THE CEMENT INDUSTRY IN THE STATE OF NUEVO LEÓN, MEXICO
In Nuevo León, since the beginning of the 19th century, it was known of the existence of good quality plaster and slate in the Sierra Madre, raw material to manufacture a type of cement.
The first applications for permits to install cement factories start from the beginning of the 20th century. In March 1901, Filomeno De Stéfano and associates requested permission from the state government to establish a lime, cement and paving brick factory in Monterrey.
The application included a description of the constant head kiln method for making lime. De Stéfano promised to install two kilns with a capacity of 140 tons of stone and a production of 35 tons of lime. It also specified that once the exploitation of the raw material was established, it would be dedicated to the manufacture of cement and paving brick. The government granted the exemption for five years. The businessman and his partners promised to invest an initial capital of ten thousand pesos. The factory would be installed in the direction of the Hacienda de Gonzalitos.
After three months of the deadline to install the factory, the industrialists inform the government that they cannot fulfill the commitment, because the Mexican National Railroad had not built a branch to where they had planned to mount the plant.
Finally, in December 1901, the businessmen asked the government to cancel the concession. two
The second antecedent occurred in August 1902, when Alberto G. Cárdenas requested permission from the state government to install a cement factory in the municipality of San Nicolás de Hidalgo. In the application, he reported having carried out several explorations in which he discovered the existence of natural cement in various parts of the state. He had the samples carefully tested and obtained good results.
He also made the head of the state government see that his purpose of substituting cement imports was to benefit the state. 3
Despite the fact that the government granted the official permit and that Alberto G. Cárdenas started the work in the municipality of Hidalgo, difficulties arose that prevented the installation of the plant in the years specified in the application.
The project was taken up years later by Alberto G. Cárdenas himself, and capital contributions were made by experienced businessmen such as the American JF Brittingham, Francisco Belden and Valentín Rivero, among others.
Another attempt was made on April 7, 1905 when John T. de Bell requested a twelve-year tax waiver to install the Cemento Portland Monterrey factory. The applicant agreed to invest an initial capital of 200 thousand pesos. The project could not be carried out and the application was canceled the following year.
Another moment in the history of the cement industry occurred in 1905 when Vicente Ferrara, a shareholder of the Monterrey Fundidora, undertook the project of installing a cement-producing plant that would take advantage of the slag from the steel plant to produce iron and steel cement. 4
In the 1920s there were two other important moments in the history of the Monterrey cement companies. Experiences that correspond to the factories of the second generation: Cementos Monterrey and Cementos Mexicanos.
CEMENTOS HIDALGO, SOCIEDAD COOPERATIVA LIMITADA (SCL). STORY TOLD BY THE COOPERATIVE PARTNER: LEÓNIDES CUEVA
Messrs. Alberto G. Cárdenas and Isidoro Canales, both residents of Monterrey, established a small brick factory in the municipality of Hidalgo NL (formerly Villa de Hidalgo, 30 kilometers northeast of Monterrey); the society they formed was known as Canales y Cárdenas. 5
| Fig. 1. Cementos Hidalgo, January 2, 1931. 9 |
Alberto G. Cárdenas was originally from Michoacán and since 1888 he was employed as an accountant at Casa Rivero de Monterrey. In one of the incursions of both characters by the hill of San Miguel, Hidalgo - where now are the quarries - they found large veins of limestone and slate. They obtained some samples and the studies carried out showed that the material was of good quality. But enough capital was needed to industrially exploit the deposits.
The North American Juan F. Brittingham, who at that time was residing in Torreón, Coahuila, played an important role in the initiative to exploit the limestone and slate deposits.
In the interview with the North American businessman, Mr. Alberto G. Cárdenas affirmed that there were large deposits of limestone and slate, as well as gypsum in the Potrero Chico mountain range. The investor Brittingham decided to support the project and commissioned Mr. Cárdenas to take the corresponding steps: permits from the state government, the municipality of Hidalgo, as well as the consent of the shareholders of the Hacienda de Juan and Cristóbal de Villarreal, for the possible installation of a cement factory in that town.
The project to install the factory indicates that some of the men who started it had prior knowledge of the procedure for producing cement.
The shareholders of the Hacienda de Juan and Cristóbal de Villarreal granted permission to use the grazing lands and the exploitation of the limestone, slate and gypsum deposits. The permit was granted for a hundred years.
