90 years
building
the future

Our story begins on January 18, 1936, in the town of Votorantim, in the interior of the state of São Paulo, Brazil, with the start of operations at the Santa Helena cement plant. On that day, the plant’s kiln produced Votoran Cement for the first time. In that year, our average daily production was 250 tonnes. 

Brazil was undergoing a time of industrial growth, but the cement market was dominated by two foreign manufacturers. 

Expansion into Brazil’s Northeast. In March 1942, we inaugurated a cement plan in the town of Paulista, in the state of Pernambuco, Brazil, and introduced our second brand in the country, Poty Cement. The town of Paulista was chosen to house the new plant for strategic reasons, including economic factors such as the scarcity of cement in the region, the presence of high-quality deposits and the urbanization process, in addition to an emotional connection to that land: Senator José Ermírio de Moraes had been born nearby, in the town of Nazaré da Mata. Paulista was the first cement plant in the Brazilian Northeast, with the capacity to produce 6,800 tonnes of cement per year, contributing directly to the development of the state of Pernambuco and the Northeast region.

We acquired controlling interest in Companhia de Cimento Portland Itaú and established our leadership in the cement market in Brazil. The deal included cement plants in the towns of Itaperuçu, in the state of Paraná; Salvador, in the state of Bahia; Irajá, in the state of Rio de Janeiro; Nobres, in the state of Mato Grosso; Itaú de Minas, in the state of Minas Gerais; Sobradinho, in the Federal District; and Corumbá, in the state of Mato Grosso do Sul. This acquisition incorporated the brands Itaú Cement, Tocatins Cement and Cal Itaú into our portfolio. Other assets were also part of the deal, including the gypsum plant in Petrolina, in the state of Pernambuco; Brumadinho Mineração (mining), in the state of Rondônia; and the Itaú Fertilizer Company, in the state of São Paulo.

In that same year, we supplied 70% of the cement (equivalent to 35 million bags) used in the construction of the Itaipu Hydroelectric Power Plant in Paraná, Brazil, the largest hydroelectric plant in the world at the time.

We inaugurated a new cement plant in Yacuses, in the Santa Cruz department, Bolivia, in partnership with Itacamba Cemento.

We divested our assets in Chile and China and in the states of California and Florida in the United States. This strategic decision aimed at focusing our efforts on markets where we had a significant market share and positive prospects in the medium and long term.

In Brazil, we invested in mobile laboratories to bring our services to our customers.

We acquired the concrete company United Materials LLC. in the United States and expanded in San Luis, Argentina. We completed the divestment of assets in India and launched Verdera, our sustainable waste management and disposal businesses unit.

In Brazil, we acquired a mortar plant in Ananindeua, in the state of Pará, and inaugurated a mortar plant in Cuiabá, Mato Grosso.

We received an A score on Climate Change from CDP (Carbon Disclosure Project) in the 2018 disclosure cycle.

We assumed full control of our joint venture with Superior Materials in Detroit, Michigan (USA). We also acquired the aggregates company Valley View. These transactions expanded our existing concrete and aggregates businesses and boosted our operations to serve customers in the main cities of the Great Lakes Region.

In that same year, we began integrating McInnis Cement Inc., in Canada, into our North American operations.

We also acquired Cementos Balboa in Spain.

In Brazil, we started operations at a new production line at our cement plant in the Pecém Industrial and Port Complex, in the state of Ceará. This expansion increased the plant’s production capacity to approximately 1 million tonnes of cement per year.

We revised our culture and launched Our VC Way. We also introduced the VC 2030 Strategic House, which includes strategic drivers to guide our business through 2030.

We obtained Category A Registration as a publicly-held company with the Brazilian Securities and Exchange Commission (CVM) and became the first company in the country to market cements and concretes with EPD (Environmental Product Declaration) certification. 

We signed a US$150 million financing agreement with the International Finance Corporation (IFC) linked to sustainability indicators. The funds are being invested in the Salto de Pirapora plant, in the state of São Paulo, Brazil, to increase the rate of thermal substitution and reduce CO2 emissions. The project is scheduled to be completed in 2028. 

In Brazil, we launched a line of polymer mortars including the products Votomassa Impermax 1000 and Votomassa Impermax 7000. 

Cementos Artigas, a partnership between Votorantim Cimentos and the Spanish company Cementos Molins, started its new cement grinding and shipping operations in the city of Minas, Uruguay. 

We expanded our concrete operations in the United States with the acquisition of Best Concrete & Supply, in Michigan, and a stake in Grundy County Redi-Mix, in Illinois. 

In Spain, we started a carbon capture pilot project and integrated the Málaga plant into our Asia and Europe operations. 

We completed the sale of our assets in Morocco and Tunisia.

In the United States, we expanded our concrete and aggregates supply capacity in Illinois with the acquisition of Rogers Ready-Mix & Materials. In the same state, we further strengthened our concrete operations with the incorporation of Wester Sand & Gravel, in partnership with Grundy County Redi-Mix.

We developed a cement for highways that reduces the time required for the repair of road concrete slabs from five days to five hours, enabling traffic on the roads to resume quickly and safely. The solution was pioneered in Brazil on the Anchieta-Imigrantes Highway System, in the state of São Paulo.

We advanced the implementation of our R$5 billion investment plan for expansions, modernizations, logistics and new businesses in Brazil in the period between 2024 and 2028. As a result, we started operating a new cement mill at our Salto de Pirapora plant, in the state of São Paulo, Brazil, adding 1 million tonnes per year to the plant’s installed capacity.

As part of this plan, we also announced investments in the state of Mato Grosso, Brazil, with expansions and modernizations of our plants located in the towns of Nobres and Cuiabá. The Nobres plant will have a new cement grinding facility, which will increase the factory’s production capacity by 60%, from 750,000 tonnes to 1.2 million tonnes of cement per year.

The R$5 billion investment plan also included the expansion of our mortar plant in Cajamar, São Paulo, Brazil, with the start of operations at a new line dedicated to the production of bulk mortars.