SAVANNAH Cement, the country’s latest entrant in cement manufacturing, plans to invest $200 million (Sh17.3 billion) to develop a clinker production facility. Currently, most of the major cement companies depend on imported clinker which is a key component in the manufacture of cement.
In the manufacture of portland cement, clinkers are lumps or nodules, usually 3-25mm in diameter, produced by sintering limestone and alumino-silicate (clay) during the cement kiln stage.
Savannah cement board chairman Benson Ndeta, announced on Thursday that the company which currently has a production capacity of more than 1.5 million tonnes of cement annually will develop the clinker production unit to boots its market share.
Ndeta said the firm hopes to be a major competitor in the regional market in the supply of cement to Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania, Uganda, DRC and South Sudan after satisfying its local market with quality cement.
Ndeta was speaking when the company received the Kenya Bureau of Standards diamond mark of quality certification for its range of products at the company’s offices in Kitengela.
He said the certification now places Savannah Cement products high on the quality assurance table. According to the 2013 Economic Survey cement production for 2012 closed at an all-time high of 4.6 million tonnes up from 4.4 million tonnes recorded the previous year while consumption grew from 3.8 million tonnes to 3.9 million tonnes.
Savannah's managing director Ronald Ndegwa said the company had adopted some of the most advanced quality standards and product formulation benchmarks in the world for its products.
Kebs MD Charles Ongwae said the standards body has raised its market surveillance to guarantee consumer's get value for money on all products including those in the building and construction sector.
“We are putting on notice all traders selling substandard cement products or those passing off standards certification marks and have not yet received such marks genuinely,” added Ongwae.
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