Responding to the improved prospects for the growing market in Mozambique, Cimpor, which, through Cementos de Moçambique, owns the country’s sole integrated cement producer, has decided to construct a kiln at the Dondo works near Beira, where the company already has a grinding station.

The kiln will have a production capacity of 1,500tpd and the grinding capacity at Dondo will also be increased, from 0.24m tonnes par annum to some 0.6Mt.  The additional capacity should be on-stream by 2010.  In addition, Cementos de Moçambique is almost doubling grinding capacity at the Matola works near the capital Maputo.

In a separate move, Cimpor is expanding its downstream operations in Spain through two acquisitions in the Cordoba region at a combined cost of EUR6.23m.  Through its Spanish subsidiary Occidental, its is buying a quarry with an annual production rate of 0.35Mt and two batching plants that will add an annual production of 50,000m³.