Turkey-based Eren Holdings has signed an investment agreement with the Cameroon government which will see its local subsidiary Medcem build a new cement plant in the African country.

The new works is expected to add 0.6Mta to the domestic production base, which currently consists of Lafarge’s Cimencam 1.6Mta plant and the 0.5Mta Cimaf unit of Addoha. In addition, Dangote Cement has scheduled the start-up of a 1Mta works in October.

Current cement demand in Cameroon is estimated at 2.8Mta and has expanded rapidly from 1.6Mta in 2010 as large-scale infrastructure projects have been launched. Forecasts indicate further market growth to 8Mta by 2020.