Overview
- Loma Negra will keep the main kiln at its L’Amalí plant in Olavarría inactive until November 2026, with the second kiln paused in May and June and a possible restart in July.
- The company says the pause is a planned adjustment driven by surplus clinker, weaker cement dispatches, and higher winter gas prices.
- Union leaders, citing more than 700,000 tonnes of clinker stored outside silos, called the months-long stoppage unprecedented compared with typical 40‑day maintenance windows and warned of hits to limestone extraction and transport.
- Industry data show strain in demand, with April 2026 cement shipments at 639,100 tonnes, down 134,200 from March and 183,120 year over year.
- Clinker, the heat-processed intermediate for cement, lets the firm keep grinding and shipping product during the kiln shutdown, a move that also follows a recent ownership reshuffle that named Marcelo Mindlin president.