Industry Minister Andung Nitimihardja said Egypt’s Orascom Construction Industries plans to build a cement plant in Indonesia with an annual capacity of 2.5Mt. The project will be built in Java with an investment of US$150m, Andung said.  He said the government encourages new investors to do business in cement industry or the existing producers to expand their capacity to meet growing demand in the coming years.  

The existing factories with capacity of 46Mt will not be able to meet requirement, which is predicted to grow by at least 10 per cent a year in the next several years, he said.  Last year, the country produced 33Mt of cement and requirement totaled around 30Mt.