MOZAMBIQUE: Mozambique firm to export cement to neighbouring countries

Cimentos da Beira, the latest cement producer in Mozambique, plans to export some of its cement production to neighbouring countries such as Zimbabwe and Malawi, in addition to supplying the domestic market.

State media reported that the plant, with an annual installed cement production capacity of 800,000 tonnes, is expected to start operating later this month after testing the substation that will supply electricity to start production of normal and specific concrete.

Cited by the Mozambican daily newspaper Notícias, the Managing Director of the company, Wouter Trollip, said the plant already has over 40,000 tons of clinker in stock in order to start cement production as soon as the power supply is guaranteed.

With British and South African investment of about US$45 million through the company’s London-based Ambrian plc, Cimentos da Beira employs 70 workers and guarantees it has followed internationally accepted standards of filters with high dust reducing capacity.

Sofala province now has three cement plants, notably Cimentos de Moçambique, which has been operating for many years with Portuguese investment and the recent Austral Ciment, an Austrian investment, both located in Dondo.

MOZAMBIQUE: Cimentos de Mocambique to build new plant in Nacala

Cimentos de Mocambique (Cement of Mozambique) has announced that it is to build a cement production facility in the northern port city of Nacala at a cost of around 250 million US dollars.

Production at the new plant is expected to begin in 2018 with an annual output of 1.5 million tonnes of cement.

Cimentos de Mocambique currently employs 1,200 workers and produces 3.1 million tonnes of cement per year. It is owned by the Portuguese company CIMPOR, which is part of the multinational group InterCement.

The announcement came in the same week that Turkish company Limak Holding pledged to invest 150 million dollars in a cement factory in the southern city of Matola. This will employ at least five hundred workers in the first phase with a capacity of 600,000 tonnes of cement per year. In the second phase output will increase to two million tonnes a year.

MOZAMBIQUE: Mozambican cement company’s sales rise 9.8 pct in 2013

Sales of cement and clinker by Cimentos de Moçambique, the Mozambican subsidiary of Cimentos de Portugal (Cimpor) rose by 9.8 percent in 2013 to 1.299 million tons, according to the group’s annual report and accounts.

Concrete sales increased by 49.8 percent to 172,000 cubic metres and the company’s turnover totalled 141.9 million euros, which was a year on year rise of 5.4 percent.

In 2013 two new cement mills came online in Dondo and in Nacala and the group noted that “a more aggressive commercial policy improved the company’s competitiveness in relation to imported cement.”

Last year Cimentos de Moçambique invested 24.5 million euros in Mozambique, mainly in installing a cement mill in Dondo, on the outskirts of the city of Beira.

AFRICA: PPC banks on new African projects to boost product sales

The release of major infrastructural projects in South Africa, Botswana and Zimbabwe would provide a key driver for demand for cement products in the region, listed cement and lime producer PPC said yesterday.

In a trading update for the quarter to December last year, PPC chairman Bheki Sibiya said the South African trading environment would remain tough and highly competitive but PPC believed its various response strategies had positioned the company well.

Sibiya said PPC’s normalised earnings for the first half of its financial year were anticipated to reflect a year-on-year improvement.

He said the operating environment in South Africa remained tough with low single-digit cement volume growth achieved in the first quarter, along with price increases.

Sibiya added that both the inland and coastal regions recorded positive growth while growth in cement volumes was also achieved in Zimbabwe, with exports from that country showing “a pleasing trend”.

Volumes in Botswana and Mozambique continued to be under pressure due to weak demand and intense competitor activity but some increases in selling prices were still achieved in these territories.

Sibiya said the performance in the lime division was beginning to show a positive trend while the South African aggregates division had achieved pleasing volume growth due to increased off-take in road, retail and residential projects.

Sibiya added that PPC’s expansion strategy remained well on track and construction of its new operation in Rwanda was progressing well, with commissioning of the plant anticipated at the end of this year.

Construction work had now also commenced at PPC’s sites in Ethiopia and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), and additional opportunities were currently being pursued.

PPC said last year that it aimed to have three new plants under construction by the end of the first quarter of this year in the DRC, Ethiopia and Zimbabwe, while its plant in Rwanda was scheduled to come on stream in September.

The company said it had also earmarked a fifth project in an as yet undisclosed country, with its capital expenditure budget for this financial year totalling about R2.7 billion.

PPC has expanded into the rest of Africa with the target of generating 40 percent of its revenue from outside South Africa by 2017.

The move has been prompted by increased competition in the South African cement market and lower margins at home.

The increased competition follows JSE-listed Sephaku Holdings associate company Sephaku Cement earlier this month commencing with cement production at its Delmas milling plant, where output is expected to be ramped up to 1.4 million tons a year by the middle of this year.

Sephaku Cement has another major project, Aganang, an integrated plant located in Lichtenburg in North West, where production is targeted to commence by the second quarter of this year.

