Tehachapi cement plant transaction. More recently, it has increased Drake Cement grinding capacity by 300,000 tons with a new vertical mill geared to finishing natural pozzolan from a company-owned, northern Arizona deposit.
Drake Cement has launched the natural pozzolan as a supplementary cementitious material to augment or replace fly ash, the supply of which has been hampered in West Coast markets with the retirement of key coal-fired power generating stations.
The product is gaining traction among ready mixed producer accounts, consistent with a broader “rediscovery” of natural pozzolans after a 50-year lull in demand from West Coast concrete practitioners.
Longer term, the Arizona mill is positioned to finish and promote an ASTM C595 Type IP cement. That offering would parallel Unacem operations serving markets in Ecuador and Chile, where natural pozzolan content reaches up to 30% in widely approved blended binders.
Culture + Carbon
Unacem North America CEO Rafael Villalona told IEEE-IAS/ACA Cement Conference attendees that 2026 is emerging as an inflection point, a final year of flat or declining volume in Nevada and California markets.
The prospect for lower interest rates and action on housing shortages bodes well for those markets, while Arizona – more stable in recent years – sees favorable material demand tied to data center developments and construction supporting strong copper mining activity.
Villalona emphasized present investment in building a culture throughout the Arizona, Nevada and California cement, concrete and aggregate sites. “Our priority is human capital and making sure we are the safest operator in the industry.” A focus on “hiring to retire,” he added, drives management to look for ways to make cement and concrete workplaces attractive to recruits.
Across North American and South American business units, Unacem is responding to market and investor calls for lower carbon factors in delivered materials. Aligning with American Cement Association and Global Cement and Concrete Association targets, the producer aims for carbon-neutral operations by 2050. The first step is attainment of a 2030 goal where carbon dioxide emissions or CO2 equivalent emissions fall below 500 kg per metric ton of cementitious material shipped.
“We need to find ways of decarbonizing that are profitable,” affirmed Pedro Lerner, adding that natural pozzolan production and promotion represent low-hanging fruit in the CO2 emissions reduction quest.
In contrast to the widely held benchmark attributing 7% to 8% of global CO2 emissions to cement production, Villalona observed, Unacem North America and peers account for 2% of the CO2 released into the atmosphere from the United States. “We believe we can cut that level in half using SCM,” he said. “There are clear levers we can pull now to lower emissions.”
As to CO2 captureoptions toward carbon neutrality targets, he added, the company is not confident in current methods and questions their feasibility due to equipment demands on a strained power grid.
Between carbon reduction efforts and culture building, Villalona and his colleagues see 2026 as a year “To invest in people and the right projects to give the right returns. To stay ahead of the curve for responding to market mandates and regulations. This is a time to pause, think, rethink, rewrite the script if needed, and be flexible in terms of adapting,” he concluded.
