Belarus is considering establishing a cement holding company together with the Russian company Eurocement, BelTA learned from Belarusian Architecture and Construction Minister Anatoly Chernyi at the international science to practice seminar held on 11 April to discuss foreign and domestic engineering practices in civil engineering.
Asked about prospects for establishing a cement holding company on the basis of three Belarusian cement enterprises, the official said: “There is no relevant news still. Besides, taking into account the agreement reached with Eurocement the role of the holding company would be insignificant today because it was supposed to be created for centralized cement sales while the ministry takes care of the pricing unity of our enterprises”.
Speaking about the establishment of the holding company together with Russian Eurocement, the Minister remarked: “It would be a massive merger. We could operate as a single team on foreign markets, markets of Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, and the Baltic states. However, these are just preliminary talks, we have only discussed the possibility. It is not a project for 2014 but a longer term. Now we have to transfer the Belarusian enterprises to the dry cement manufacturing technology to reduce the prime costs. Later on we will consider uniting efforts on domestic and foreign markets”.
Eurocement is ready to invest up to $80 million in the modernization of Belarusian cement factories. At present the three Belarusian cement factories can make 9.5 million tonnes of cement per annum, with 5.4 million tonnes manufactured using new equipment and the dry mixture technology.
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