Votorantim, the Brazilian industrial group, is restructuring Votorantim Cimentos (VC), its cement business. The group has appointed the engineer Walter Schalka as the new chairman of its cement division. Mr. Schalka, who comes from Dixie Toga, will replace Luiz Vilar de Carvalho on the 1st November 2005. Mr. Carvalho will remain in the company’s board of directors. One of the new chairman’s challenges will be the strengthening of the company’s internationalisation process, in which the company has already invested more than US$1.3bil in acquisitions of cement and concrete plants and distribution systems in the US and Canada since 2001. The cement division accounts for more than one fourth of the group’s consolidated turnover. VC ended 2004 with a net turnover of nearly R$5bn. VC now apparently leads the cement business in the Great Lakes region of the US with a 30 per cent market share. The company has six plants in the region, including one in Canada. It also has a 50/50 joint venture in Florida.  
  Published under Cement News