The Turkish Dal Engineering Group will commission a new 1.5Mta cement plant in the Surkhandarya region of Uzbekistan by late 2017, a representative from the country's Ministry of Economy told Trend News Agency.

A Turkish company and Almalyk Mining and Metallurgical Combine (AMMC) signed a memorandum of cooperation for construction of the plant during an investment forum held in the capital Tashkent, the souce said.

The cement plant has an estimated cost of US$225m. It will potentially be financed with a US$90m loan from the Fund for Reconstruction and Development of Uzbekistan, loans from commercial banks totalling US$110m and AMMC equity of US$24.4m.