Chairman of Uzstroimaterialy, Irkin Akramov, says that Uzbekistan plans in the next five years to build three cement plants. "We plan to build two plants with capacity of 1Mt each and one with capacity for 500,000tpa," he said."   Akramov said the two larger plants would be built in Surkhandarya region and Karakalpakstan and the smaller one would be built in Dzhizak region.  
 
 The new plants will significantly increase the export capacity of the cement industry, he said. The plant in Surkhandarya region will focus on the Afghanistan market, while the plant in Karakalpakstan will focus on Caspian markets, including Kazakhstan.  Uzstroimaterialy also plans to seek foreign investors for the projects.  
 
 Uzbekistan has six cement plants with capacity for 6.5Mta. The largest are Kyzylkumcement (3.08Mt), Akhangarantsement (1.74Mt), and Kuvasaitsement (920,000t). Cement production grew 5.5 per cent last year to 5.068Mt and exports grew 12.6 per cent to $ 31.9m.
 
The government last year blocked foreign investors from the privatization of Kyzylkumtsement, the country’s biggest cement plant. The 30 per cent share package that was to be sold to foreign investors will remain state property, which will enable the state to retain control over the plant. Kyzylkumtsement is the only enterprise in the industry that the state will control (original report by Asia Pulse).