Oman Cement plans $212m project in Duqm SEZ

Oman Cement Company (OCC) — the Sultanate’s first cement manufacturing firm — has announced that it plans to go ahead with the establishment of an integrated cement project in the Duqm Special Economic Zone (SEZ) with an investment of around $212 million (equivalent to around RO 84 million).
This follows Board approval for the venture, the partly state-owned listed company said in a filing to the Capital Market Authority (CMA) on Thursday.
“The project implementation process is being finalised by the company and shareholders will be informed of the progress in due course,” the CEO said in the filing.
According to market sources, Oman Cement is going it alone in the development of a cement plant in Duqm in a departure from an earlier strategy to set up the project in joint venture with Raysut Cement Company, the nation’s largest cement producer.
Raysut Cement, for its part, recently announced an ambitious expansion plan, centring on the acquisition of a Kenyan cement plan with an investment of around $100 million. The proposed acquisition is part of a wider push into East and Central Africa, various media reports said.
Raysut Cement is also in the process of setting up a grinding unit in Somaliland and Mogadishu, Somalia with a Dubai-based partner. The company is also in advanced discussions to acquire various cement producers in Uganda and Djibouti. Plans are also afoot to build a one million tonne per annum cement plant in Berbera, Somalia with construction work set to start as early as January 2019.
Rusayl-based Oman Cement Company has substantially enhanced its cement producing capacity to 3.6m metric tonnes per annum, up from an initial capacity of 600,000 metric tonnes, over the years. The capacity expansion, which has boosted the complex to three kilns and five cement mills, is in line with robust growth in cement demand from both domestic market and the wider Gulf region.

Oman Daily Observer Contribution Time: 09-Dec-2018 07:52 (GMT)
Oman Daily Observer Last Update Time: 09-Dec-2018 07:52 (GMT)