On February 27, 1905, the state government granted a ten-year tax exemption to investors, but the plant did not start producing until late 1907. Its initial capital was 500,000 pesos; three years later, it amounted to 1,500,000 pesos. By 1913, the sum had reached two million. The first Board of Directors was made up of: President, JF Brittingham; Vice President, Pablo Martínez del Río; secretary, Pedro Torres Saldaña; Prosecretary, Gilberto Labín; treasurer, Francisco Belden; assistant treasurer, C. Valentín Rivero Gajá, members, Luis Garza and Juan Terrazas; curator, Francisco Gómez Palacio. 6
The investors agreed to grant Mr. Alberto G. Cárdenas 700 shares, free of charge, for the steps taken to found the cement factory.
On October 6, 1905, the shareholding composition of the new company was defined, with a capital of 500,000 pesos, distributed in five thousand shares of one hundred pesos. The charter was signed in the city of Durango, Durango.
Table I. Founding shareholders of Cementos Hidalgo.
| Shareholder | Market Stall |
| Juan F. Brittingham | President |
| Pablo Martinez del Rio | vice president |
| Francisco Belden | treasurer |
| Miguel Torres | secretary |
| Luis Garza | first vowel |
| Juan Terrazas | second vowel |
| Valentin Rivero | assistant treasurer |
| Gilberto Lavin | undersecretary |
| Alberto G. Cardenas | manager |
| Source: Juan Ignacio Barragán, Cemex and the global cement industry, ORBIS International, Monterrey, NL, 1996. |
The first years of activity of Cementos Hidalgo were full of difficulties. The military actions of the revolutionaries destroyed bridges and railroads near the factory. The population and with it the factory were cut off. The cement company's production was suspended on more than one occasion.
After the fall of the dictatorial regime of Victoriano Huerta, it was administered by the state government from October to December 1914. 7
The first years of operation of the plant we worked with equipment and machinery of the following characteristics:
- One Allis Chalmers crusher One rotary dryer for crushed raw materials Eight vertical Fuller mills for fine grinding of crude oils Four seven-inch diameter Bonnot rotary kilns with a capacity of three tons of clinker per hour Three Krupp ball mills Three Bonnot tube mills of five by thirty inches, with a capacity of three tons per hour. Helical elevators and conveyors (Archimedean worms).
The limestone, slate and plaster were transported in carts, from quarries located three kilometers away from the factory. With
Fig. 2. In 1905 Cementos Hidalgo was founded in Vila de San Nicolás Hidalgo, it was the first cement factory in Mexico. 10
the time a narrow railway track was laid and transport was done in wagons that were pulled by mules.
The motive power was provided by a device that consisted of:
- A Cortiz steam engine with two double-acting pistons, with a driving pulley 4.5 meters in diameter by 2.20 meters wide. Two small steam engines. One of them powered by an electric power generator for lighting. Four steam boilers.
The movement was transmitted through the action of a twelve-inch diameter arrow that crossed the entire factory and pulleys depended on it to turn the mills and furnaces; they also made the elevators and helical worms move.
Pulverized coal was the fuel used to generate steam power.
The consumer public was unaware of Portland cement because the buildings were built with stone, adobe, brick or ashlar. Sales made at the beginning were around 600 tons per year, when its installed capacity allowed it to produce 36,000 tons.
The factory underwent a major change when steam engines were replaced by other electric power generators (between 1908 and 1910). The plant was modernized by electrifying its facilities. Transformers, lines and electric motors were assembled. New equipment was purchased: • Four Devets-Otto electricity generating machines with internal combustion engines.
- Four producers of lean gas (gasogens) that used washed coal in their furnaces.
The fuel gas was washed and filtered to later pass to the pistons of the generators whose capacity reached 500 kW. each.
Each generating machine had four pistons and a flywheel that weighed twelve tons and inside they had the winding of the alternator.
Between 1926 and 1932, three Bonnot tube mills were purchased equal to the existing ones; the operations of the eight Fuller mills originally installed were suspended. Cement production and sales increased significantly: 25,000 tons per year, in estimated terms.
In 1920, and at the initiative of Mr. Lorenzo H. Zambrano, the Cementos Monterrey, SA factory was founded. Then, in 1931, Cementos Hidalgo and Cementos Monterrey merged to form the new negotiation: Cementos Mexicanos, SA, remained as general manager of the same gift. Lorenzo H. Zambrano and, as assistant manager, Mr. Jesús Barrera Rodríguez. The Hidalgo cement plant became a subsidiary of Cementos Mexicanos.