About R3.3bn has been invested in establishing Sephaku Cement’s new cement plants, which once fully operational will have a total annual capacity of 2.2 million tons.

In December PPC acquired a 69.3 percent stake in Safika Cement Holdings for R377 million, which followed its acquisition in 2012 of an initial 25 percent shareholding in Gauteng readymix and fly-ash supplier Pronto Holdings, with the remaining shareholding bought on a phased basis over a two-year period.

PPC shares fell 2.70 percent to close at R29.51 yesterday.

Mozambique: Minister of Industry and Trade Predicts Stabilisation of Cement Price

Mozambique’s Minister of Industry and Trade, Armando Inroga, predicted on Wednesday that the price of cement will stabilize by December, once national cement production has normalized.

In recent months there have been sharp rises in the retail price of cement. In Maputo markets the price of a 50 kilo sack of cement has risen from 215 meticais (7.5 US dollars) to 240 meticais.

The price is much higher in the central and northern provinces. In Sofala, Nampula, Niassa and Cabo Delgado prices are in excess of 350 meticais a sack, and in Manica the price has reached 500 meticais.

Speaking to reporters, Inroga blamed a serious breakdown in August in the country’s largest cement factory, owned by the company Cimentos de Mocambique. There had also been increases in the prices of cement on the world market.

Inroga said national cement production is usually between 170,000 and 200,000 tonnes a month. But since August production has plummeted – he put the amount of Mozambican cement available at between 97,000 and 130,000 tonnes a month.

He believed that, as from November or December, even with the heavy demand for cement for major public works, the country will return to “relative stability in cement prices”.

The government has been urging more companies to invest in cement production, in the hope that competition will push the price down. Next year, said Inroga, “we believe that the price of cement will fall again, when three new cement factories begin operating. We believe that the ideal price for cement on the market should be no higher than 200 meticais a sack”.

Two of the factories Inroga mentioned should have begun production this year, but their opening has been postponed into 2013. They will each have the capacity to produce 500,000 tonnes a year.

The largest factory of all, with an annual capacity of two million tonnes, is being built at Salamanga, south of Maputo, and should start producing in 2014.

“We will have a production capacity of about five million tonnes as from 2014, rising to 7.5 million tonnes in 2015”, forecast Inroga. “At that time despite the major construction projects under way, the cement price will be 200 meticais a sack, because there will be sufficient supplies”.

MOZAMBIQUE: New cement factory set for Mozambique’s Manica province

A cement factory is to be established in the Manica province of Mozambique, according to its Mayor
Eusébio Lambo Gondiua said that contacts have been made with the relevant authorities and in coordination with the Barue district government in order to ensure the project would be carried out.


The location of the factory has already been selected, according to the Mayor.


Currently, the Dondo cement plant which belongs to Cimentos de Moçambique (part of the Cimpor group) supplies cement to the Manica province.

Mozambique: 'Cimentos De Mocambique' to Double Cement Production by 2011

Maputo — The company "Cimentos de Mocambique", the largest cement factory in Mozambique which is also a subsidiary of Cimpor - Cimentos de Portugal, is set to double its production by 2011, to reach one million tonnes per year, up from the current 500,000 tonnes.

According to the Monday's issue of the daily paper "Noticias", this could help to alleviate the persistent shortage of cement in the domestic market.

To that end, the company Cimentos de Mocambique, which is located in the southern province of Maputo, will install a new mill and three more packaging machines, an investment worth over 18 million euros.

Currently, there under way works for the construction of new structures that will accommodate the new mill, which is expected to be commissioned in May next year.

The Chairman of the Executive Committee of Cimentos de Mocambique, Steffen Kasa, assured that the main pieces of equipment are already in the premises, including the new mill, and he believes that the works will be completed within the set deadline.

'We are currently installing a new mill and all major components which are already in the factory premises. We are doing civil works, mechanical operations, as well as the required electrical installation 'said Steffen Kasa.

The company believes that after completion, Cimentos de Mocambique will be in a position to meet the needs of cement in the domestic market until 2015. The company also expects to expand its production in other two factories, one located in the district of Dondo, central province of Sofala, and the other in the town of Nacala, in the northern province of Nampula, currently with an installed capacity of 240 and 120 tonnes respectively.

According to its projections this group expects to reach a production of 1.5 million tonnes by 2014, to meet the demand posed by a number of construction projects planned by both the Mozambican Government and the private sector in the sector of infrastructures.

Meanwhile, prices of cement have been increased on Sunday, and now a bag of 50 kilos is sold at the factory gate in Matola at 262.07 meticais up from the 238.68 meticais sold last week (there are about 35,83 meticais in one US dollar).

Sunera Cimento, another small factory located in the district of Boane, also in the southern province of Maputo, has increased cement prices from 250 to 285 meticais.