IRAQ: Attock Cement allowed to set up unit

The Econo­mic Coordination Commit­tee (ECC) on Saturday allowed a local cement manufacturer to establish a production unit in Iraq. A glass manufacturer has also been allowed to increase investment in the UAE.

The ECC meeting, chaired by Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, approved the proposal submitted by the Finance Division for allowing Attock Cement Pakistan Limited (ACPL) to remit $24 million for the establishment of a cement grinding unit in Basra on account of equity investment, starting from March 2015 onwards. The proposed investment venture is expec­­ted to bring foreign exchange through dividends repatriation and growth in clinker exports.

As the ACPL intends to hire 50 per cent of its labour force from outside Iraq, the venture is expected to create employment opportunities for Pakistanis.

The ECC also allowed a proposal by the Finance Divi­­­sion to allow equity investment in the form of purchase of additional shares worth around $2.3 million in Ras Al- Khaima, UAE, by the Pakistani-based firm RAK Ghani Glass Limited.

The ECC also accorded approval for grant of Rs84m for payment of four-month salaries of employees of Printing Corpo­ration of Pakistan.

It also approved a proposal for allocation of gas from TAPI (Turkmenistan, Afgha­nistan, Pakistan, India) pipeline to the Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited. Therefore, 75pc (994mmcfd) of the imported gas from the TAPI project would be allocated for SNGPL in view of shortfall in the northern system, while 25pc (331mmcfd) of it would be allocated to SSGCL.

The ECC also accorded approval to a proposal for allowing import of liquefied natural gas (LNG) by fertiliser plants using SNGPL network with prior permission of the petroleum ministry.

IRAN: Iran to sell more cement to Iraq

Iraq has agreed to increase the volume of Iran's cement export, a senior trade official said.

"As of September 1, each (Iranian) company can export 15,000 tons of cement into the neighboring country from Shalamcheh, Chazzabeh and Mehran border terminals," Jahanbakhsh Sanjabi Shirazi, the head of Iran-Iraq Joint Chamber of Commerce, told Fars News Agency.

He noted that the new regulations have been adopted by Iraq's Trade Ministry.

Last week, a senior trade official said Iran annually exports 8 to 10 million metric tons of cement to Iraq.

"Iran supplies nearly half of Iraq's total cement consumption," said Majid Qorbanifaraz, an official of Trade Promotion Organization of Iran.

"Iraq annually consumes 19 million metric tons of cement, of which 10 million to 12 million metric tons are produced inside the country and the rest is imported from Iran."

Iran exported over 8 million metric tons of cement during March 21-August 22.

Last week, Secretary of the Association of Iranian Cement Producers Abdolreza Sheikhan said 981,605 metric tons of cement were exported during July 23-August 22.

Iran has successfully started to use railroads to export cement to neighboring and Central Asian countries.

Iran currently exports cement to 24 countries, including Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Pakistan, Qatar, Turkey, Georgia, Oman, India and China.

Seven countries out of the 24 account for 97 percent of Iran's total cement exports.

The main importers of Iranian cement are Iraq (63 percent), Azerbaijan (4 percent) and Turkmenistan (7 percent).

IRAQ: Lafarge-Run Cement Plant Plans to Triple Production

MerchantBridge & Co. plans to triple cement production over the next two to three years at a plant operated by partner Lafarge SA in Karbala, Iraq.

“We expect to start breaking even in January,” MerchantBridge Acting Chief Executive Officer Eric le Blan said in an interview in Dubai yesterday.

Demand for building materials in Iraq is set to increase as the country rebuilds homes and infrastructure after years of war and economic sanctions. Iraq needs to build 2.5 million homes by 2015, the country’s housing minister said in November last year.

Production at Karbala, now at 576,000 tons of cement, will exceed 1.8 million tons by 2013 or 2014, le Blan said. Annual demand for cement in Iraq is about 20 million tons and existing output about 5 million tons a year, he added.

MerchantBridge completed in 2010 a $220 million investment with Lafarge, the world’s biggest cement company, in which they took over the Karbala plant under a 15-year lease from the government, according to a company statement in 2010. Production at the time was about 300,000 tons, the company said.

MerchantBridge plans to pursue additional investments in Iraq next year, including in the electricity market, where multibillion dollar projects are under way to help resolve power shortages, le Blan said.

IRAQ: Iraq’s cabinet approves $692m cement factory

BAGHDAD: Iraq’s cabinet has approved a $692 million contract for the construction of a cement factory in southern Iraq, a government official said.

The factory will be built in Diwaniya province, 150 km south of Baghdad, and will cover an area of about 185 acres, according to a statement from the office of government spokesman Ali Al-Dabbagh.

The contract was awarded to a joint venture group consisting of an Iraqi company and an Italian firm, the statement said. Officials declined to give further details.