Due to unaffordable factors, the Hidalgo, NL cement plant decides to suspend both its production and administrative operations, at the same time as it proceeds to readjust its personnel. This happened in 1932. A workers' commission met with the state governor, Francisco
- Cárdenas, in order to request his intervention so that the Hidalgo cement plant was not closed. The state government promised that as soon as market conditions allowed, the factory would restart operations. 8
The difficulties of the cement plant became a social problem that involved the majority of the inhabitants of the municipality of Hidalgo, since it was the main source of work in the town.
For its part, Cementos Mexicanos began to move machinery from Hidalgo to the city of Monterrey, which alarmed the workers and residents of the cement municipality. They saw that with this "the hopes that one day the factory works would resume."
The context of the 1930s was decisive in defining the direction of the Hidalgo cement factory. Those were the early days of Cardenismo that promoted workers' participation in the administration of companies. A labor leader residing in the city of Monterrey, named José Alatorre Gámez, propagandist of the six-year plan of the candidate for the presidency of the republic, Lázaro Cárdenas, arrived in Hidalgo in 1934. He spread the idea that factories that were closed should be opened to employ the workers. With the cement factory closed, the workers and the population of Hidalgo found an opportunity to seek alternatives that would make it possible to reopen the factory.
In a meeting with the workers of the cement plant, held on November 8, 1934, Mr. Alatorre expressed the most determined support for the workers and suggested the formation of a union to defend their interests. Unanimously by those present, it was named the Cementos Hidalgo Union; the motto: "For the interests of organized workers."
Other agreements were: to prevent the transfer of more equipment and machinery to the city of Monterrey. At the same time, guards (watchmen) were appointed to watch over the strategic parts of the factory: Fichera, Entrada de las Pedreras, General Store, Management House, Power Plant, as well as other departments.
On November 9, the first union meeting was called inside the plant. The board of directors was appointed and, as secretary general, Marcos Lozano G. was appointed, who was replaced a few days later by José Maldonado Villarreal. Mr. José Alatorre was appointed as advisor.
That same day, the trade unionists agreed to report the seizure of the factory to the different authorities of the state government and the federation. Especially the interim president of the republic, General Abelardo L. Rodríguez.
The support of engineer Bartolomé Vargas Lugo, governor of the state of Hidalgo, was requested, who distinguished himself by his support of the Cruz Azul cooperative members. The governor sent his brother, engineer Salvador Vargas Lugo, to Hidalgo, NL to make a study on the conditions of the machinery and equipment of the factory, in order to put it into operation.
The leadership of the newly formed union met with the new Secretary of the Economy, General Francisco J. Mújica, a member of the presidential cabinet of General Lázaro Cárdenas. General Mujica gave all his support to the workers of Hidalgo.
He sent an engineer to verify the state of the factory's machinery and equipment and to study the monetary sum required to make the cement plant operational. Apparently the technical opinion was unfavorable to the Hidalgo, among other reasons because the engineer did not go to the plant.
On February 25, 1935, President Lázaro Cárdenas visited the cement factory; He was received by the workers and the people of Hidalgo and made a tour of all the facilities of the manufacturing plant.
In a meeting held with the president, the workers asked him for help to run the factory in the form of a cooperative like that of Cruz Azul. In his speech, General Cárdenas stated that if a new technical study was favorable to the workers, the federal government would give all its support to start up the plant; he was willing to provide the 400,000 pesos that were required immediately and other additional sums.
Shortly afterwards, the technical commission headed by the engineer Simón Anduaga, sent by the Presidency of the Republic to rule on the state of the plant, appeared at the factory. The report of the commission was favorable to start it.
The leaders of the Cementos Hidalgo Union were received by President Cárdenas. He communicated his support for the formation of the cooperative and informed them of the agreement to repair them with 400,000 pesos for the purchase of the missing machinery and the payment of wages to the workers.
President Cárdenas presented them with an autographed photograph with the following words:
On February 20, 1937, the members of the Cementos Hidalgo Union met in the packing houses. In the presence of the National Economy inspector, David Colón Huerta, a list of those present was passed and the attendance of 226 members was verified. The inspector reported that he was there to organize a cooperative and asked those present if they agreed to form one; to which they responded affirmatively. The draft of the constitutive bases for the new cooperative was immediately read and approved unanimously. The names of the company and the product were defined: Cooperativa Industrial Cementos Hidalgo, SCL and the brand Cemento Cuauhtémoc.
