Despite its late penetration of the mainland Chinese market, Taiwan Cement Corp, announced it would outpace rival Chia Hsin Cement Corp. and Asia Cement Corp. in the deployment in mainland China in 2008, when its annual mainland production capacity is set at 20Mt. To achieve that goal, Taiwan Cement will set up four joint-venture plants with the mainland¡†s largest cement producer Conch Group, which is now launching a massive production expansion project.
Over the past few years, Taiwan Cement has cooperated with Conch to set up a cement-grinding plant owned by their joint-venture Anhui Kingbridge Cement Co., which is currently capable of producing 750,000t of cement a year. Recently, Taiwan Cement spent US$14.28m to acquire a 47.5 per cent stake in the Xuzhou Conch Cement Co. under the Conch Group through its overseas affiliate Virgin Islands-registered Taiwan Cement International (Jiangsu) Corp. Xuzhou Conch is designed to produce 10,000tpd clinker per day to accommodate the output of 3.5Mt of cement per year.
An executive of Taiwan Cement noted Xuzhou Conch has reserved a land lot for the establishment of a second kiln if there is necessity for expansion. If the second kiln is established, Xuzhou Conch will see annual production capacity reach over 7Mt. To effectively raise production capacity in the mainland, Taiwan Cement will acquire some outdated plants owned by Conch Group and re-tooled them into modernized ones. Taiwan Cement estimated it would conduct two more cooperative projects with Conch Group by 2008.
Taiwan Cement boasted it has started construction of the first and second kilns of its 100 per cent owned Yingde cement plant in Guangdong Province in March this year. The plant will have an annual production capacity of 4Mta by the end of next year.
After the third kiln of the Yingde plant and the second kiln of Xuzhou Conch launch pilot production in 2007, Taiwan Cement will plan to set up another new production facility in Fujian Province, which will have an annual production capacity of 3Mt. This will help the firm achieve the annual production goal of 20Mt in the mainland in 2008.
