Pakistan cement producer Thatta Cement has signed a joint venture agreement with Cementia Holding for a new grinding plant in Sri Lanka.
Cementia, based in Switzerland, is part of the Lafarge group and specialises in the trade and seaborne delivery of clinker, cement and cementitious products.
“We wish to inform that today M/s Thatta Cement Company Limited (THCCL) has executed a Joint Venture Shareholders’ Agreement with Cementia Holding AG (Lafarge), Switzerland, in connection with setting-up of cement grinding, storing and bagging plant in Sri Lanka,” Thatta Cement said in a statement to the Pakistan Stock Exchange.
Thatta Cement has recently received approval from the Sri Lankan Port Authorities to set up the plant at the port of Hambantota. The proposed plant will use a closed circuit cement mill and include cement storage and packing and dispatching facilities. The plant will initially have a capacity of 100,000tpa which will be gradually increased to 1Mta by the end of the first decade. Completion is scheduled for a year’s time.
During the first nine months of the current fiscal, Thatta Cement earned PKR82.13m compared to a loss of PKR69.57m in the same period of last year, Local sales grew 14.82 per cent compared to the corresponding period of the previous year whereas exports lagged by 81.16 per cent as the sales mixed was altered in favour of domestic sales to improve margins.
Capacity utilisation of the company during the nine months ending 31 March 2013 stood at 79.8 per cent compared to 68 per cent for the same period of last year. Clinker production was 19 per cent higher during 9M13.
