Angola: Firm plans $200m cement plant

  1. Posted on Wednesday 25 June 2008 - 08:48
    Sam Banda Junior
    Image of Sam Banda Junior
    Sam Banda Junior, AfricaNews reporter in Blantyre, Malawi, photo: Olivier Nyirubugara
    Portugal's firm Escom has announced its plans to build a $ 200 million cement factory in Angola in partnership with a local company, Gema. The aim is to increase supplies to respond to the considerably growing demand by the country's construction sector.
    Construction
    The Palanca Cimentos factory is expected to be built in three years and is set to create 600 new jobs.

    According to a Reuters report on Tuesday, Escom said it expects the factory to produce up to 1.2 million tonnes of cement per year and provide 25 percent of Angola's cement needs.

    The report further said that the cement factory will be in the port city of Benguela, about 700 km south of Angola's capital Luanda.

    The former Portugal colony is set to benefit a lot from the construction of the cement factory as several things are being constructed in the country.

    Escom, the Angolan arm of Portugal's Espirito Santo Group and Angola's largest private non-oil investor, said it will hold 60 percent of the new factory with Brazilian company Camargo Correa whereas Gema will control the remaining 40 percent.

    The rich oil nation which recently overtook Nigeria already has two cement manufacturers, Luanda-based Cimangola and Lobito-based Secil, which have a combined capacity of 1.5 million tonnes per year.

    But both factories are said to have failed to meet growing demand for cement in the southwestern African country, which is rebuilding its basic infrastructure after a 27-year civil war that ended in 2002.

    Demand for cement in Angola is estimated at around 5 million tonnes per year, according to Macquarie First South Securities.

    In another development Botswana's state-owned Water Utilities Corporation will issue two bonds totaling 400 million pula ($60 million) on the Botswana Stock Exchange on Thursday, arrangers ABSA Capital said on Tuesday.

    It said the 10-year WUC001 bond of 195 million pula and 18-year WUC002 of 205 million pula would pay a semi-annual coupon of 10.65 percent and 10.6 percent respectively. Collectively, the bonds were 124 percent oversubscribed.

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