|
|
Tanzania: New Cement Factory to Reduce Scarcity
 |
|
|||||||||
|
||||||||||
East African Business Week (Kampala)
12 May 2008
Posted to the web 12 May 2008
Daniel Said
Dar es Salaam
A cement factory that is expected to be constructed by a Nigerian conglomerate, Dangote Group may reduce cement scarcity in Tanzania and in the East African region.
However, for the factory to be built in Mtwara, Southern Tanzania, three things have to be in place: reliable power, raw materials and a good and reliable transport infrastructure. Mtwara has a port and reliable power by Artumas Power Station.
According to a Senior Official in the ministry of industry and trade, there was every hope that Dangote Group, owned by a Nigerian millionaire, Alhaji Aliko Dangote has shown interest in investing in EastAfrica and Tanzania in particular.
The source who declined to disclose the date of commencement of the project, said Dangote had visited Mtwara region last year and promised that "his company was looking into the possibility of constructing a factory that will produce around 200 million tonnes of cement per year for both local and foreign markets."
The trip to Mtwara region, about 400 km from Dar es Salaam was organized by Nepad Business Group. He said that Dangote in February, 2008 signed contracts worth $1.2 billion with China's Sinoma International to build cement plants in the DR Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Senegal and Zambia.
"Reports that Tanzania is in the list of six African countries where Dangote has commissioned a Chinese company to construct cement plants is a testimony that the Group has kept its promise," he said.
The official said that the current Portland, Tanga and Mbeya cement plants were not capable of meeting the current local and foreign cement demand.
Recently, Dangote Group acquired a 45% stake in SouthAfrica's Sephaku Cement for 3 billion Rand through a private placement. Sepheku cement is a subsidiary of Sepheku Holdings Limited, a SouthAfrica minerals exploration, development and investment company.
Dangote Group is one of the biggest and fastest growing conglomerates in Nigeria with its lines of business ranging from cement, sugar refining, pasta, flour milling, salt, polypropylene bags, haulage to port operations.
The Group has over the last three decades enjoyed increasing market share for its products and in 2006 alone, the Group recorded an annual turnover in excess of N300 billion ($ 2.5 billion).
Dangote's Obajana Cement Plant in Kogi State, Nigeria was built at a cost of over N120 billion and is the largest cement plant in Africa. The plant's target is to produce 10 million tones of cement per annum--it is currently producing about 4 million metric tones a year of cement.
|
This achievement has made the Group to expand into oil and gas, steel, telecommunications and fertilizer businesses.
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Copyright © 2008 East African Business Week. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections -- or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Make allAfrica.com your home page | RSS Feed | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Top | Site Guide | Who We Are | Advertising | Search | Subscribe | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Questions or Comments? Contact us. Read our Privacy Statement. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
