Portuguese group Secil plans to build a second cement plant in Angola in order to increase production from 280,000tpa to 1.8 Mta, the managing director of Secil Lobito, Augusto Miragaia, said in Lobito.

The managing director said that the current needs of the Angolan market, which stand at between 4Mta and 5Mta of cement, justify construction of another plant, which is a project that the company has had in mind for a few years.

Augusto Miragaia also told Portuguese news agency Lusa that the investment of US$150m would be made in two phases, and the new plant, which will be located near the existing plant in Lobito, would start operating three years after construction began.

The Secil group returned to Angola in 2000 when it signed a contract with the Angolan government for exploration of a unit in Lobito, which led to the founding of TecnoSecil, a company 70% owned by the Portuguese group and 30%by the Tecnocarro group.

In 2006, Tecnosecil changed its name to Secil Angola – Investimentos e Participações, which owns 51% of Secil Lobito, and the remaining 49% is in the hands of Angolan state cement company Empresa Nacional de Cimentos (Encime).