The Vietnam Cement Corporation (VNCC), which now holds 45 per cent of the domestic market share, plans to raise the capacity of its existing cement kilns by 10 per cent in a bid to meet the increasing demand for the product in the country.
According to VNCC, the move not only helps increase the output of cement but also to reduce prices of the product, raising competitiveness while the upgrading does not require much investment capital as most of equipment is locally made. The upgrading will be carried out firstly at central Nghe An province-based Hoang Mai Cement Company in 2006 and then at other member units belonging to VNCC.
Currently, Vietnam is home to 13 rotary kiln cement plants and 53 shaft kiln plants with a combined capacity of 22.017Mta, and 33 cement grinding plants with a total designed capacity of more than 5Mt of clinker per annum.
In the first ten months of the year, the country consumed 23.3Mt of cement, including 2.25Mt in October. A trend of strong increases in cement sales is expected to continue in the remaining months and will bring the total cement consumption in Vietnam in 2005 to 28.5-29Mt, up 9.5-10 per cent against 2004 levels.
