Venezuela to increase cement output

Venezuela is expected to produce 8.3Mt of cement in 2012 from 7.7Mt last year, to help boost the development of the country’s infrastructure as well as support the government’s Grand Housing Mission, Raul Pacheco, the country’s Vice Minister of Productivity Management, has said.

El Universal reports that among new capacity additions, the Cerro Azul cement plant is to start operations in 2012, according to Vice Minister of Productivity Management. The plant is located in El Pinto sector, Piar municipality, state of Monagas. In addition, a cement mill at Cumarembo, northwest state of Faclo will be also be upgraded. Furthermore, President Hugo Chavez has approved US$30m to upgrade Venezolana de Cemento (Venecemos).

The Grand Housing Mission, which was launched last year aims to build 2m homes in seven years to resolve the country’s housing shortages and boosting cement output levels is a prerequisite for achieving this goal.

Earlier, Mr Pacheco noted that by 2013 Venezuela hopes to increase cement production capacity by 27%, to 11.54Mta.