Chile’s cement maker Cementos Melon, subsidiary of France’s Lafarge, plans to build a new grinding plant in central Chile, with an investment of US$30m. The project, which aims to supply the increasing demand for cement in the country, involves the construction and operation of a cement manufacturing and distribution plant located in Ventanas, V Region, with an output capacity of 600 thousand tons a year. The installation is additional to the current investment of 27 million dollars that the company is making in Puerto Montt, where it is also building a new plant, which will be operating by mid 2007 and will allow expanding the cement mill output capacity by 300 thousand tons a year.