Bolivia: Soboce and Fancesa dominate 95% of domestic market
Fábrica Nacional de Cemento SA (Fancesa) and Sociedad Boliviana de Cemento (Soboce) control 95 per cent of the market in seven departments, according to the director of the AEMP.
La Fábrica Nacional de Cemento SA (Fancesa) and the Sociedad Boliviana de Cemento (Soboce) account for 95 per cent of the cement market in at least seven of the country’s departments, said the Authority’s Executive Director of the Fiscalisation and Control of Companies Authority (AEMP), Óscar Cámara, yesterday.
"Fancesa and Soboce dominate the cement market in a good part of the (cement) market. In six or seven departments they have up to 95% of control," the authority said on the phone with this newspaper.
Soboce is one of the largest companies in the cement production in the country. Its is linked to the Warnes plant in the department of Santa Cruz, and Emisa, which is present in the departments of Oruro and Cochabamba.
In addition to El Puente, whose products can be found in Tarija and Chuquisaca, and La Paz Viacha Cement plant.
Outside the cement industry, Soboce is also associated with Soboce Ready Mix as far as reinforced concrete is concerned, according to the Wikipedia website.
Meanwhile, Fancesa, which became the first national cement company in the 80s, has its headquarters in Sucre (Chuquisaca). In the ’50s was handled by a limited company formed between the Universidad Mayor de San Francisco Xavier, Sucre Municipality and the Bolivian Development Corporation under the name "Fabrica Nacional de Cemento SA.
According to the company portal (/ www.fancesa.com/), in September 1999, the Prefecture of Chuquisaca decided to transfer the ownership rights of the company to Soboce.
Domination and prices
According to the director of the AEMP, the domination of the cement market by some enterprises gives rise to these companies setting the price of the product. According to data from the National Statistics Institute (INE), in the period 2003-2009 the increase in the price of Portland cement in 50kg bags constituted a rise between BOB7-32.
In the city of Cobija (Pando), where the strongest increase of Portland cement was registered, prices increased from BOB53 in 2003 to BOB85 in December 2009.
In the city of Trinidad (Beni), cement prices registered an increase of BOB18, as the price of the product bag went from BOB43 to BOB61.
Meanwhile, in the cities of Potosi and Sucre only an increase of BOB8 was registered for a bag during the same period. In the case of Potosí, the price increased from BOB39 to BOB47, while in the city of Sucre (Chuquisaca) a bag of cement priced at BOB36 in 2003 cost BOB44 in 2009.
Published under Cement News