The technical sale and purchase procedure consisted in the federal government buying the Hidalgo plant from Cementos Mexicanos, and in turn selling it to the Cooperative. The deed was signed at the National Palace (Department of National Assets), dated October 29, 1946.
In the constitutive act of the cooperative it was established that:
Table II. Council of the Cooperativa Industrial Cementos Hidalgo 1937.
| President | José Alatorre Gámez |
| Secretary | José Maldonado V. |
| Treasurer | Francisco Cardenas Guerra |
| First vowel | Manuel Salazar |
| Second vowel | Vicente Cantu |
| Surveillance Council | Jose J. Sepúlveda |
| Secretary
Surveillance Council |
Leonides Cave |
| Vocal
Surveillance Committee |
Marcos Lozano Gutierrez |
| General Manager | Ing. Salvador Vargas Lugo |
| Superintendent | Andrés A. Armiño |
| Engineer
Cement Chemist |
Daniel Castro Legorreta |
| Cashier Counter | J. Manuel López Manjarrez |
| Source: Leónides Cueva, op. cit. 5 |
After five years of inactivity and after the company became a cooperative, it restarted its production activities in 1937.
In 1941, changes were made to modernize the plant. First, a 450 HP Bancock & Wilcox boiler and a 1,500 kW General Electric turbine are installed. The Devtz-Otto generators remain as an emergency plant. Production increased by 23,000 tons per year, thereby achieving an estimated annual volume of 48,000 tons.
Fig. 3. General Lázaro Cárdenas del Río and President Manuel Ávila Camacho, among others, at the Cementos Hidalgo factory, 1946. 11
In the mid-1950s, a reorganization of work systems was carried out, focused on discipline and work efficiency. The monthly production went from 4,399 to 6,500 tons. Annually the figure of 78,000 tons of cement was reached.
Two difficulties arose in 1947: the lack of fuel oil and problems in the rail transport of the tank cars. Production is reduced to nine thousand tons per year. Notwithstanding the above, a PH mechanical shovel is purchased to load the wagons in the quarries.
Between 1948 and 1949, two major acquisitions were made: a 7-by-24-inch Allis Chalmers cement mill with a capacity of ten tons / hour of cement. A new 800 HP Murray Iron Works boiler is installed.
In 1950, a Kennedy Van Saun kiln was purchased, 9 by 10 inches by 270, with a capacity of 10 tons / hour. of clinker and a Fuller No. 525 chiller. Five crude silos with a capacity of three thousand tons were built. However, production did not increase significantly due to the fuel oil shortage.
One of the most significant technological events for the cooperative company was the replacement of fuel oil with natural gas. On July 29, 1952, the installation of the four-inch diameter line from Monterrey to Hidalgo was inaugurated, including a control booth and valves to transport natural gas. With this, it was possible to increase production to 19,000 tons per year. The total production volume reached 75,000 tons.
In the mid-1950s, a new system called Unitary Increase of Crudes was created, a product of the ingenuity and creativity of the technicians of the Cementos Hidalgo Cooperative, consisting of the crude mixture per specific surface.
The cooperative got the Federal Electricity Commission to supply the energy needed to move the plant's machinery. With this, the frequent stoppages of the mills were overcome because the one provided by the power plant itself was insufficient. The 33,000 volts of electricity were transported from San Gerónimo to the municipality of Hidalgo. Electric power entered on March 2, 1956. Production increased by 14,000 tons per year. A total annual production of 101,000 tons of cement was achieved. At the end of the 1950s, the first stage of expansion of the factory was carried out in the Crude Oil Section. When modernizing the Drying and Crude Mill departments, the drying process was verified in a new separator that separated and dried at the same time.The annual production achieved was 148,000 tons. At the same time the following acquisitions were made:
- Caterpillar trascavo No. 955 Telesmidth crusher, with capacity for 120 ton./h. Five crude oil silos, with capacity for three thousand tons. One smidht crude oil mill measuring eleven by 16-10 inches.
Fig. 4. President Adolfo López Mateos and Governor Raúl Rangel Frías during a visit to Cementos Hidalgo,
- 1962. 11
Fig. 5. Visit of President Luis Echeverría to Cementos
Hidalgo, 1970. 11
In 1965 the supply of natural gas decreased, resulting in a noticeable drop in production of 13,000 tons; the annual dropped to 135,000 tons.
