EL SALVADOR - Real Estate & Construction
CEO, Holcim El Salvador
Bio
From Argentina, Marcelo Arrieta is a lawyer by profession, and graduated from the Catholic University of Córdoba. He began his career at Holcim Argentina as a legal intern in 2003, and in 2006 formally joined the Holcim Group, where he has served as Legal Affairs Manager for Holcim Argentina and later as Legal and Compliance Manager for Latin America. In 2021, he took on the challenge of leading the operations of Holcim Nicaragua as Executive Director, achieving remarkable business transformation by focusing efforts on sustainable growth, organizational culture, and market orientation. In April 2024, his appointment as Executive Director of Holcim El Salvador was announced. He currently leads the operations in El Salvador and Nicaragua.
Holcim has had a strong presence in El Salvador for 75 years, starting in 1949 with the founding of Cemento de El Salvador. Since 2010, we have operated under the Holcim brand. I see this as a Salvadoran company, carrying local pride while benefiting from Holcim’s global expertise in technology, innovation, and management. With operations in over 60 countries, we have the same technology here found in developed nations, and we run the only two fully integrated cement plants in the country. Our product portfolio is, by far, the most sophisticated in the country. We have over 700 direct employees, and thousands more working indirectly with us. We are one of the most significant companies in the country, not just within the construction sector but in general.
Currently, we are working on the country’s most significant project, which is the expansion of the Los Chorros Highway. We are working closely with the main contractor for the project, a Korean company, along with the government of El Salvador and the Ministry of Public Works. Additionally, we are also working on the Rosales Hospital, contributing with our eco-friendly concrete. The idea for us is that all of the country’s landmark projects carry the Holcim stamp.
We were the first company to commit to becoming carbon-neutral by 2050 with what we call the “Net Zero Pledge.” For us, this isn’t just a public commitment; it is a strategic objective.
Our company’s motto “building progress for people and the planet” underpins our strategic imperative to move towards sustainability. Our flagship product is the “Holcim Fuerte ECOPlanet,” a general-use cement with a low carbon footprint. Additionally, we have certified the environmental impact of our products, ensuring the carbon footprint is properly measured. On the concrete side, we have “ ECOPact,” which is a concrete formulated to reduce its carbon footprint by 30% to 50%, while maintaining the same performance and quality as traditional concrete. Regarding sustainability initiatives, we own a global company called “Geocycle” responsible for recovering waste from other industries and transforming it into energy, reducing the need for fossil fuels. Here in El Salvador, we are recovering municipal waste, preventing it from going to landfills, and using it in our operations. In the past five years, we have invested USD75 million in El Salvador, mainly to boost capacity and decarbonize our operations. Over the next 18 months, we will invest another USD15 million, mostly focused on decarbonization. We also built a solar farm with AES and are working on making all plant lighting solar-powered. Since El Salvador faces energy infrastructure challenges, reducing strain on the grid helps both the environment and society.
In 2024, we relaunched a professional trainee’s program, which we do in cycles to allow for proper development. The goal is to bring in a large group of young professionals, mostly local engineers, and train them for future leadership roles, especially in cement. From our last program in 2021, we have young professionals managing key operations such as geosynthetics, cement dispatch, and even new projects like separate grinding and decarbonization efforts. We also promote gender equality. We even have a program focused on women driving heavy machinery, including trucks and mixers, which is uncommon in this region. In addition, we are committed to diversity in all its forms.
We have a global program fully implemented in El Salvador, called “Plants of Tomorrow.” It focuses on incorporating digitalization, sensor technology, and AI. For example, we utilize software that continuously reads sensors to anticipate maintenance needs, helping us minimize failures and be more effective in our maintenance efforts. We have drones that collect samples from one plant and transport them to our main laboratory for analysis and inspecting critical equipment, avoiding the need for human exposure in high-risk areas, such as cement kilns. We operate two cement plants, with the smaller one being remotely managed from the larger facility. We are also enhancing our external services to clients through digital means. For example, we have a proprietary app which allows customers to order concrete and track their delivery in real-time, helping them better manage their construction timelines. Additionally, our group has a platform that seeks out digital startups to help us elevate our business in terms of sustainability and digitalization. We hope to bring some of these innovations to El Salvador in the near future. In fact, this initiative acts as an investment fund specifically for startups in sustainability and digitalization.
From a business perspective, we want to be involved in emblematic projects. For instance, we anticipate completing the Rosales Hospital and executing the entire project at Los Chorros, both of which will significantly impact the country’s infrastructure. There are many more projects on the horizon, including discussions about trains and airports, and we want to be part of these. Regarding investments, we also have a plan that involves investing USD17 million between the remainder of this year and 2025. This investment will focus on improving our operational capacity, acquiring more equipment to better serve our clients, and enhancing our cement operations. We will also implement improvements aimed at environmental aspects to become even more efficient in reducing our carbon footprint. We plan to execute these initiatives over the next 15 months, supporting our clients in developing their products while contributing to the country’s growth and sustainable development. As the leading company in sustainable construction materials and solutions, we take on this responsibility, and we are dedicated to leading that development.
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