ASEC Cement: $800 Mln Production Capacity Boost For Algerian Plant

ASEC Cement Holding (ACH) – the investment arm of ASEC Group and cement platform of Citadel Capital – said it will start increasing its production capacity for its Algerian plant by the end of the next year with an investment cost of $800 million.

Amr Gemeiye – Group Commercial Director at ASEC Cement – said the firm’s new investments will contribute to production boost from 1.5 million tons to 3 million tons of cement per year as a sideline to increase the production capacity of the firm’s plants  to 10 million tons per year. ASEC Cement has 5 plants in a number of Arab countries including Algeria, the Sudan, and Egypt.

Gemeiye further added that ASEC Cement is still in talks with the Algerian government on acquiring a 49% stake in ASEC Algeria Cement through right issue to increase the company’s capital which worth $60 million.

Elsewhere, official source from Al-Takamol Cement – ASEC Cement’s Greenfield in Sudan – said the Sudanese government declined to provide the fuel oil needed to operate the plant for several months. It is worth noting that Al-Takamol Cement plant locates in a remote area on the left bank of the River Nile some 320 km north of the Sudanese capital of Khartoum.

The source pointed out that Takamol Cement’s production capacity shrank due to reliance on the gasoline, a fuel oil substitute. “Eventually, this would reversely affect Takamol’s investments through the coming short run.”