Uganda: Kampala Cement’s investors revealed

Kampala Cement, Uganda’s newest cement company and the country’s third, is jointly-owned by two local investors, Charles Mbire and Rajinder Singh Baryan, according to an article in the New Vision newspaper.

Baryan’s investment was known from the start as Kampala Cement and from the outset associated with his Multiple Industries Group. Mbire’s involvement was hitherto unknown, and the industrial clout wielded by both men gives Kampala deep pockets.

Kampala Cement began production in 2015 with a US$100m plant located at Namataba. In 2016 it was announced that the plant had been upgraded with a new ball mill, a clinker storage unit and four 1000t steel silos.

Despite being the newcomer in the market, Kampala Cement has already secured contracts to supply the Karuma dam project and road construction programmes.

Baryan’s company had formerly held a distribution deal with Hima Cement, one of Kampala’s two competitors. Now both it and Tororo Cement are fighting against Kampala for market share. This is already having an impact on prices, which have fallen from US$11.00/bag in 2015 to US$9.12/bag this year.