Displaying items by tag: Dangote Cement
Dangote Cement in Tanzania coal deal
20 October 2015Tanzania: Dangote Cement has signed two agreements that will enable its US$600m cement plant in Tanzania to generate 150MW from coal.
One agreement is with Tancoal. Dangote Cement has also signed a coal prospecting licence for a site in Mbinga. However, the plant will first run on diesel until it is able to generate its own electricity from coal.
The deals ends a year-long dispute between the government and the cement plant after Tanesco failed to provide electricity. The plant was considering importing coal from South Africa, which was a cheaper option than buying it from the area.
The cement plant is expected to reduce cement prices by 50% once production commences in early 2016. It will take advantage of the growing construction industry, which contributes 12.5% to the country's GDP. It will offer more than 1500 direct jobs and 9000 indirectly.
Dangote Cement launches US$600m Tanzanian cement plant
13 October 2015Tanzania: With its cement plants across Africa undergoing expansion and new investments in Asia, Dangote Cement has unveiled plans to attain a production capacity of 81Mt/yr before 2020, as it commissions its US$600m plant in Tanzania.
The President of Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote, said that the company is currently consolidating its cement businesses across Africa to reap the benefits of scale, adding that its operational offshore cement plants have started to make substantial contributions to group revenue. Dangote added that the pan-African drive will aid the company's plan to do a listing in London and Johannesburg in the near future, with an intention to consolidate the cement assets into one company that will have the scale and resources to compete globally.
Speaking at the commissioning of Tanzanian cement plant in Mtwara, Dangote explained the choice of Tanzania for investment, stating that the existing supply gap has been inadequate in meeting local demand, while noting the need to boost export supply in the eastern Africa regional bloc.
"The construction sector is a major emerging component of the Tanzanian economy that has been receiving the attention of investors. This makes it an ideal market for cement production. The existing cement manufacturers have historically been unable to satisfy local demand, which has been filled by imports. As essential economy-driven infrastructure continues to be built to improve electricity supply and the transport network, additional demand for cement can be expected. The Dangote Cement investment will certainly contribute to Tanzania's on-going story of infrastructure development, job creation and broad economic development. Our strategy is to invest in countries that offer investors attractive returns on investment as well as provide them with an enabling environment to operate. It is our sincere belief that our US$600m investment in Tanzania will further speed up infrastructural development and complement the government's efforts in stimulating economic growth and creating jobs. When in full production, this plant will make Tanzania self-sufficient in cement, with a lot of cement for export to neighbouring countries," said Dangote.
Dangote Cement appoints two new regional CEOs
07 October 2015Nigeria: Dangote Cement has appointed two new Regional Chief Executive Officers (RCEOs). Arvind Pathak has been appointed as the new regional Chief Executive Officer of Nigeria and Vivek Chawla will serve as the new Regional CEO for West and Central Africa. Chawla was appointed on 17 August 2015.
Chawla has over 30 years of experience working in the cement industry. Previous to working for Dangote he was the President of Hindalco Industries, part of the Aditya Birla Group. Chawla also worked as Chief Executive Officer, East Region of ACC Limited.
Dangote to launch Tanzanian cement plant in October 2015
30 September 2015Tanzania: Nigeria's Dangote Cement is set to commission its new 3.0Mt/yr cement plant in Mtwara District on 10 October 2015. The company will also hold the ground-breaking ceremony for 25 hectares of jetty land at Mgao village in Mtwara District on the same day.
The commissioning of the new cement plant, which is part of the company's Africa expansion strategy, will be the fourth in the series after Ethiopia, Zambia and Cameroon. Cement plants due for commissioning this year are located in Senegal and South Africa, while construction works are ongoing in several other African countries.
Dangote reissues call for concrete roads
25 September 2015Nigeria: Aliko Dangote, Chairman of Dangote Cement, has repeated his plea to the Nigerian Federal Government to urgently adopt concrete roads in the country. Dangote stated that the adoption is hoped to be to the benefit of Nigerians if the government embraced the option of using concrete for roads in the country. Dangote claims that, aside from being very cheap, concrete roads are more durable with near zero maintenance cost.
"We are pushing for Nigeria to have concrete roads. It is cheaper to lay a concrete road that will last 50 years than to lay a bitumen road. It will also help in eliminating corruption, because if you go and build a bitumen road, it will have to be adequately maintained unlike a concrete road that is very durable," he commented.
Shonhiwa joins Dangote Group
10 September 2015Nigeria: Former Lafarge Zimbabwe chairman Johnathan Shonhiwa has joined Dangote Group. Shonhiwa, who resigned from Lafarge Zimbabwe recently, was chairman for almost two years after having taken over from Muchadeyi Masunda in January 2014. Prior to that, he was managing director of Lafarge Zimbabwe for six years, finance director for four and a half years and finance manager for two years.
Zambezi Portland Cement on the backfoot following Dangote launch
16 September 2015Zambia: Zambezi Portland Cement (ZPC) says it has been losing US$2.5/bag (50kg) of cement it has sold since Dangote Cement entered the market. Operations director Daniele Ventriglia said that, despite maintaining its market share, the competition in the cement business was stiff.
Ventriglia said that ZPC would invest US$4m in new state-of-the-art block-making machinery, which will provide a higher proportion of value-added products. "The machines are expected to arrive from Italy in the next three months, before the year ends. Production of blocks will increase by 20%. An additional 25 people will be employed," he said. Ventriglia added that ZPC had remained competitive in block production because its product was of high quality and at an affordable price.
Dangote to open 1.5Mt/yr plant in Cameroon
27 August 2015Cameroon: Dangote Cement will open its new 1.5Mt/yr Sinoma-built cement plant in Douala, Cameroon today. "Africa's future growth is intrinsically linked to cement," said Aliko Dangote earlier in August 2015, as he opened another new factory on the outskirts of Ndola, Zambia. Both plants are part of Dangote Cement's US$4.3bn expansion across Africa and Asia, which we reported on earlier.
Dangote signs up Sinoma for building spree
26 August 2015Nigeria: Dangote Cement will sign contracts with China's Sinoma International Engineering on 26 August 2015 to build new cement plants across Africa, as well as in Nepal. Aliko Dangote confirmed that the new plants, some of which have been announced previously, will be built in Mali, Kenya, Zambia, Senegal, Ethiopia, Cameroon, Niger and Nepal.
Zambezi Portland Cement lays off 47 employees
11 August 2015Zambia: Some 47 employees at Zambezi Portland in Ndola have been laid off while a further 63 are earmarked for retrenchment. The redundancies are due to reduction in business volume at the cement company, which is now faced with stiff competition from the newly commissioned Dangote Cement plant.
Zambezi Portland Cement operations director Danielle Ventriglia confirmed the retrenchment and said that the affected workers had been paid US$308/each in benefits. Ventriglia said that the retrenchments were necessitated by economic reasons and that the company would maintain a lean workforce. He added that the company was also working towards reclaiming the market share and had reduced its cement price significantly. Another 63 workers are expected to be retrenched in the next six weeks and the company would retain a workforce of 340 employees.