The Caribbean’s leading producer of cement and ready-mix products, TCL Group, expects to spend up to US$220mn to expand operations at its subsidiaries throughout the region, Daily Nation reported.
The bulk of TCL’s investments will be to double cement production to 1.2Mta at Jamaican subsidiary Caribbean Cement (CCC).
The estimated US$120m capital expenditure program for 2005-2009 in CCC includes upgrading furnaces to increase clinker manufacturing capacity, upgrading current cement mills, expanding packing capacity, and carrying out quarry mapping and mobile fleet upgrades.
Further, "we will be spending considerable sums in Barbados, optimizing the production of our factory here, taking it from 1,000t/d of clinker to a dependable 1200tpd," said Ernest Williams, chairman of Arawak Cement, PPCI and Readymix Limited.
The group will also spend another US$100m to increase cement production to 1Mta, he added.