The following year the second stage of modernization and expansion of the factory was carried out. It was carried out in the clinker and cement grinding sections. The expansion consisted of the following:
- Caterpillar Trascavo. Atlas Copco drilling machine. Five crude silos, with capacity for three thousand tons. 11-6 by 400-inch Smidth furnace, with capacity of 500 ton./h. Folax cooler. Clinker warehouse for thirty thousand tons. Mill of Smidth cement, ten by 31-6 inches of 33 tons / h. Three cement silos, with capacity for ten thousand tons.
The small mills installed in 1905 stopped working. The entire Drying Department was dismantled. Production increased to 124,000 tons; the annual, reached the figure of 272,000 tons.
At the beginning of the 1970s, the problem of low supply of natural gas reappeared. However, Pemex manages to normalize the pressure and volume of the gas through the line from Monclova, Coahuila. Due to this, it was possible to increase the annual production by 28,000 tons more, compared to 1966. However, the problem of low gas supply continued to affect the cement plant. In 1976, the
Fig. 6. President José López Portillo during a visit to Cementos Hidalgo, 1979. 11
Annual production suffered a drop less than those of 1966. 263,000 tons were produced, production decreased 37,000 tons compared to 1971. The six small Bonnot mills, installed in 1905, were also finished dismantling.
In 1976, the 28-year-old Allis Chalmers cement mill was stopped. The Smidth mill supplied all cement production.
In order to comply with the instructions of the Undersecretariat for the Improvement of the Environment, the last two Bonnot small furnaces, installed in 1905, were stopped.
At the end of August 1979, the start-up of the new Portland Cement plant began. The change affected from the quarry to the packaging. As a result, the daily cement production capacity was increased by one thousand tons. The following equipment was installed:
- Trascavo Caterpillar 977 L. Trakdrill Chicago Pneumatic. Fuller Rotary Shredder, capacity: 250 ton./h. Raw materials warehouse with capacity of 21,500 ton./h. 13 by 21-3 inch Smidth crude mill, with 7,850 capacity ton 13-6 by 190-inch Fuller oven, with four-stage preheater. Capacity for one thousand tons per day of Clinker. Clinker warehouse, capacity of 21,000 tons. Smidth cement mill of ten by 35 inches, with thousand tons of capacity per day. Three cement silos. Capacity ten thousand tons. Fluxo baler, capacity 95 ton./h.
In 1981, the cooperative company achieved the largest increase in cement production. It increased to 152,000 tons, to total an annual volume of 452,000 tons.
In that same year, another machinery for quarrying and transport was acquired:
- Caterpillar Dump Truck. Two Caterpillar trucks of 35 tons each. Crawler drill.
Between 1983 and 1984 the Smidth and Kennedy furnaces, machinery and control systems were modernized. An electrostatic precipitator was installed on each. The Thermoflex dust collector was modified in the Fuller oven.
However, there would be a drop in production in 1983 to 80,000 tons of cement, due to technical problems and low demand for the product, as a consequence of the national economic crisis.
The last stage in the history of the cooperative occurred when it was reacquired by the Cementos Mexicanos company in 1993.
REFERENCES AND NOTES
- Javier Rojas Sandoval. The historical industrial heritage of Nuevo León: The pioneering factories of the second generation, the 2nd edition, CELYTE, NL, CAEIP, July 2009. Educational research collection N °.43, ISBN, 978-607-00-1470-3, Mty., Mx.AGENL, Concessions Section, 3/17, March 2, 1901 Ibid, 6/17, August 27, 1902 Ibid, 4/20, April 10, 1905.
- The information to write this chapter has been taken from the text of Leónides Cueva, Cooperativa Cementos Hidalgo, SCL 50 Aniversario 1934-1984, Hidalgo, NL, s / f. The author was a founding member of the Cooperativa Cementos Hidalgo, SCL Synthesis, titles and subtitles of Javier Rojas Sandoval. Isidro Vizcaya Canales, Los origins de la industrialización de Monterrey. (1867-1920). Librería Tecnológico, Monterrey, NL México, 1971. p. 128. Historical and biographical dictionary of the Mexican Revolution, volume V. National Institute of Historical Studies of the Mexican Revolution, Ministry of the Interior, Mexico, 1992. Cooperativistas version. Museum of Contemporary Art of Monterrey. Monterrey in 400 photographs. Mexico. 1996. ISBN: 968-6623-34-5. Rodrigo Mendirichaga. The four times of a people: Nuevo León in history.First edition June 1985. Mexico. ISBN: 968-891-000-7.CONARTE-FOTOTECA. Nuevo León: Images of our memory III. Mexico. 2006. ISBN: 968-5724-46-6.
