The $300m Dangote cement grinding plant situated at Bouansa, Congo is set to commence operations this month, Dangote Cement Plc has announced.
Dangote cement, an African leading cement producer made this announcement through the company’s Chief Executive Officer, Onne van der Weijde, in a statement reacting to the company’s announcement of its Unaudited results for Q1, 2017.
The results demonstrated proactive measures taken the company, which ensured improved margins, by sourcing a significant amount of coal locally in Nigeria, thereby relaxing the need for foreign currency, especially with the current recession Nigeria is presently battling.
The company’s 28% revenues comes from its Pan African operations. With the Congo Cement Plant now ‘99%’ complete and set to commence operations, that figure is set to go up.
Dangote cement plant at Bouansa, Congo, expected to contribute at least 1.5 million metric tons capacity, is a positive step steering the company towards the total yearly manufacturing capacity of about 32 million metric tons across Africa, which it projects.
While operations are set to kick-off in Congo, construction of a new 3 million metric tons capacity cement grinding plant is ongoing in Ivory Coast. Obviously, Dangote Cement Plc is fast establishing itself as a prime cement producer for Africa as a whole.
Ganapathy Balasubramanian, Plant Director for Dangote Cement Congo Operations explained that the Congo factory cost the company CFA 133 billion, approximately $300 million. Expected to strengthen Congo’s economy, the factory sits on 80 hectares of land.
When the plant commences operations, it will create about 1,600 direct and indirect jobs in the Francophone nation. It will also increase local cement production in Congo, which will help to satisfy general construction demands, and save foreign currency expenditure.
According to Balasubramanian, the company will deploy automatic robot laboratory for quality test. This, he said, will aid consistency and ensure cement produced by the plant will meet its obligations to customers.
However, Dangote Group had announced of building new plants in two Nigerian communities of Okpella, Edo State, and Itori, Ogun State respectively.
The new plants, expected to be complete in three years will boost the company’s Nigerian output from 31.5 million metric tons to about 41.5 million metric tons.
Devakumar Edwin, Dangote Group Executive Director of Projects and Portfolio Management, explained that the two new plants will support the company’s drive to reduce transportation cost components of its operations, lower overall cost of production, cause a reduction in the price of cement and create jobs for Nigerian youths.
After listing on the Nigerian Stock exchange 7 years ago, Dangote Cement Plc has gone ahead to account for over 20% of the total market capitalization of the NSE.
Statistics show that there will be steady increase for cement demand in Africa and in the Middle East. If Dangote Cement Plc actualizes its future plans, which appears very feasible with commencement of its Congo cement plant, and other plants on the way, it is in line to become a prime contributor to the satisfaction of such demands.
(reportsafrique)
