Morocco: Denmark’s FLSmidth has won a contract to deliver a greenfield cement plant to a new customer in Morocco. The contract is worth US$45m.

The contract was signed by FLSmidth, together with Société Générale des Travaux du Maroc (SGTM) on 19 July 2019 signed a contract with TEKCIM S.A. to co-deliver a 3600t/day (1.2Mt/yr) cement plant. The plant will be built in Ouled Ghanem in Morocco’s El-Jadida Province and is scheduled to be fully operational during the third quarter of 2022.

This is the first business cooperation between FLSmidth and TEKCIM. The process leading to the agreement has involved the African Development Bank as well as local commercial banks, and the parties involved have set very high standards in terms of quality and sustainability.

“The project includes state-of-the-art equipment that will provide TEKCIM with a very efficient cement plant,” said Jan Kjaersgaard, FLSmidth’s President of Cement. It also demonstrates FLSmidth’s ability to support customers where financing is involved, which has been a key aspect to be awarded this project. The plant will fulfil strict international standards, which is a clear statement that we as a premium player in the industry are following suit on our agenda of delivering sustainable productivity.”

The contract scope includes engineering, supply of a full range of equipment from crushing to packing and load-out, supervision, commissioning and training of a local workforce. The order is effective immediately and has been recognised in the order intake for the second quarter of 2019.

Uzbekistan: German companies Phoenix Consulting and MN Medianet are planning to build a US$400m cement plant in the Farish district of the Jizzakh region. The unit will have a production capacity of 4Mt/yr, according to the Trend News Agency. It will operate as UTD Cement. The new plant is intended to produce 0.98Mt/yr of M500 type cement, 1.22Mt/yr of M600, 0.94Mt/yr of M900 and 0.86Mt/yr of white cement. It will also create up to 1500 jobs.

Phoenix Consulting is an independent, privately owned consulting and trading company operating worldwide with a focus on the Middle East and Europe. MN Medianet operates in the automated control systems sector.

Philippines: Eagle Cement says that the opening of its new Malabuyoc integrated 2Mt/yr plant in Cebu has been delayed by six months to mid-2021. The new unit had been scheduled to start operation in late 2020, according to the BusinessWorld newspaper. The holdup has been blamed on delays in obtaining permits for the project. However, the company intends to start selling cement in the Visayas region by the end of 2020 as originally promised.

John Paul L Ang, the president and chief executive Officer (CEO) of Eagle Cement, made the comments at the cement producer’s annual stockholders' meeting. Work on the new plant started in late 2017. Once complete the new line will bring the company’s total cement production capacity to 9.1Mt/yr. The project also includes port facilities and cement terminals that will serve markets in Visayas and Mindanao. Eagle Cement also operates an integrated plant at San Ildefonso, Bulacan and a grinding plant at Bataan.

Rwanda: The Rwandan government has started to sell its stake in Cimerwa. It holds a 16.5% stake in the cement producer via the Agaciro Development Fund, Rwanda's Sovereign Wealth Fund, according to the New Times newspaper. Other shareholders, including SORAS Group, Rwanda Social Security Board (RSSB), and Rwanda Investment Group (RIG), have also expressed interest in selling their shares, making a total of 49% of shares available. The government originally intended to start the sale in March 2019. Potential buyers have until 5 July 2019 to register their interest.

Cimerwa produced 0.36Mt of cement in 2018, a figure well below its production capacity of 0.6Mt/yr. However, the country imported 0.32Mt of cement in 2018 to meet local demand. The company has also made a loss in recent years. The integrated plant is run by South Africa’s PPC, which has a majority stake in the firm.