“(The cabinet) has given approval to award an investment licence to erect a cement factory in Diwaniya province to a (local) firm which is in a joint venture with an Italian firm for a total value of $692 million,” the statement said.

Iraq has some of the world’s largest oil reserves and is opening itself up to foreign investors to help it rebuild after decades of war and economic isolation.

The government has set a target of $30 billion for total investment this year, mostly in energy, housing and agriculture.

The National Investment Commission has previously put together an investment plan of 750 projects valued at $600 billion to rebuild Iraq. Its five-year plan totals $186 billion, of which $86 billion is to come from foreign and local private investment.

IRAQ: Sinoma International Wins $112.5M Iraqi Contract

Sinoma (Suzhou) Construction, a subsidiary of Sinoma International Engineering (600970), won a $112.5 million contract from Iraqi company, MASS IRAQ to build a cement production line in Iraq, reports yicai.com, citing a company filing.

The project is scheduled to be completed in 24.5 months from the signing of the contact.

Except for the down payment of $20 million, both parties will equally share the foreign exchange rate risk of the $92.5 million portion of the contract. The maximum compensation amount is five percent of the contract value.

IRAQ: Iraq to restore war-battered factories

 Iraq plans to spend around $680 million in 2011 to renovate its dilapidated factories and start new projects, a senior Industry and Minerals Ministry official said on Monday.

Haifa Hamid, head of the investment department in the ministry, said the economic reform plan was focused mainly on renovating existing factories or establishing new ones under a private-public partnership plan.

“From 2011, we have, altogether 800 billion Iraqi dinars ($684.2 million). Six hundred billion Iraqi dinars is for the rehabilitation. The remainder, about 200 billion Iraqi dinars, is for building new projects,” she told Reuters in an interview.

“We are thinking of cooperating with the private sector. The participation of the public sector should be limited. Later on, even that percentage of participation will be reduced gradually (and) it will be transferred to the private sector.”

Iraq is trying to shake off the legacy of years of violence, sanctions and economic decline by opening up its economy and luring foreign investment and expertise to help it rebuild.

Many of Iraq’s 240 factories were looted in the aftermath of the 2003 U.S. invasion. Some are outdated or located in areas still controlled by Islamist insurgents.

Sectors open for investment range from construction, engineering, petrochemicals and fertilisers to food, drugs and textiles.

INVESTMENT LAW

Eight foreign firms, including French and Japanese companies, have so far invested in various sectors under Iraq’s Industry and Minerals Ministry, Hamid said.

Earlier this year, the ministry awarded a $200 million contract to France’s Lafarge SA to rehabilitate Kerbala cement factory, while Japan’s Marubeni Corp and Kawasaki Heavy Industries Ltd won a contract in December 2009 for the Kubaisa cement factory in Anbar province.

“Iraq is a virgin country for investment. We have natural resources, in addition to oil,” Hamid said. “The one who wins is the one who will come now. The security, this is the main risk ... But it should get better.”

While violence in Iraq has dropped from the height of sectarian bloodshed in 2006-2007, foreign investors are wary and explosions and attacks happen daily.

Hamid said investors had also complained about some of the country’s regulation, particularly the investment law, which she said was under review.

“We have to make some amendments to some of the articles to improve the law so that there will be more encouragement to the investors to invest,” she said.

Hamid said the ministry had opted for gradual economic reform by choosing a slow move towards privatisation in order to protect government employees from losing their jobs.

Iraq has half a million employees that are seen as a burden on the ministry’s shoulders as it cannot dismiss them because of the law and has to keep paying them salaries.

Hamid said the Finance Ministry had allocated 1.8 trillion Iraqi dinars to the ministry since 2006. (Writing by Aseel Kami; Editing by Alison Williams) REUTERS

Supreme Court to weigh immunity in post 9/11 crackdown

WASHINGTON, Oct 18, 2010 (AFP) — The US Supreme Court agreed Monday to decide whether the top US justice official is immune from lawsuits stemming from a crackdown on Muslims following the attacks of September 11, 2001.

The case involves a suit filed against John Ashcroft, the attorney general under former president George W. Bush, by Abdullah al-Kidd, a US citizen detained for 15 days as a material witness in a probe of terrorism.

A lower court ruled that Ashcroft, who is being sued for violating the man’s constitutional rights, is not immune from litigation. An appeals court upheld that decision, which would allow the case to go forward.

Ashcroft’s attorneys argued that the appeals court “committed a series of fundamental errors, the immediate effect of which is to expose the former attorney general to burdensome litigation and potential damages for the conduct of his subordinates.”

Al-Kidd’s lawyers maintained that in the aftermath of the worst terror strikes in US history, “dozens of individuals, including many United States citizens like respondent al-Kidd, were arrested as material witnesses pursuant to a policy adopted and implemented by petitioner Ashcroft.”

