Caribbean Cement Company Limited, a subsidiary of the TCL Group, has entered into an agreement to supply 100,000 tonnes of clinker to Venezuela from this month to April 2014.This arrangement was facilitated under the compensation mechanism of the Petro Caribe Agreement where the government of Jamaica could repay the loan to Venezuela with goods and services in lieu of cash.
This contract is the outcome of more than three years of negotiations between Carib Cement and the government of Jamaica and the government of Venezuela. What started as an initiative to export cement ended instead in an agreement to supply clinker. Clinker is the intermediate product made in the cement manufacturing process.
Carib Cement will export 20,000 tonnes of clinker a month to Pertigalete, Venezuela. This clinker will be used in cement plants to make cement. The company will continue negotiations to continuing supplying clinker after April.The company said in a statement: "Carib Cement is pleased to be a trailblazer in setting a precedent for other goods and services to be negotiated under the compensation mechanism of the Petro Caribe."
The company held a Press Conference to commemorate the first shipment of clinker to Venezuela at the Jamaica Gypsum and Quarries Pier where the ship for Venezuela was being loaded. In attendance were the Prime Minister of Jamaica Portia Simpson Miller, Minister of Science, Technology, Energy and Mining, Phillip Paulwell; Industry, Investment & Commerce Minister, Anthony Hylton; Venezuelan Ambassador to Jamaica, Maria Jacqueline Mendoza Ortega; and CEO of the Petro Caribe Fund, Dr Wesley Hughes.