The first Spanish Portland cement factories (from 1894 to 1907)

The portland cement began to be manufactured in Spain at the end of the 19th century, later than in neighbouring countries, due to the immaturity of the industrial fabric and thelack of investment. In all the research referring to this type of artificial cement, it is stated that the Tudela Veguín factory was the first to produce it in the year 1898. However, as shown in this paper, before there were other initiatives in our country that have passed unnoticed and have been forgotten, perhaps because in most cases their projects had a short journey, without managing to gain a foothold, either due to lack of financial support or poor market planning. These pioneering companies, in the case of those located near Tortosa (Tarragona), Figueras (Gerona), Huelva, Quinto de Ebro (Zaragoza) or Puerto Real (Cádiz), took precedence over the large national cement groups, such as Tudela Veguín (Asturias), Rezola (Guipuzcoa), ASLAND (Barcelona), Fradera (Barcelona), etc., which would emerge around 1900. This article analyzes the main portland cement factories that were founded in Spain from the end of the 19th century to 1907, concentrated, if not all then most, in the Cantabrian coast, the Catalan zone and the central plateau. The families that owned these industries made great fortunes and some of them have survived to this day. In order to structure the chronology of these pioneering factories as correctly as possible, they will be described according to geographical and temporal criteria.