The brief argued that the actions violated the rights of al-Kidd and others.

“The impetus for arresting these individuals was not to secure their testimony for a criminal proceeding,” it said.

“Rather, these were individuals whom the government viewed as suspects and wished to detain and investigate.

“But because the government lacked probable cause to arrest these individuals on criminal charges, it had them arrested as material witnesses, thereby circumventing the Fourth Amendment’s traditional probable cause standard and distorting the basic purpose of the material witness statute.”

The Supreme Court is expected to render its decision before the end of its term in June 2011.

IRAQ: Lafarge expects to improve the investment climate in Iraq

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The head of the activities of France's Lafarge cement plant in Iraq, said the investment climate is improving in Iraq, but investors are awaiting approval of the laws of the national industry and consumer protection for further improvement in the investment environment., 

"Said Marcel Kuboz told Reuters in an interview:" I think that the investment environment and general environment activities business to take a trend towards improvement. "He added Kuboz by telephone from his position in Sulaymaniyah in northern Iraq" is the investment law of 2006 is a good step forward. It guarantees the rights of basic industrial and pave the way through the fiscal and financial incentives. 

"There is a further step now be adopted Parliament to give effect to the law protect national industry. "The Lafarge's largest cement producer in the world of the early companies that offered to Iraq to renew the cement plants as part of the government's efforts to promote the industries that were damaged after years of war and international sanctions and neglect. and said Kuboz that the company increase its production capacity in Iraq and controls about 30 percent of the local cement market. invested Lafarge in three cement plants, "said Kuboz that the company has a production capacity of an annual six million tons. and hopes to increase its capacity by two million tonnes within three years when it is completed renovations factory in the city of Karbala, south of the country. and runs Lafarge also manufacturers in the region, the autonomous Kurdish northern Iraq, and employs about three thousand people less than five percent of them foreigners.

IRAQ: Iraq allocates $ 670 million to build cement plants in Muthanna and Karbala

Begin within days building a cement factory in the area of Alvdop (20 km west of the city of Samawah, Al Muthanna province of Iraq), to produce one million tons annually, at a cost of $ 200 million. The plant Hoalthani of its kind in the province, as initiated the company «CNN BMW» Chinese establishing a cement plant Aldouh, through August (August) last, for the investor Iraqi Hatem Al Khawam a cost of $ 270 million, and a production capacity of about two million tons annually.

Officials in the county, said the two projects will contribute to the development of the cement industry, where, and revive its economy by attracting foreign capital, and providing job opportunities for their children.

The company «Lafarge» French cement plant received the Karbala (100 km south of Baghdad) in a ceremony at the plant this week in the presence of French officials. The Ministry of Industry and Minerals has signed a contract on April 28 (April) the past, with the French company and «pioneer» Iraq to rehabilitate the cement plant of Karbala and its operation, and purpose of the Compact which has a duration of 15 years, to increase the production plant of 300 thousand tons annually to 1.8 million during the 30 months.

The Deputy Chief Executive Officer of the company «Lafarge» Scattered Rowe, said the company has allocated 200 million dollars (about 236 billion dinars) as the value of investment of the plant, which contributes to reduce Iraq to import cement.

He added that the company will build a plant to generate electric power 45 MW, in addition to some investment land and sites surrounding the lab.

The cement plant consists of Karbala, the two produce cement resistor, and works the way dry, and was designed to produce 19.2 million tons - clinker, and two million tons of cement annually resistant. And is located at a distance of 90 km from the city of Karbala in a region rich in raw materials, cement industry, you need the resistor, such as limestone, gypsum and sand.

Iraq needs now to build two million housing units to address the worsening housing crisis, in addition to the extensive rehabilitation of the infrastructure, which increases the need to build new cement plants, and rehabilitation of many of the previous labs, in order to fill the need it.

IRAQ: 2nd cement plant to be built in Muthanna

A private sector company is to build a cement factory, the second in southern Iraq's al Muthanna province, with a production capacity of one million tonnes and a total cost of USD 200 million.

Mr Ali Hannoun told Aswat al-Iraq news agency said that "We have completed all legal measures for contracting and handing over the land for the construction of a cement plant by al-Mabrouka private company, the second of its kind, over an area of 350 donums in al Fadwa village, 20 km southwest of Samawa.”

He added that "The new plant will be of a production capacity of one million tons and a cost of USD 200 millions.”

Mr Hannoun said the new plant shall witness the first steps of its construction by a Chinese company for the interest of its Iraqi Investor, Hatim al-Khawan, during the next few days, and will be completed within 30 months from now.

He added that "Both plants are expected to develop the cement industry in Muthanna and economic conditions in the province by allocating private and foreign capital to set up projects and help provide jobs for the unemployed in the province.”