AFRICA: Africa Cement Manufacturing Capacity Reaches Beyond 200 Million Tons

The CW Group, based in the US with on-the ground research in several markets around the world, has announced its latest research report on cement, the Cement Facilities of Africa, which is the first comprehensive review of all types of cement plants on the African continent.

The analysis shows that the total cement capacity in Africa reached 207 million tons in 2010. Across the continent, there were over 190 functioning production units, about a quarter of which where integrated cement production units. The global cement majors, including Lafarge, Holcim, HeidelbergCement, and Italcementi controlled about 45 percent of the installed nameplate capacity.

North Africa remains dominant in terms of production capacity, representing 55 percent of the total cement output potential. However, several new additions have been seen in West Africa, which have raised its share to almost 20 percent. New additions and expansion in 2011 will further change the regional mix in the next few years.

As the age and nature of the plant infrastructure varies significantly across Africa’s sub-regions, the average theoretical output capacity per cement production line also varies notably, ranging from 0.36 million tons per year per production line in Middle Africa to 1.10 million tons in West Africa.

Lafarge has the largest number of operations in 14 countries, and every region of Africa. Sixty percent, or about 25 million tons, of the company’s African manufacturing capacity is located in Egypt, Algeria and Morocco. In contrast to Lafarge, Holcim and HeidelbergCement, Italcementi and recent regional major, Dangote maintain the majority of its operations in only one or two regions.

The report is a first in that for the first time a single source details all the integrated gray, integrated white, grinding stations and slag cement plants for all countries on the continent, providing details on principal cement type produced, plant capacity, number of production lines, ownership structure, and affiliation with global groups.

In conjunction with the release of the report, the CW Group also published a large-scale poster showing the location and nature of all cement units across Africa. This industry-first is a new way of visualizing the supply-side in Africa in a single, easy to understand format, and allows for a strategic understanding of the geographic profile of manufacturing units.

The report and poster are available directly from CW Group, by contacting them at sales@cwgrp.com or by visiting their website at www.cwgrp.com/research

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