Iraq: Lucky Cement has started production at a cement grinding plant in Basra, southern Iraq. The US$40m plant is a joint venture between Pakistan-based Lucky Cement and the Al-Shawy family. It has a production capacity of 3000t/day or 0.8Mt/yr. The plant is intended to supply cement for the southern Iraq market.
In comments reported by Mena Report Lucky Cement CEO Muhammad Ali Tabba said that the completed grinding plant is the first phase of development at the site. Lucky Cement may continue development at the plant investing US$125m to build an integrated cement production line with a capacity of 1.25Mt/yr.
Tabba added that Lucky Cement is also working on building a US$240m plant in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). It has a 50-50 agreement with the Rawji Group, a local company, to start production via a company called Nyumba Ya Akiba. When operational, the plant in DRC will produce 1.2Mt/yr of cement.