Cemex and cement makers challenge state green taxes

The Mexican cement industry, including Cemex, Holcim México, and Cementos Moctezuma, is contesting state-level environmental taxes in states such as San Luis Potosí and Nuevo León. The National Cement Chamber (Canacem) filed an injunction in San Luis Potosí and asked President Claudia Sheinbaum and Semarnat head Alicia Bárcena Ibarra to promote a federal law capping state tax burdens.

José María Barroso Ramírez, president of Canacem and CEO of Cementos Moctezuma, warned that state levies stack on top of federal taxes, raising operating costs and putting upward pressure on prices. Cement prices are already up 6% annually due to higher fuel costs linked to international conflicts.

The dispute follows a 2017 precedent in Zacatecas, where the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation later upheld the constitutionality of state taxes on material extraction and atmospheric emissions during the administration of Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

Canacem represents producers that operate 37 plants in Mexico, employing more than 19,700 people directly and producing nearly 47 million tonnes of cement. According to the Inter-American Cement Federation (FICEM), Mexico accounted for roughly 25% of cement consumption in Latin America and the Caribbean in 2024 as the region's second-largest producer behind Brazil. The sector targets a 17% reduction in carbon emissions, cutting intensity from 629 kilograms of CO2 per tonne in 2016 to 520 kilograms by 2030.