CAMEROON: Dangote Cement Cameroon seeks to nab 30% of Lafarge’s cement market

With its factory built on the banks of the Wouri River in Douala, the Cameroonian economic capital, the Dangote Group is aiming to grab 30% of the local cement market in 2015 with an expected production of 950,000 tonnes. This was revealed by company heads during a site visit at a production plant on April 8, 2015. Dangote Cement Cameroon, which will only start producing 1.5 million tonnes in 2016, is planning to make serious inroads into the market share of Cimencam, the Lafarge subsidiary which has enjoyed a monopoly for some 48 years.

The battle between Lafarge and Dangote, respectively based in France and Nigeria, will cover the entire Central African market where Dangote Cement Cameroon also plans to claim 30% of the market in 2015, according to plans revealed on April 8, 2015 by heads of Cameroon’s 3rd largest cement factory.

In the interim, Dangote Cement Cameroon has recruited 65 distributors in Cameroon, “This figure will increase. With time, we will identify distributors that are serious and those that are not,” assured Dangote Cement Cameroon’s Managing Director. Malko Building’s promoter in Douala, Serge Fouoggi indicates that Dangote 3X bags of cement (42.5R) with a capacity of 50 kg will be sold for 4,500 FCFA instead of the 4,450 FCFA recommended by the company. “I sold 70 tonnes of cement in two days. On average 35 tonnes per day. Customers are buying a lot at the moment. I think that it’s because they want to try out Dangote Cement. So far the feedback has been good. If anything, the paper packaging could be strengthened,” he stated.

According to Philippe Pidy Kobba, Marketing and Sales Director, Dangote Cement Cameroon, in the first few months, careful attention has been paid to distributor and consumer feedback on the Dangote cement product. This feedback will be taken into account to ensure customer satisfaction. “Next week, we will be tripling two-layer packaging,” he explained

On the production end, Dangote Cement Cameroon Managing Director Abdullahi Baba assures that the process is not yet at full speed. “We aren’t producing on a continuous basis. We’re testing the equipment and making adjustments as needed. We haven’t started intense production, but we’ve produced 50,000 tonnes of cement,” he stated. The company is seeking to position itself as one of the best priced on the market. “We’re not trying to have the best price on the market. We are the best priced and we have the most affordable cement,” declared Abdullahi Baba.

Indeed, according to Dangote, its cement will be sold to consumers for 4,450 FCFA per 50 kg bag, which is 150 FCFA cheaper than Cimencam’s (4,600 FCFA) and Cimaf’s (4,400 FCFA), produced locally by the Moroccan company Addhoha.