The executive board of Holcim prepares to sanction an overhaul of the company’s cement plant in Baku controlled by the joint-stock company Garadagh Cement. The overhaul will include the migration to the semi-dry production period while the daily operating capacity of the plan will be raised from 2600tpd to 3500tpd clinker.
Azer-press learned from the chairman of the board of Garadagh Cement Uwe Koehler that the overhaul can be sanctioned either in mid or in late December. The first steps have been made already: the second phase of the project, the tender for general planning, was started on 15 October. The tender itself will be the next phase and is likely to be finished in March next year. The estimated expansion will cost $75m. The company plans to organise co-financing on the part of the EBRD and has had meetings with the EBRD people both in London and in Baku, according to Uwe Koehler.
The refurbishment work will last for two years at the shortest and the daily outputs of cement will rise to 4000t as a result. The dependence on the import deliveries of clinker will be reduced and importation will be virtually stopped, Uwe Koehler told Azer-press. The new kiln line No 5 is expected to replace the four old ones, which will be decommissioned in 2007. The new line will make it possible to reduce consumption of natural gas at the cement plant by approximately forty per cent (see full report ICR December issue).
