Local cement manufacturer Caribbean Cement Company (CCC), a subsidiary of Trinidad Cement Limited (TCL), has engaged the services of Colombian construction and engineering company Schrader Camargo to boost its production operations.

The cost of increasing both clinker and cement production is expected to come in at around US$110 million with the project’s completion earmarked for the first quarter of 2008, according to CCC’s General Manager Anthony Haynes.

The idea is to install a state-of-the-art kiln system, which will produce 2,800 metric tonnes per day of clinker. This should double Carib Cement’s clinker production from 600,000 tonnes per annum to 1.2 million tonnes. The kiln project is expected to come in at US$85 million.

Carib Cement will also install a vertical roller mill for the production of cement, which will have a capacity of 110tph. This will increase the company’s cement production to 1.8Mta from the present 1Mta .

The first phase of construction is now 34 per cent complete and the Danish firm of E Pihl & Sons is undertaking the construction of substructure, superstructure and civil works.

The second phase scheduled to begin later this month will see the erection and installation of process equipment and should take 14 months. The Colombian firm Schrader Camargo, which specialises in the erection and assembly of industrial plants, mining projects, power stations and oil and gas facilities, is mobilising to play a pivotal role for Carib Cement in this area. The contract to complete this phase is placed at US$32m (J$1bn). The company worked on JPSCo’s 120-megawatt combined cycle Bogue expansion project in Montego Bay back in 2002.