Chile’s leading cement producer Empresas Melon, controlled by the French based construction materials group Lafarge, plans to build a new cement grinding plant in Chile’s Region V, in the central part of the country, which will cost US$20m, the company said.
 
The company has submitted an environmental impact study (EIS) for its new project.
 
Melon is also currently building a cement grinding plant in the southern Chilean port Puerto Montt, which will also cost US$20m. 
 
The plants are part of Melon’s strategy to expand its production and distribution operations in the central and southern parts of the country and to cut the company’s costs. The plant in Puerto Montt is expected to be completed by the middle of 2007. The second plant will be completed by the end of 2008. 
 
The two new facilities will drive up the company’s production by 600,000tpa 
 
The expansion of the company’s output was encouraged by the high number of both public and private construction projects for 2005, which pushed up cement demand in the country. Cement sales are expected to rise by between 4.5 and five per cent per year for the period from 2006 to 2008.