Trade Journals for the Concrete Industry

Starting precast in Barbados in early 90s Barbados is a Caribbean island sized 430 km2 with approximately 280,000 inhabitants and with very good educational standards. Tourism has become the most important economic factor, but in principle Barbados is relatively independent since they have their own oil reservoirs and cement production facilities, just to mention two of the most important industries. Residential housing historically followed timber and concrete block construction, as well, before precast concrete was introduced into the market in the early beginnings of the 90s. At that time, Preconco Ltd. started their business on an eight-acre location in Barbados, mainly with structural precast, wall and flooring production. Preconco produced all kinds of precast on a large steel bed that was 70m long by 7m wide, and they added an Extruder line for the production of hollow core floor panels later, as well. When the group felt the market needs, they also added a roof tile production line from Vortex Hydra, Italy, to offer to the customers high quality roofing solutions, as well. The Vortex Hydra plant has a daily capacity of 4,000 roofing tiles per 8-hour shift and it is served by an 1,5 m3 SmartMix mixing plant from ACT, using silica sand for the production, only. Located on the same property as Preconco, this business was initiated as CemTile Inc. in 1995, and it became one of the largest manufacturers of cement roofing solutions in the Eastern Caribbean, especially with their second plant located in Trinidad, serving the other parts of the Caribbean. Right from the beginning, the philosophy of Preconco was to develop, manufacture and complete buildings in shortest time, at the most economical cost, focusing on quality, aesthetic appeal and structural integrity. When they started in 1993 with eight