Rep Congo: Sonocc threatens to cease Brazzaville supply

Société Nouvelle des Ciments du Congo (Sonocc) has threatened to stop the flow of product to Brazzaville, Republic of Congo, after the government proposed a decrease in the cement price following the increase of VAT and transportation costs.

"All these charges considered, we operate at a loss if we continue to transport cement to Brazzaville because we also have to rent rail cars. We have decided to no longer transport cement by train until the problem is solved, said Sonocc CEO, Wei Xinbang.

The company is currently building a new production line to increase its output capacity to 0.3Mta. The US$30m investment is expected to come online next month. China has granted a CNY200m (US$24m) loan for the project.

At present, the plant's capacity is 0.22Mta, but output reaches only 0.1Mta. In 2013, the company sold 0.09Mt although the market is expected to absorb 0.7-0.8Mta.